Ch 9

The broadcast media are important channels of communication, but using them requires thinking in terms of sound and visual elements.  Public service announcements are short broadcast announcements used by nonprofit groups and public agencies. Radio media (RMTs) are a cost-effective way to reach many stations with an exclusive interview over a wide geographic area. Television news releases must contain both sound and visual elements such as graphics, slides or videotape. VNR or video news releases are widely used by TV stations and cable systems. VNR’s require professional preparation and technical quality. To be used, they must be newsworthy and timely. Satellite media tours or SMTs are widely used in the broadcasts industry. A good, persuasive pitch is used to get placements on news programs and talk shows. Organizations and groups can get exposure by making use of community calendars, radio promotions, creative publicity ideas and documentaries.

ch 8

Photographs and graphics add appeal and increase media usage of news releases or features. Digital cameras are used for publicity photos. Photos with action, informality are more interesting than rigid, posed shots. Use professional photographers if you send materials to news organizations. Photo captions should be short, use present tense to describe action and provide context. Charts, diagrams, maps, for example should be colorful, simple and uncluttered. Never send an attachment (photo or otherwise) to a reporter or editor unless specifically requested to do so. A publicity photo should have no more than 3 or 4 people in it. Save the large group shot for the photo album. A public relations writer should be familiar with the elements of a good publicity photo: quality, subject matter, composition, action, scale, camera angle, lighting, and color.

ch 7

Feature stories provide more information to the consumer, give background and context about organizations, provide behind the scenes perspective, give human dimension and generate publicity for standard products and services. Conceptualize how something lends itself to feature treatment, determine if the information is interesting and that the feature helps achieve organizational objectives.

Types of features include: case study, application story. The research study is about some aspect of contemporary style in the workplace. Personality profiles are popular in the business press. They sell the idea of a profile, make the executive available, provide background information and arrange photo shoots.

Significant milestones of a location may allow the opportunity to present the history of an organization and it’s people.

Parts of the feature include: the headline, the lead, the body and the summary. Feature stories are often accompanied by photos and graphics to give it more appeal. Infographics are computer generated artworks that attractively display tables and charts.

There are numerous opportunities for feature articles: specialty newspaper sections, general-circulation magazines, special interest magazines, business and trade magazines and internal publications. Op-ed pieces are an opportunity to portray the organization and it’s executives as thought leaders on a particular subject or issue of public interest. Must be about 400-700 words. Letters to the editor are usually written to comment, add on information, or rebut an article or editorial that has already been published. Should be at least 200 words or less.

Grammar Girl

One may think to his or herself, “why do I need to know about grammar in this stage of my life?” After all, you have taken English classes since grade school, so it is obvious that you should know everything there is to know about grammar right? Perhaps not. I thought that before going on the Grammar Girl site that I knew everything there was to know about grammar. I figured that if I had not learned certain things in my classes it probably was not very important. You need to pay attention to pronouns. Pronouns take the place of nouns. The pronouns me, you for example must be in the object position. Indefinite pronouns are like the word somebody for example. An ante is a prefix that goes before other things. “Driver” is antecident of prounoun “his.” Some problems may be antecedents missing. Prepositions are words that create relationships beween other words like above, by and over. Unnecessary prepostions do not always happened at the end of sentences. For example, instead of saying squiggly jumped off of the dock you say that squiggly jumped off the dock. That’s where it is means the same as that is where it is at. Some people throw these prepostions that are not needed in sentences. The bottom line is that it is alright to end a sentence in a prepostion if it is needed. When it comes to the words between and among in sentences I discovered a important fact that I had not considered before. You use the word between when you are talking about subjects that aredistinct. You use the word between when you use the sentence, “Between Harvard and Princeton, she chose Harvard.” Also, pay attention to who versus whom. One must know the difference between subjects and objects. If you use the subject of the sentence it is who.

Superbowl commercial

I must confess that I have or never will be a fan of football. When the SuperBowl came out I just kind of shrugged my shoulders and was like “o.k. if people want to go nuts for a weekend and scarf down potato chips and guzzle down pepsi products while cheering on their favorite team then good for them. My family has only really been interested in football because most of them went to Georgia University, which most football fans of college know that it is the home of the bulldog. I think that out of all the commercials featured in the superbowl commercial I would have to say that my favorite one was the Doritos commercial. First of all, how many people do not get in their cars and flip on the radio and start singing?  I found it kind of funny how the man was singing oprah, he looked more like the kind of guy who would get into his car and listen to a song like “Rock me like a Hurricane.” I thought it was kind of funny how he backed over a girl, who by the way, looked like a plastic doll, because you could not see her head. I was amused at how he opened his door and reached out and took the doritos and acted like nothing had happened. It’s like “oh, I think I hit something, oh, it’s o.k. I just ran over a girl, and she has doritos, cool.” I thought this commercial was the most amusing I have seen of the doritos commercials.

