Industry RSS feed for this section
Handwritten sign by mailboxes: Clip, where are you?

When Catastrophe Strikes, News Media Turn… to Social Media?

January 22, 2013 in Industry, Winter 2013

Darren Sweeney

When snowflakes began flying on Oct. 29, 2011, in Connecticut, newsrooms heeded the warnings of the meteorologists: heavy, wet snow on still-leafy trees meant disaster. Nearly a foot of snow fell in some areas, and Connecticut faced one of the biggest disasters in history.

When damaged trees fell on utility wires, the state experienced the biggest blackout ever. More than 800,000 people were without power, and some were stuck in their houses for up to two weeks because of downed trees, wires and power poles.

I was working as a reporter/meteorologist for the NBC affiliate in Hartford, and this was going to be one of our biggest stories. Because of the massive blackout, few people could see our reports, however. Before this storm, using social media had been just another aspect of the job. After the storm, I was thankful, as were my managers, that I had built up a social network via Facebook and Twitter. This “electronic Rolodex” helped me cover the stories following the storm and my experience gave me some lessons to take back into the classroom.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Whom Kneads Kopy Ediotrs?

June 13, 2012 in Industry, Spring/Summer 2012

Margo Wilson

If a reporter accused military personnel at the decommissioned El Toro Marine Corps Air Station near Irvine, CA, of recklessly (or was it wrecklessly?) contaminating the soil, Mark Ludwig, my copy editing colleague at the Los Angeles Times, knew how to handle the situation. If a photographer spelled a local spelling bee champ’s last name “Abecedarian,” although the reporter spelled it “Abcedarian,” Mark made calls, sent e-mails, and checked the phone book. He would excise the offending opinion word or correct the aberrant spelling. And those were some of the least significant things he did before shepherding the story from the rim to the slot. Then, he would grin at the rest of us rim rats and nod.

Read full story · Comments { 0 }

Plus ça Change: Three Observations on the State of Professional Public Relations, in the Classroom and Out

November 13, 2011 in Fall 2011, Industry

Ginger R. Carter Miller

There’s an old French idiom that says, “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” The more things change, the more they stay the same.

When examining the state of the public relations industry—and public relations education—it appears this idiom is accurate.

For as much as the delivery methods and modes of public relations and media industries change in a flash, the fundamentals of the industry continue to stand true. Public relations keeps pace with the needs of clients and journalists alike with the newest trending topics—as evidenced by Small Programs Interest Group presentations at the AEJMC National Conference in St. Louis in 2011—but at least three standards persevere in PR [...]

Read full story · Comments { 0 }