Welcome again to Public Relations 393!
Don't you find it exciting to have a well-paid job that allows you to develop your creativity, skills and knowledge so as to communicate with the public?
The field of Public Relations is quite broader from having media attention or making publicity. One of the PR objectives is to use the media to reach right audience and for the message to be communicated to become more powerful. During my third week of internship, I have witnessed the importance of media at Odysseus Public Relations Agency. Public Relations practitioners work very close with media.
Public Relations agencies make use of updated press contacts to reach their right audience at the right time with the right channel of communication. The media database that I have been working on track press contacts- up-to-the-minute contact details including e-mail addresses and phone numbers. The media database is not based on region but on journalists whom we want to follow the main events.
Odysseus Public Relations agency is building a solid media database for Mauritius, a database for the Advertising, Public Relations and Communications agencies together with the media for all the countries in the Indian Ocean. And I must say, that I have been trusted and given this PR task, it might seem a small job, but it requires patience and time. It takes indeed a long time to get maximum contact details all around the Indian Ocean. We are investing in media databases since there will be "La Salon de la Communication" in June and I had to submit these databases within a deadline of 3 days!
This has helped me to be confident and to manage work pressure. I am liking my internship over there, one more week left to complete, then I am all done and back to studies at Charles Telfair Institute.
See you people! :)
2 comments:
Hi kamna!
I see that you have been working hard during your internship. Three days to complete a media database…wow!
I found your post about the importance of the media in relations to PR very interesting. While you are working in a PR agency, I am working at an NGO and, of course, our activities are different. But still, we both have to collaborate with the media.
I recall that every time we worked on a project at university, we always included the media as a target public- and we did that automatically. Now I understand its real importance.
The major project that I have been working on since the beginning of my internship at the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation has been a Fundraising Campaign (you can check out my post if you want more details). And the most important aspect of it is to get the support of the media for coverage.
So at this point, I totally agree with you when you say that “one of the PR objectives is to use the media to reach the right audience and for the message to be communicated to become more powerful”.
I have been dealing with the media for some days now and I can say that it hasn’t been a piece of cake to contact ALL of them. I had to prepare a “mini media database” myself, gathering contact information about the director and editors in chief of various media outlets. This really helped us at the MWF to easily communicate the media, so I understand the importance of your work.
I think that, just like you and me, all the PR 393 students will soon find-if it’s not already the case- that PR and media are interrelated and that little can be done for any company if this relationship does not exist.
So thanks for the insightful post Kamna! And congratulations on your work!
Cheers
Anne-Lise Blackburn
CTI
Hi Kamna,
Quite some task you did.
Media relations is one of the most important of all relations in PR as the media has the possibility to really bring about change.
Building good relations to the media and having a database in place simplifies the work of the agency as they already have all the contacts needed in one place and can find it at any given time.
Did you get to complete the media database during the 3 day limit?
Working in PR can be stressful and everything has to be done during specific time or risk not fulfilling the purpose, especially when it comes to media, being one hour late can have an impact of the news not being featured, whereas in an agency itself it may cause the task which will follow to be changed as well.
Hope you had a nice internship and you got to make some personal media contacts for future usage.
:)
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