The media and your story, Part I
At Clarity Communications Inc., we specialize in helping you to get publicity and to deal comfortably and professionally with the media.
On this website, we will offer some basic (and free) tips on how the media work. We also have more on how to approach the media. And we have tips on how to be comfortable when being interviewed by a reporter.
To begin: So how does your story get into a newspaper, or onto TV and radio?
First, the reporter, editor, broadcast producer or researcher decides that there is, or may be, a story in you, your company, your agency, your product or your service.
You may have suggested the story, or you may have sent in a news release. Or the media may have come up with the idea. Or they may have seen a story from somewhere else, and wonder what happens here in our area.
They have reason to think that the story will interest, or educate, or move, or entertain, a significant section of their audience. And they know what kinds of stories will do those things. Knowing that is their business.
So the first thing to recognize is that the media applies its judgment as to what is newsworthy.
And that means your story will go through a complex process of judgment, filtering and tune-up before it hits the public. The way you can influence that process – and the only way you can hope that your story comes through the process your way – is to tell it the first time, to the reporter, in a good, clear, concise and interesting way.
Clarity Communications Inc. provides expert professional services in all forms of public, media and community relations and media training, in Vancouver BC Canada and in Washington State
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