Is Briefing Your Spokesperson Ethical?

Prior to an interview between one of our clients and the media, I was presented with a ‘Spokesperson Briefing book’ to review before the interview. This document ensures the spokesperson is prepared for the media’s questioning, and ensures answers will be diverted back to the well-being of the spokesperson’s establishment.

I have previously engaged in similar media preparation tasks for assignments at university, where we were told to “think like a journalist” – what would they ask the spokesperson?

This document contains four sections: interview details, media profile, anticipated media questions, followed by dos and don’ts.

As I began to scan through the first few pages, I began to question the ethical procedures involved with this spokesperson brief...

Does this interfere with the transparency and authenticity of the spokesperson? Does this mean a person cannot organically present themselves because public relations has twisted and tweaked the spokespersons dialogue and expression?

Alternatively, I considered the opposite side of the coin. The media has an established reputation of twisting statements and conversations made through every day conversation. They can utilize an unintentional statement and revert it against the spokesperson, for the purpose of their story.

This means spokespeople preferably need to be educated on their representation towards the media, in order to protect their reputation in the spotlight. Beneficially, this enhances their chance of positive publicity as media professionals (public relations) have studied how to effectively communicate with the media, to ensure honest and positive publicity.

Section four of the brief: Do’s and Don’ts. This was intriguing – I contemplated my previous impression of the brief as I now realized perhaps the spokesperson brief is ethical and necessary. Public Relations simply educates the spokesperson on being consistent in their messages, answering all questions, being clear and calm. The spokesperson is advised against memorizing answers provided by public relations. This ensures the spokesperson isn't spoon fed answers to the media, and still has the opportunity to naturally communicate with personal dialect. 

Media Pitch - Scored!

This should most probably be my last post on this blog.

To end it off, I'm gonna post my best (by far) working experience at Ogilvy PR.

I was kind of rambling on about my love-hate relationship with media calls in my previous post. This time round, I got to do a little more than media call downs.

This week, half of my team were on leave. With that, my supervisor and I had to take on some of their job scope, one of which includes media pitching for a client. Although they may sound the same, the difference between media call downs and media pitching was quite big for me. When I did media call downs, all I had to do was to confirm if the media had received the email sent to them earlier.

My supervisor gave me the task to draft the email pitch for the media. Just when I thought the pitch was over, she told me to do the pitch calls for media. You could say I turned blue in the face almost immediately. I think at that point of time, only thing that was running through my head was, "What if I screwed this up?" It was a really important pitch.

So, practice makes perfect. My supervisor got me to draft out what I would say to the media on the phone and had me practice the pitch with her quite a number of times. With much encouragement and practice, I dare say I delivered the media pitching quite well.

Then came the email from a television broadcast station saying they were interesting in interviewing our client for their news program. Boy was I elated!

Okay, to cut the long story short, I became the media liaison between the client and the broadcast station, which was quite an experience for me.

Where does school comes into place in this situation? Media relations 250 definitely!

Apart from learning the importance of maintaining a relationship with the media, what else came in handy was the lessons from the interview assignment where we had to prepare an interview brief for the client as well as the "Do's and Don'ts" during an interview.

The client was invited to do a live television interview and my supervisor had to prepare the briefing documents for him and was asking around for some "Do's and Don'ts". Luckily for her,  I still had some notes from the lesson and could share it with her.

The 4 key things to note during an interview are:




1. Make the Point you want to make
2. Back that point up with a Reason
3. Provide an Example to illustrate your point
4. Restate your main Point again to make it really clear

A very great reminder!

And with that, this post marks the last entry of my PR393 Reflective Blog for internship at Ogilvy PR. The past two months has been eventful, and I hope the blog posts has been insightful and helpful to all of you!

Have an awesome internship everyone!

When you’re not looking, you will find something.

I’ll start by introducing myself  - I’m Katie and have just commenced my final semester of a Bachelor of Commerce (Public Relations) degree.  When considering places to intern I wasn’t quite sure where to start, but knew I wanted to gain experience in corporate communications. 

