Excerpts Series: Handling the Media
Media — as we define it here, is the collective means of mass communication. It is getting the word out to a lot of people at one time. We think about that in terms of broadcasting, for instance, items in the news, or stories that are published, like daily newspapers or perhaps magazines. And then there is the internet. We get a lot of our information from social media or news flashes on our phones or computers via the internet. Media is the collective term to cover all of those different ways of communicating.
Media Relations — When we talk about media relations - it’s in the name! It relates to the different ways that media is disseminated, news and information that is going out. It is how you communicate or how the message gets communicated with a specific audience or the general public.
That brings us to the definition of image management — controlling how others see you. Media relations is really making sure that we’re controlling the content and the way that things are communicated to an audience or the general public through the different media channels that we’ll talk about in our training today. We want to utilize media to get our message out and to the extent that we can control that message, that’s what we’re after.
Effective Media Relations — Figuring out this piece of Handling the Media can really build support for your organization. Managed well, media relations can give you people, donations and money — or, in other words, resource development. It can build support in all of these ways.
Also, effectively getting out information through the media is a means of educating the public about who you are and what you do. It’s a great way to build awareness about your organization. A great way to educate others about who you are and what you do.
Effective media relations is also a way that we’re controlling how others view our organization. Another piece of image management. It’s worth your time to do this well and effectively.
Media Outlets — Are establishments that publish or broadcast news and feature stories to the public and they do so through a variety of distribution channels. We won’t cover ALL of the different ways to use media or what the different media outlets are, but I want you to get a working knowledge of the fact that there are different types of media outlets and we want to intentionally be thinking through which ones make sense for us. How might we approach those outlets that we want to use?
The WHO - who is sharing the information? What entities are sharing our information?
There are different types of media outlets to to reach the different kinds of audiences we serve. It’s not necessarily about reaching everyone. What audience do we want to reach with our message? Who do we want to inform or build awareness with to let them know about our services or programs?
Media outlets are generally third-party providers of information. Many nonprofits use social media themselves to get the word out, however that’s not really a media outlet. A media outlet is other people disseminating information for you.
Media outlets include:
News outlets
Television production companies
Magazines
Radio
Wire services
There’s so much more about handling the media in our 90-minute training! ONLY $69 and you can use it for you and your whole team!
