One of the most critical areas within any corporate communication function is the media relations department. The media are both a constituency and a conduit through which investors, employees, and consumers receive information about and form images of a company. (Argenti pg, 155)
Reading this chapter dealing with media relations gave me some more insight towards the topic. In my work place it is kind of difficult for me to relate to because I only had two jobs. These two jobs weren't that large and they rarely dealt with the media. The media relations department just consisted of the head supervisor and the department board directors. As stated in the last couple blogs I work for a small but community size learning center. (daycare) The group that took care of media relations dealt with articles, commercials, public speaking, interviews, and etc. The group was very small, it only consisted of five to six members. They handled everything that dealt with the public and media. The group made sure they maintained the image of the business.
I would argue that it is the responsibility of all members of the organization to maintain the image of the business. This is something that we stress to all members of our organization. Every organization should have an employee or employees designated to work with the media. However, all members of the organization should be trained on the proper procedures should they encounter questions from the media. We provide all our employees with a statement to give the media directing them to our spokesperson. An employee who does not have the proper information regarding the organization’s strategy can do tremendous damage to the organization by their comments. Because of this, it is important that every employee be comfortable in their role within the organization with respect to the media.
ReplyDeleteI think the overall issue is with management. Size of team does not really matter the abilities to perform. Also agreeing with Ken, employees should be trained for crises and day to day scenario for media relations. Information leaked into Media is hard to control and can affect overall operations of firms of any size.
ReplyDeleteHaving a media relations group sounds like an effective way to make sure your organization has a positive relationship or portrayal in the media. I know that my former job probably could have benefited from such a group of people, even if it was just one or two people who specialized in such things. The reason is because every time there was a concern that the media would be involved in a way that they didn't necessarily want it to be involved in, they handled it the same way. They made no comment about anything and let any rumors be rumors. Having someone who could handle these situations would have been a good thing.
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