I had completed work experience in a boutique consultancy during my first year and felt consultancy just wasn’t for me. Whilst most of my PR peers are interested in consultancy I have to say I would definitely prefer to work in-house!

So, knowing that I wanted to gain experience in corporate comms provided me with some sort of direction.  I was starting to stress as I wanted to secure a placement over the semester break so I did not have to worry about fitting a placement around studies and work during Semester Two. 

About three quarters of the way through Semester One this year I noticed on Blackboard that University Marketing at Curtin was looking for an intern to assist with Open Day. I had not even started looking for an internship but the perfect opportunity had just surfaced so I applied straight away. Within a few days I was contacted by the Open Day Project & Brand Consultant and was asked to meet for an informal interview. 

I met with Asha, the Open Day Project & Brand Consultant, she explained the main role of the Open Day intern would be coordinating family/ children’s activities for the ‘Fun Zone,’ and helping with signage and the central volunteer briefings. 

I also work in a paid position at the Curtin Careers Centre which has taught me a few things about how to interview (alongside what I learned in PR classes!). I made sure that I dressed professionally and went over-prepared with copies of my resume and samples of my work, even though this was not requested by Asha. In the end, Asha did look at a communications strategy I had completed in my role at the Careers Centre and was impressed ideas that I had come up with. It's definitely better to be over-prepared than under-prepared. 

After the meeting Asha told me that I would hear back in a few days as to whether I had been successful or not, and right on time she emailed me to let me know she would like to have me on board as Open Day intern! This was extremely exciting as I had heard so many stories about students’ difficulty in finding a placement and I had successfully landed an internship in my preferred field on my very first try.

I am extremely excited to update you on my experience working in corporate communications and project management, I hope to learn a lot about during my time at University Marketing and I look forward to hearing about other placements that people are undertaking this semester. 

(Written on May 18, 2013)

IN THE DEEP END

Every new challenge you face in life is likely to push you. This internship has most definitely been no exception having thrown me straight into the deep end.

Let me begin by telling you about how my placement started…

It was Thursday afternoon and I had been unable to focus on anything all day knowing that I had an Interview at 1pm with my potential placement employers. Professional presentation in check, my head held high, I marched into my interview determined to walk out with a secured placement. What I didn’t know was how much more I really would leave with.

My interview very quickly turned into somewhat of a client briefing and not only was I in but I had a media launch to organise in less than two weeks.  Filled with excitement I left the office on somewhat of a high thinking…

Invitation

Guests

Media

Event plan

Running sheets

Room setup

Champagne

Food

High tea

Fun

Fun

Only for it all to come crashing down the second I got home to realise how much work I had to do and how little time there really was.  With my mind working overtime, the settling thought was knowing that I didn’t need to worry; I know what I am doing.

Without even realising it I went into autopilot starting the procedure I needed to. It was at this stage I truly realised that Curtin and my degree have prepared me for my first step out into the real world and I have enough knowledge to really tackle this placement head on.

PR Placement – The Entrance of My Career Journey

They say all things have a tough start. Hunting for a suitable public relations (PR) placement was such a challenging task of the year. Time was going by fast, I had only got two weeks to submit the Placement Approval Form in order to continue the unit. I went through all the available resources – BlackBoard, Seek, Grad-Connection, Career One and more searching for job vacancies; spend all my spare times sending out resumes to employee seekers, and even to organisations that were not hiring just to approach for an intern position. 

It was a great learning opportunity. Through this process I have reviewed how to write effective cover letters, resume and follow-up emails. I researched every oganisation carefully before I approach to them, sent out relevant documents outlining strengths and what I can contribute to help to achieve their organization goals. Although the un-replied and rejected emails have brought me down; I was fear that I might not be able graduate in June, but I kept trying.

The good news have finally came. Two non-for-profit organizations have scheduled me for an interview to further review my qualifications. There were no words could describe how excited I was.

