Page 2
page 1 | page 2 | page 3 | page 4 | page 5 | page 6 page 7 | page 8 | table of contents | references | test First, Take a Step Back: Media Relations in Context Media relations is just one among many tools your nursing organization can use to advance its objectives. It's important to take a step back from just thinking about interviewing tips and techniques to look at the media relations tool in its strategic context. First, know your nursing organization's objectives - What concrete thing do you want to happen to benefit your RNs and their patients? Do you want to see a particular piece of legislation passed; achieve a rise in the number of public schools in your area with RNs on staff; have citizens show up for a health care public forum? Second, it's a good idea to take a look at how your organization's issues are - or aren't -- already playing out in current media coverage. Are you being heard? Once your organization has its objectives in place, it should choose (or should already have chosen) communications objectives that clearly support the organizational objectives. Media relations activities are tools, not ends, and should be determined and deployed only after the organizational and communications objectives have been set. Determining your organization's communications objectives involves answering some further questions. Who (which audiences) do you want to reach and with what messages and action steps? Once you've determined your target audience(s), you can decide which message points and action steps you want to deliver. (See below for more on messages and action steps.) After the media outreach concludes or is well under way, assess the impact of your organization's media relations strategy around whatever issue you were highlighting. Did you receive coverage? Was it extensive or cursory, positive or negative? Was your audience action step conveyed? Did your media outreach spark ongoing dialog, e.g., letters to the editor? Is there any evidence that some members of the audience followed through and actually took the action step? Simply put, what worked, what didn't, and why? Doing an after-the-fact assessment can help your organization refine its approach as you prepare to build on what you've accomplished -- and plan further media outreach. It's important for your nursing organization - and for you, as an individual RN - to try to keep pace with media coverage (or lack of coverage) of nursing issues. In addition, every interview you view or hear - if you watch and listen critically and actively, not passively - can teach you more about interviewing skills. So, read newspapers, magazines, and nursing and health trade publications; listen to the radio; watch TV news programs; monitor Internet coverage of nursing issues. Talking to your fellow RNs about media coverage of nursing. Don't "tune out" negative or inaccurate portrayals of nurses and nursing. Notice when a nursing perspective is missing entirely in a story where an RN should have been among the experts. Write, phone, or e-mail the producer or sponsor of a program (or advertising image) if it offers an accurate and positive representation of nurses and nursing issues. Voice your displeasure with inaccurate or unbalanced coverage. But do so constructively - offer the facts; offer access to your nursing organization, and access to RN experts.
previous: The Goal of Media Relations next: Proactive Media Relations