Blogging

I believe that it is important to learn how to blog. Blogging is very useful for voicing one’s opinion. So many people have ideas, but none of those ideas are ever voiced. Just by blogging I have been able to tell people what my opinion is. I can also see if individuals have any advice to offer to me. I used to think that blogging was just some activity that people did in their free time like a hobby. I see that blogging can also allow me to see what I have in common with other people. Sometimes people may have the same ideas as you, but you have to be open to taking a look at what those individuals have to say. Blogging has taught me that it is important to pay attention to what I am in writing. What is the purpose for writing what I am writing? Blogging is a great way to put your ideas out there that perhaps no one has ever thought of. Somtimes it can be challenging to figure out what I want to say. I want my blogs to be interesting when people read them. I don’t want my blogs to sound boring or have useless information that nobody is going to use. I have always enjoyed giving my opinion and telling people what I feel about a certain issue. I have also enjoyed writing, so i guess that one could say that writing as well as stating your opinion equals blogging. Blogging is almost like Facebook, all you need is something interesting to say.

Lead Lab Course

It is easy when you have been taking english classes all your life and receiving postive feedback from your instructors telling you what a great writer you are. You are most likely to start believing that your writing is superb and that you rarely make mistakes. I always believed I was a good writer and knew the rules when it came to writing a paper or a story. But then I took the Lead Lab Course. At first, I thought the course was a little strange like walking into a science lab and testing out experiments only in this case I was testing out my writing skills. I did not realize how easy it can be to make a mistake with the word street verses st. The truth is I never really paid all that much attention when it came to street names like road or rd. But thanks to this course I was able to understand how to use words correctly. I think that we can get into a habit of using simple words every day over and over again to the point where we cannot tell the difference of what words are correct and which are not. The Lead Lab course is a great tool for people to use to learn how to become better writers. In a way, it kind of trains you to think like a reporter and you have to know the correct terms for the sentences. The course helped me to realize that even though I may be confident in my writing, I do not know everything about writing.

What makes a story newsworthy

I think that what makes a story newsworthy is that first of all a story should grab the people’s attention. You need a catchy title for your story which will make people want to engage in your material. If you have a boring title probably not very many people will want to read your story. People also want to know what is going on in the world. They want to be informed and entertained. Depending on what kind of newspaper you are writing for you may be producing stories that are meant for the purposes to inform like if there is a hurricane coming into the county. Or maybe you are writing for the purposes to entertain like telling people when a circus will be coming to town. A newsworthy story must not only inform and entertain, but it is also important that when one writes a story that he or she must keep their facts straight. As entertaining as the celebrity magazines are a lot of the information that is produced is false. You also must consider the age group of your audience. If your audience is a group of children they may want to be informed of when the next Disney movie is coming out in theaters. If they are older people they may want to know when their favorite band is playing in the park. Also, when you write a news story keep in mind to not make any mistakes. Always check before you print. These are just a few observations I noticed to make a story newsworthy.

week of twitter

I think that the week that we had to do twitter really opened my eyes to the difference between twitter and facebook. Facebook you are more limited to friends and family whereas when you post a twitter message just about anyone online can witness what you are thinking. That in some ways can be dangerous, so I tried to choose information that was more factual than personal about myself. I learned it can be a challenge to constantly alert people as to what is on your mind. I know that with myself it got to a point where I did not know what to say so I began to tell about petty, useless information such as how the lunch lady prepared my sandwich. However, I was able to find some very interesting information that perhaps people can use such as if a person wants to dye his or her hair blonde it is safer to use lemon juice than to bleach one’s hair. I think that Twitter can be very useful to alerting people to certain information that they can use, but unless someone has a job working with the company I don’t know that they should spend all their time alerting to people what they are doing.

Ch 6

A fact sheet accompanies a news release or media kit and is a list of facts in outline or bullet form that can be used in quick reference when writing a story. Advisories are called media alerts because they tell assignment editors about uocoming events that they might be interested in covering from a story, photo, video perpective. Media kit is called a press kit, which is prepared for major events and project launches. A typical media kit is 9 by 12 inches with four sides and a back cover to include addresses, names and website addresses. Electronic media kits or EPK’s are more versatile than traditional printed media kits, because they can include multiple pieces of information in a variety of formats. You must convince an editor or a reporter that your story is newsworthy when pitching a story. You must research the publication such as style, format and deadlines and prepare your pitch. makes sure your e-mail subject lines generate interest.You need to research publication, broadcast outlet or blog and become familar with the content. You can even follow up on your pitch through a telephone call, or a fax for example. Follo-up, is a clue for you to graciously accept “no” for your pitch.