November 8th, 2013

This week we met local media personality Tony Tighe and received some great insight into the perspective of a journalist in a public relations context. While last week we had a guest speaker who was a media relations practitioner, this week we got to see the flip side of that coin and see things from the perspective of the media. Tony has a lot of experience as a reporter and has an intimate undestanding of what reporters are looking for from public relations practitioners. I really enjoyed his talk, as very rarely we are exposed to both sides of a relationship and get such pesonal feedback.

What I liked most about Tony's talk with us was his frankness and clarity. Perhaps in true journalist fashion, he told it like it was and held back no details about the relationship between public relation practitioners and the media. Tony explained how a reporter won't necessarily care if you're new to your profession or don't have many contacts in the media; if you can provide him with the information he needs then you have proven your worth. I enjoyed hearing this, as one of the concerns many of us have is being able to 'break' into the field. And since success in the field is created by the building of productive relationships, his comments just go to show that we can build these necessary relationships just by being prepared and available.

I'm not sure if I want to be involved in media relations explicitly, but having this insight is so invaluable as I imagine at some point in my career I'll do something media related.