Here we are again, reviewing a topic we've discussed in an earlier module, news values. I wanted to circle back on this with you so we could dive in a little bit deeper. By now with your increased knowledge of public relations and practicing media relations. I hope that revisiting the topic of news values will provide a little bit more perspective. As you embark on your public relations journey, I want you to remember that you are the brand storyteller. You are the expert in telling your brand story, and the press release gives you the opportunity to provide the most opportune frame. So today we are going to take a closer look at news values and talk through what that means for your company or organization and media relations efforts. We don't want to just be in the news that old adage. All publicity is good publicity is just not true. A good PR hit in media is one that tells the brand story and meets the communication objectives. You see from a strategic perspective, PR practitioners choose a specific media outlet and journalist for a reason. We want to communicate with that journalist's audience now put on your audience cap for a minute. Do you like when a story is just about nothing? Of course not, we are in a doom scrolling landscape and we have plenty of content to choose from. We have no time to be wasted by thirsty brands. Audiences want useful information, information they did not know but are interested. In information deep diving into a topic of interest information, fueling their passions that is the kind of information you as a PR practitioner want to deliver the journalist. It is so crucial for you to be consuming media daily, you should get google alerts for topics of interest, including your own brand or company. If your brand is Hilton, for example, the different media outlets that are relevant to your brand are innumerable. So you should be reading the types of publications that feature brands like Hilton, that could range from cosmopolitan or GQ. Do conde Nast traveler or a far, but there is also the travel column in the New York Times. And many other dailies like the Arizona Republic or the Orlando sentinel. News values represent a journalistic process. What that means is these are the factors that journalists have been trained to look for and selecting a story. From journalism school through their many years of practice, journalists have used news values in determining if a story is newsworthy impact. The more people your story affects, the better timeliness. News should be new, that's really the point of news, right. Proximity, no, the audience of the outlet you are pitching, don't pitch something from Denver to a St Louis publication. If there's no tie in, think about it. The Denver Post covers Colorado news, mostly front range news, but will also carry relevant Colorado news. The New York Times draws a wide and varied audience. So of course your news would need to be broadly relevant instead of bound by a geographic region. Prominence, this, refers to someone's place in a community. This might mean a professor from CU Boulder, that professor is thought to be an expert in the subject matter. The audience wants to hear from experts or from celebrity. Oddity that refers to the novelty of the story. People like the unusual attracts more attention, conflict, and I included the adage. If it bleeds, it leads to refer to the media's love affair with sensational news. People like conflict or news media think people like conflict, not sure which it is. Human interest, people are naturally interested in other people's stories. People find other people interesting. Then of course entertainment, sometimes it's thought of a sex appeal. This news value refers to news that are trendy. The more of these news values that your story can hit, the better. The alarm bells will be going off in the journalist mind. Ding, Ding, Ding, this is a newsworthy story. The press release is that opportunity, the way that you tell the story will heighten the journalists interests. I would normally say something about ethics here, but journalists are more often than not trading consumer goods for positive news coverage. What I mean by that is Hilton might pitch a story to a journalist and even offer a free trip to check out the hotel. Okay, in journalism school, I was taught that if a journalist accepted the offer, that was unethical. However, more and more brands are working with journalists in this capacity. The journalist does not ever promise positive coverage, but there's an expectation there, one could argue. Remember PR essays, ethical guidelines would question even the perceived conflict of interest. This is commonplace among many consumer brands. I also want to point out why this also validates that news is not objective. Public relations influence more than half of all news and to add on these types of relationships with Brands. One should question the objectivity of every media outlet they consume and be aware of how news is created. This is a huge opportunity for public relations. However, I should warn you, consumers quickly figured out advertising mostly that advertising is not to be trusted. PR has been under the radar for decades. Just doing our thing, in the most recent years has been when the public relations industry has really shined. Don't be one of those practitioners who blows the top off of PR. PR should be credible and trustworthy. PR should be useful to consumers. The minute we pitch fluff is the minute art industry will be like the advertising industry. Currently, advertising is trying to reinvent itself. PR doesn't have that problem, but we have to continue to add value to the consumer and to the brand. That is how PR will stay relevant. Obviously I am biased, I love public relations. I do acknowledge the flaws of the field and there are many, but I also really like the power of persuasion. When used for good, PR can change the world or at least your brand. Developing relationships with journalists is a process that will continue your entire career. New journalists come up, some leave and go into PR, believe it or not. New media outlets pop up News is a very vibrant field and public relations helps news to be vibrant. News organizations are struggling now more than ever. As the competition is fierce and people more and more do not see the value of paying for news. Many news organizations are laying off full time staff or closing publications due to dwindling budgets. Freelance journalists are being used, but also PR practitioners are being called upon. Once you prove yourself to be a credible source of stories, you begin to foster the relationship and over time as you work with that journalist, you will build a strong relationship. You'll leverage that relationship at key points in your brand communication. It might be during a crisis, but it also might be during an opening or a new product launch. You just never know, remember Arthur page ethical guidelines told us to manage for the future. That applies to relationships you build with stakeholders, and journalists are a very important stakeholder. I encourage you to join twitter and interact with PR practitioners and with journalists and other media professionals. Twitter is the best social platform for news. Journalists are frequent users of twitter, the public is active, and this allows for social listening brands around twitter. PR practitioners and agencies are on Twitter, you should be on Twitter to, I encourage you to join the platform and get active. I use my Twitter professionally, so I'm appear professor at CU boulder. I often tweet about higher education, internships, public relations trends, anything that's pertinent to my audience who is a broad mix. Professor contacts, former students, industry professionals and so on. There are quite a few crash courses online about Twitter, get on experiment, talk to strangers, it's fun, I promise and could be a great professional resource for you.
