Deadly, Accurate Media Releases.

So here I am, a little under the halfway mark of my internship at Central Institute of Technology. The last few weeks have been pretty crazy for the communications department here for a variety of reasons, the rebranding over a year ago still needs to be pushed and so there are a multitude of projects still operating to achieve this and a few weeks ago we had to be evacuated from our building along with the state library and small businesses around the Northbridge area due to a threat on the tax office (which is a few buildings down).

During this event Journalists appeared out of no where and hundreds of mobiles hit record. It was extremely exciting until I realised I had left my wallet in the office and there was no chance of us entering the building again that day. It was also frustrating knowing that I was in the media department in an event when media departments flex their muscles the most and yet I couldn’t do anything or get involved because 1. We weren't allowed into the ‘media control room’ aka where we get our donuts in the morning and 2. I’m just a lowly little intern and with no work to do the only option was a train ride home. However thats just me whining about being to unexperienced to have experience.

The craziness exposed me to media comms in a big way and what goes on after we send it away. Since then my exposure to this world has been snowballing, I have been writing a lot of media releases lately for staff and student awards nights and stories of student achievement. One media release I wrote about an indigenous award winner from Central, we sent through to the community newspaper group and it made it to print...in the exact same way as we sent it. I know journalists are busy people but being both a journalism and PR student it shocked me to see the PR person had won. There had been no follow up from the community newspaper group and the picture we sent through was used and was a huge size. It was a great win for our team and reminded me of basic skills we learnt in choosing which media to pitch too.

I realise the Comment News isn't the biggest publication out their and it doesn't happen all the time but if you target a winning angle to the right newspaper you will have a great chance of getting media coverage. The media release was sent to a publication with an agenda for indigenous affairs due to the high population of indigenous residents in its circulation. It was a sure thing. We also sent a media release about an academic who won an access and diversity award has achieved much despite his disabilities. We sent this release to the Western Suburbs Weekly which has a more 'prestigious' reputation and they were very interested in this academic but unfortunately he did not want any public attention.

So, so far I have learnt that strategically aiming your media releases at the right publication will yield results. Also, free, positive media attention yields great excitement and accomplishment in the communications office. Its like hard work paying off, the article gets scanned and sent to the MD and placed in a folder along with all other news surfaced in the media about Central via our office.

I'm really enjoying my time here and as its drawing to an end I can feel a sense of sadness coming on. I'll just have to really enjoy myself these last few weeks.