Media Relations

What does a career in Media Relations involve?

Essentially, a career in media relations involves developing and maintaining relationships with clients and media contacts in order to execute media relations plans. This can involve preparing media packs; developing and managing a database of media contacts; and creating regular media monitoring reports.

Media relations practitioners also have to coordinate interviews, which assessing the value of interview requests from the media, as well as finding appropriate spokespeople and preparing them for interviews, ensuring they have the information they need to communicate their message effectively.

It is important that, when working in media relations, you are always assessing your client's media coverage, as well as that of competitors, to make sure you are on target with your client's goals.

What skills are needed?

Excellent writing, editing and presentation skills are essential when working in media relations. You must have strong creative, critical thinking and problem solving skills, as well as the ability to determine the potential media interest and newsworthiness of ideas.

Working in media relations requires strong organisations skills and the ability to think quickly and work to deadlines, as you will be managing several media projects at once in a deadline-driven environment.

The skills required in a media relations role are similar to those required in many management, communications and marketing roles. Such roles demand great interpersonal skills, the ability to recognise a great story and sell this to others, and creative thinking skills, all of which are paramount to a career in media relations.

It is important to understand how the media works, and part time work in any media environment will be beneficial to both your studies and career prospects.

What subjects or qualifications do I need?

When completing a Bachelor of Communication Studies, Media Studies can be taken as a major through the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. This can be studied further to an Honours level if desired. Papers in Journalism and Business and Professional Writing which are offered by the Waikato Management School are also useful.

What career opportunities will I have?

As mentioned earlier, skills you will learn training for and working in a career in media relations can lend themselves to many other disciplines, including marketing, management, public relations and communications roles. Many large companies and government sectors hire professionals to not only work with the media on their behalf, but also help them communicate efficiently with their key customers as well as their employees.

See Also:

Graduate Profiles
Guidelines and Requirements for the BCS