Chapter 6 Reflection

The first takeaway from chapter 6 was the three different types of news announcements. The three are routine news events, significant, one-time news events, and “bad news” events. It showed me that headlines represent a bigger meaning in just a few words. For example, a headline over a recall on a product would fall under the catogory of “bad news” events. If it is an effective headline viewers will know what the story is covering.

The second takeaway was the tips on writing news release headlines. There are a lot of rules you have to follow like always including an active verb and avoiding certain words such as “unique.”

My last takeaway from chapter 6 was how to use the inverted pyramid style. It teaches you the correct order to place the information. You place the news lead first to tell readers why the topic is important then you go on with the five W’s then to the “boilerplate.” Personally, I like the order of how the inverted pyramid style ask you to place information. It places the important things first then ends with the history and mission of the product or industry.

Something that made me look at public relations writing in a new way is that according to a 2008 Media Survey, journalist collect almost 73% of their information about a company from a new release. This shows how important it is to produce news releases with legitimate news.

What I found to be most useful for my current writing is the pointers on writing the body. Before writing for PR I always would write pretty long paragraphs because I got so use to writing papers for other classes but when it comes to PR writing we are to make sure a paragraph only represents ONE thought.

I found pretty much the entire chapter to be useful towards my professional goals. Chapter 6 has been one of the most important chapters  to me so far because PR professionals are asked to write news releases and they must know how to write one in the correct format and know what words to use and how, whether it is through print, broadcasting or social media.