Media Monitoring Is the First Step

PR practitioners need to monitor the media in order to check what is happening in the business environment. Scanning and monitoring the media enable PR practitioners to take precautions in preventing the arisen of crisis. Issues can turn into crisis when companies ignore their stakeholders' feelings and expectation. PR practitioners should identify the potential, emerging or actual trend and concerns that are likely affected their client reputation as well as its key public.  

We need to monitor the online and offline media every morning. We usually spend 1 to 2 hours in going through the newspapers. We take this step very seriously and carefully because we do not want to miss any news that is related to our clients and brands. Monitoring media is not only about checking what consumers feel about our clients and the products but also in determining whether we have generated sufficient coverage for our clients. Pre-event release and post event release are some of the PR generated news that we often seen in newspaper. All of the collected clippings will be cut and scanned to the computer for compiling as the monthly media coverage report. 

Reading newspaper was the first task given during my first day of internship. I was told to in charge of the Chinese media as I am able to read and speak in Mandarin. Also, I need to translate the Chinese clippings into English so that my colleagues and clients are able to know what has mentioned in the paper. What I learned during my internship was learning more than one language will benefit you as a PR practitioner. It is because your colleagues and clients may from different types of background, cultural and religion. It is important to respect and understand people with different background to avoid falling into the cultural pitfall. Also, PR practitioners should have excellent communication and writing skills in communicating with the audience. 

Monitoring Online Media

Media monitoring is more than just reading newspaper. Some of the events that are happening in the country may give you inspirations in designing the media plans for your clients. Furthermore, it will help you in recognising the writing style of a publication. By knowing that, it will help a PR practitioner in deciding which media outlets should be targeted on when launching a media campaign as different publications may be interested in publishing different types of stories. As mentioned, we need to submit the media coverage report by the end of the month. The media coverage report is important to us because it attached with all the clippings and news that we generated for our clients. Positive news will help to generate words of mouth among the audience. Also, it can help to increase clients' reputation as well as their recognition in the market. Maintaining good media relations are crucial because trust and credibility can be built on that good relationship. 

Milk PR has a fantastic working environment! The working environment are creative and fun. I think a comfortable and clean working environment is important to boost the productivity. Also, there is a show room in the office. New collection of items will be displayed in that show room for media to borrow. Newspapers and magazines are kept tidy in the cupboard. Colleagues are busy picking up phone calls. And everyone seems stress and responsive. I guess this is it, I am entering into the real PR world.  

The working environment

Office Decoration

Magazines organized tidy at the shelf

Lee Jin Woei 17230137

Miri Campus