I am now well and truly into my placement at Corporate Sports Australia working in the public relations area as a media assistant.
As a part of my role I am required to produce press releases to promote the up coming Chevron City to Surf for Activ in Perth on the 25th of August 2013.
Prior to my placement I felt my press release writing required some fine tuning, however with the help of Kendell, my supervisor at Corporate Sports Australia I feel as if my writing is improving every day. I have learnt that within different industries and companies the desired press release format and structure differs slightly. Throughout my time so far at Corporate Sports Australia I have realised that in my future professional endeavours I will need to be flexible in my writing style to adhere to guidelines set out for me as opposed to relying on structures that I was taught in units like PR Techniques.
So far I have produced various press releases that have been sent to local media outlets such as The Stirling Times and Mandurah Coastal Times. My press releases generally have one of three main messages:
1. Promoting the Chevron City to Surf for Activ School Challenge.
2. Promoting international coverage of the Chevron City to Surf for Activ.
3. Human interest ranging from inspirational stories to outstanding fundraising efforts of participants.
The Chevron City to Surf for Activ has a 'Share your Story' application in which participants can send us information stating why they are participating or what the Chevron City to Surf for Activ means to them. These applications have formed the basis of many of my press releases with participants sharing inspirational and triumphant stories.
Once I receive the application I then contact the individual to informally interview them and find out a little bit more about themselves on the basis of forming a press release. At first I found this difficult as I had never called someone to interview them before, but after the first one my nerves lifted and I realised that people are generally very willing to share their story as they have already taken the first step themselves and appreciate that I am contacting them. Interviewing participants is a part of my role I really enjoy as people are willing to share very inspirational stories which are very interesting to listen to.
An essential goal of my phone interview is to obtain quotes that I can use in my press releases. I find this hard as most of the time people generally don't say a perfect quote that is suitable for a press release. I discussed this problem with my supervisor Kendell and she informed me that as long as I was saying exactly what the individual said I was allowed to tweak the quote to make flow better or I could use an indirect quote as opposed to a direct quote. In certain circumstances when I haven't been able to obtain a direct quote from my phone conversation I am also able to email my quotes through to the individual for approval, I find this very useful as I am able to produce a powerful quote from what the individual has told me to fit perfectly in with my press release.
I look forward to updating you with what I get up to at Corporate Sports Australia working on the Chevron City to Surf for Activ over the coming weeks!
1 comment:
You're placement sounds amazing! I can relate to you in having to tweak quotes and writing styles depending on the media environment. So much different to what we are taught in PR Techniques.
I've found that my PR supervisor is so much more demanding of detail and I am constantly changing my style on who the media release is targeted at.
Post a Comment