6. Read the following text: Publicity versus Advertising

A major purpose of many public relations programs is to provide news and information to the media in the hope that it will be published or broadcast. The resulting coverage is called publicity. The public relations writer who writes and places stories in the media is commonly referred to as a publicist, although most public relations and corporations don't use the term in official job titles. The term “publicist” or “agent” is more common in the entertainment industry, but the role in the communication industry is the same.

Media Coverage and Barriers to it

The purpose of media coverage, from an organization's standpoint, goes beyond just news and information Publicity is designed to advance the organization's goals. This may be to create favorable attitudes and opinions about the organization, its products, or its services. In many cases, publicity is strongly marketing orient designed to generate sales.

There are several barriers to getting publicity in the media. Some of then follows:

1. Publicity versus Advertising. Reporters and editors ultimately decide whether an organization's information qualifies as news and is worthy of being published or broadcast. They may choose to change the order of the information, delete parts of it, or even completely rewrite it. Thus a two-page news release from a company published as a full story, a one-paragraph news item, or not at all. Advertising copy has no such barrier. The organization buys the space in which the advertisement will run, and the ad appears exactly as submitted. The material is handled by the advertising or sales department of the newspapers or broadcast station, not the news department.

2. Shrinking News Holes. The recession in the early 1990's left many publications scrambling for advertising dollars, which directly affected the news space available. Many periodicals have cut back on pages and have consequently reduced the news hole. The result is increased competition for getting your publicity accepted and published. A newspaper or trade magazine editor, for example, has hundreds of news releases and story ideas for every edition, and only a few can be used.

3. Changing Nature of the Mass Media. The mass media are becoming increasingly fragmented, meaning that they no longer offer the opportunity of reaching large numbers of people in a single effort. The “one size fits all” news release is dead. In addition, evening papers have died in many cities, morning papers have lost circulation.

4. Information Overload. Our society is experiencing widespread information clutter. The decline of the mass media has been accompanied by a proliferation of more specialized media — weeklies, trade newspapers and magazines, cable channels, electronic online databases — that all compete for the individual's attention. As a consequence, your organization's news, even if it does get published or broadcast, may never get the attention of the audience. To use a metaphor, your story is only one tree in a vast forest.

Despite these barriers, the news media are indispensable if the organization’s objective is to inform, persuade, and motivate various audiences. You however must recognize the barriers and do several things to make your efforts more effective. They include (1) targeting the right media with your information, (2) thinking continuously about the interests of the readers or listeners, (3) keeping in mind the objectives of the client or employer, and (4) exercising creativity in thinking about how to present information that will meet the requirements of media gatekeepers. Also, don't try to blanket the media with a blizzard of news items.

To work effectively, you must understand what makes news, how to find it, and how to generate it