Crisis Communications, by Mary-Margaret Koch

·             Rule #1 for Broadcast writing – write in the present tense

Reactions to Businesswire piece

·             Journalism has become more than just print, now need multimedia elements for an online piece

·             When pitching journalists, provide multimedia content

·             Journalists are spread thinner now than ever before and are expected to do more

·             Now can use social media to bypass normal channels and appeal directly to the intended audience

·             Brand journalism – promote brand directly to audience without middleman in between

Exxon Valdez PR

·             What they should have done:

o   Know all the facts

o   Show empathy

o   Demonstrate proof that you care

o   Have next steps prepared

o   Accept the blame

We then watched an interview with Exxon Chairmen Lawrence G. Rawl,

·             First Impressions – looks corporate, frowning, didn’t know details about the proposed plan, aggressive towards reporter

o   People make judgments about your trustworthiness in less than 10 seconds

·             Remainder of interview impressions – repeats that he does not know the details about the new plan, states that it is not his job to be familiar with the details of the plan, corrects reporter, viewer begins to think that he only cares about profits not the environment

o   In an interview, the reporter has an agenda and you have an agenda. You need to control 100% of your 50%

o   When watching interviews, need to become students of the game. This means knowing if someone is succeeding or not, and knowing WHY

o   Camera is on you while you’re listening to questions as well as answering questions in an interview

o   Public Relations often involves crisis communications

David Culver

·             Unconventional path to journalism, got where he is today by keeping in contact with people he knew from internships

·             3 keys to writing for broadcast – concise, conversational, urgent

o   Need the audience to understand why something is relevant now

·             Anchors are no longer talking to a muted audience, audience can now respond

·             When anchors “toss” and pass the broadcast off to a reporter in the field, it gives the field reporter credibility

Homework

·             Read pg. 190-211 in textbook

·             Complete exercise 10.15 – Writing feature stories #1 (Jessie James story)

o   Bring in hard copy to class

o   Format like you would a print story, no headline