Momentum Forum Events is a non-for-profit organization, providing corporate and social networking through its signature annual charity events include Internaitonal Woman’s Day in support of women’s rights; Men in Black Ball in support of men’s mental health; and Pink Ribbon Ball supporting breast cancer. The founder Barbara McNaught is such an admirable woman who was a former Polish actress with a law degree and ability of speaking five languages.

Western Australian Water Polo Inc (WAWPI) on the other hand is the peak body for the sport in Western Australia. It runs professional water polo competitions and supports the teams and clubs. The Chief Executive Officer, Dale Ballantyne, is a very nice and enthusiastic leader.

Although Momentum seemed more appealing I decided to go for two, so I will have a back-up. Due to I have very limited experience working in the field (the only relevant experience I had was volunteering as an event assistant for ‘Unwrapped Marketplace’ last Christmas) I brought along my recent assignments into the interviews; after considering the relevance I decided to take the Media Placement Strategy, Media Release and Public Relations Plan that I have conducted for the previous PR units. Both interviewers were extremely impressed by my assignments and offered me an intern position, they also offered an immediate start and asked me to produced similar documents for their projects.

Initially I was going to take both placements offers but after carefully consideration, it was not a good idea to stretch myself too thin, I had to withdraw my offer with WAWPI – what a pity. 

That was how I began my PR internship journey. Success key is to be confident and honest; know your interviewers and their organization; and most importantly show them all your capabilities that are suited for their expectations. I treasure this opportunity and felt valued, now the door has opened for me and I am ready to work hard for the coming challenges. 

PR Placement – The Entrance of My Career Journey

They say all things have a tough start. Hunting for a suitable public relations (PR) placement was such a challenging task of the year. Time was going by fast, I had only got two weeks to submit the Placement Approval Form in order to continue the unit. I went through all the available resources – BlackBoard, Seek, Grad-Connection, Career One and more searching for job vacancies; spend all my spare times sending out resumes to employee seekers, and even to organisations that were not hiring just to approach for an intern position. 

It was a great learning opportunity. Through this process I have reviewed how to write effective cover letters, resume and follow-up emails. I researched every oganisation carefully before I approach to them, sent out relevant documents outlining strengths and what I can contribute to help to achieve their organization goals. Although the un-replied and rejected emails have brought me down; I was fear that I might not be able graduate in June, but I kept trying.

The good news have finally came. Two non-for-profit organizations have scheduled me for an interview to further review my qualifications. There were no words could describe how excited I was.

Momentum Forum Events is a non-for-profit organization, providing corporate and social networking through its signature annual charity events include International Woman’s Day in support of women’s rights; Men in Black Ball in support of men’s mental health; and Pink Ribbon Ball supporting breast cancer. The founder Barbara McNaught is such an admirable woman who was a former Polish actress with a law degree and ability of speaking five languages.

Western Australian Water Polo Inc (WAWPI) on the other hand is the peak body for the sport in Western Australia. It runs professional water polo competitions and supports the teams and clubs. The Chief Executive Officer, Dale Ballantyne, is a very nice and enthusiastic leader. 

Although Momentum was more appealing I decided to go for two, so I will have a back-up. Due to I have very limited experience working in the field (the only relevant experience I had was volunteering as an event assistant for ‘Unwrapped Marketplace’ last Christmas) I brought along my recent assignments into the interviews; after considering the relevance I decided to take the Media Placement Strategy, Media Release and Public Relations Plan that I have conducted for the previous PR units. Both interviewers were extremely impressed by my assignments and offered me an intern position, they also offered an immediate start and asked me to produced similar documents for their projects.

Initially I was going to take both placements offers but after carefully consideration, it was not a good idea to stretch myself too thin, I had to withdraw my offer with WAWPI – what a pity. 

That was how I began my PR internship journey. Success key is to be confident and honest; know your interviewers and their organization; and most importantly show them all your capabilities that are suited for their expectations. I treasure this opportunity and felt valued, now the door has opened for me and I am ready to work hard for the coming challenges.