- During the interview process there are three stages: before, during and after. Before the interview, one should find out what someone is doing, not ask stupid questions, and setup the interview. During the interview one should thank the interviewee for doing the interview in a way such as shaking their hands. The interviewer should also establish rapport and make a connection with the interviewee, and ask them if they consent to being recorded during the interview. After the interview one should write their lead. Oftentimes the rapport one establishes with their interviewee will establish how well the interview will go. During an interview it is important to make sure to get two to three times more info than needed. When setting up the interview the interviewer should tell the interviewee why they are doing the interview and how long it’s going to take. An interviewer should also never tell an interviewee to come to them. The best time to interview someone is when one can watch them in person. If someone declines to be recorded then the interviewer needs to take notes on paper. Until an interviewer gets colorful quotes and gets information on their story the interview is not done. It’s also important for an interviewer to ask open ended questions, not yes or no questions. The interviewer should also ask the interviewee if there was anything that they did not talk about.
- There are many differences between news stories and feature stories. The objective of a news story is simply to inform whereas a feature story’s goal is to entertain. News stories are written objectively, without opinion from the writer. A feature tries to get a human reaction out of the reader by making them laugh or cry, and this is best done by writing about people as people like to read about other people. News stories typically want to provide timely information that either interests or affects the reader. News is also unbiased. News is heavily dependent on timeliness whereas features are not tied to when things happen. Features have a heavy focus on description. Typically features are more fun for consumers to read than news, and are in less of a hurry to explain what happened. Good features also have a heavy focus on description.
- The inverted pyramid is a media style of writing that relies on short concise one sentence paragraphs. In broadcast, sentences are 10-15 words long because people have short attention spans. In today’s media environment, there is an attention deficit due to the overwhelming amount of information available to consumers. Because of this short concise one sentence paragraphs are important to hold the attention of consumers. One paragraph sentences are also important in this new media environment so that consumers don’t get intimidated by looking at large paragraphs.
- Different news stories have similarities. News stories deliver timely information to the consumer and that information contains where something is happening, what is happening, who is affected by it, and why something happened which are the “W’’s of news. News is important to people based on the proximity to them, the where “W”. News will often want to tell people if someone prominent was affected by the news, the who “W”. The timeliness of news is the when “W”. The conflict in news and consequences of things that happen in news are the what “W”. News also tries its best to tell people why something happens which is the final “W”.
- The goal of effective damage control public relations is to try get a company to recover from a public relations disaster. Oftentimes those who excel at effective damage control public relations make the most in the field. This tries to minimize the amount of negative public perception that occurs when an event occurs that could cause negative publicity. For example when the BP oil disaster occured, public relations damage control would have tried to control the flow of information about the disaster out into the public about the disaster to minimize negative public perception. They might have also tried to spin it as “a learning lesson” or another positive angle.
- While journalists and public relations practitioners often rely on each other, they also have different goals. A journalist’s goal is to inform the public without their opinion. A public relations practitioner wants to spin the company in as positive a light as possible. Because of this a public relations practitioner typically will play up positives about a company and downplay negatives. It is the journalists job to try and obtain and provide the most objective information possible.
- Columns and editorials are the more opinionated parts of journalism. Columns are the opinion of a single writer and are not always trying to persuade. Columns also don’t care if the reader agrees with them or not. Editorials on the other hand are the collective opinion of a news agency. These editorials are persuasive.
- There are five leads to be avoided. These leads are: the when lead, the where lead, the question lead, the quotation lead, and the topic lead. The question lead does not concisely explain the story. The topic lead doesn’t tell people what happened. When and where is less important than what happened, and the quotation lead also doesn’t tell people what happened.
Antonio Carrillo 100W 