 The term and the idea of news has evolved over generations and constantly Does and will continue to evolve so what what we considered news What we would have thought of when we said news 50 years ago Even 20 years ago is different than what we would you know kind of associate with it today How the news is presented what constitutes quote-unquote news is different in our minds today than it was and and so we need to Keep up with that as public relations professionals because our our goal is to leverage the news In such a way that benefits our organization right so in this short video We want to define the news talk about what we mean by the news and journalism and then what do we mean by news makers What makes a news maker and how does that impact us then as PR professionals as well? So let's start by talking about journalism and what is journalism well? Journalism is the activity of gathering assessing creating and presenting news and information very simply So you know when you when you do those things when you gather assess create and present news and information You're engaging in journalism right and traditionally that has been a profession and we've defined journalists and separately from other types of Professions and other types of things like that So but now we have what we see as you know a move away from in some ways that we still have traditional journalism of course But now we have also the rise of what we call citizen journalism Which basically just means anybody with a phone our phones now carry the capacity to record Photograph events and record video events and audio events and really that has led to Anybody being able to be a journalist you can you can gather this information you can put it up on your own website You can start a podcast you can start a YouTube channel and theoretically anybody can be a journalist Whether you've really gone to school for that and studied what it means to be a journalist and are following the formal rules of journalism Or not so we need to be aware of that that massive shift in what we call citizen journalism as PR Professionals that it's not just specific news gathering organizations that we will be interacting with but really anybody with the phone has the Potential to be a journalist in this day and age so we need to to be aware of that So with that in mind, you know journalism has changed so significantly Significantly it really begs the question then what is news? What is the news? What is news? Well when we take a look at what the news is in some ways It's a little bit like Krodinger's cap if you're familiar with that concept the idea of you know If you have a cat in a box with this thing a vial of poison is the cat dead or is it alive? Well, both if we if the box is closed and we don't know what's happening inside The cat for us is at the same time both dead and alive, right? It's just kind of a psychological mental exercise That the And in some ways the news is the same way. What is news? Well, the news is what you make of it. Is it news while that depends on your perspective Sometimes people would say yes and other people would say no and is it news when something happens with the celebrity? Is it news when something happened in a different country? Is it news when something happens in the health field? That depends on your perspective. I guess and depends on the you know beauties in the eye the beholder will so as a news So what is news news is what we make of it? So we need to bear in mind that our audiences will make their own decisions and that there will be different people Determining what is and what isn't news and they who gets what who gets you know What gets reported and who gets to hear it? That's a function that we call gatekeeping right when we think of like these medieval castles and You see their structures and there's really just like the main entrance They're the one main entrance and the outer entrance right that has sometimes a drawbridge and sometimes a moat and sometimes a Port call list with the thing that drops down the gate that drops down to really funnel Everybody in and so that people can decide those people can make a decision on who's getting in and who's not Right who's allowed in and who's not and that really is literally a gatekeeping function, right? They are keeping the gate deciding what gets in and what doesn't we kind of do the same thing with the news at several different levels So who the gatekeepers in the news then well first and foremost we are as public relations folks We you know as people who for our organization. We are gatekeepers. What information is going to get out What are we going to try and keep from public view? You know to a large extent falls on us We are gatekeepers in terms of what we report to the outside world and what information we we emphasize and what information We share with the outside world. So so you as a public relations person media relations Professional are a gatekeeper will be a gatekeeper in that system and that function So for our organization, we are for all intents and purposes gatekeepers ourselves Certainly the media has a number of gatekeepers not everything is going to make it in a news Broadcaster in a newspaper or on our website or whatever it is not everything's going to get out there So somebody's making a decision about what stories are going to be reported What's going to be at the top of the page as opposed to lower? What's going to lead this this? This television program this news program and what's going to come later in the hour when we may lose some viewers So gatekeepers in the media decide what it is that that gets out and what it is that's emphasized And what stories we're reporting on you can see that and if you go to the the difference in you know Fox News and NBC in terms of not just what they're talking about but how they're talking about it They are gatekeeping in that sense. They're they're deciding what goes on What's been they're going to put on it and so forth. So there are no shortage of gatekeepers in the media That's certainly a massive function that the media that performs then is that gatekeeping function But then finally the audience are gatekeepers as well They decide what information they're going to listen to what information they're going to seek out What channels are going to watch again? We get stuck in these and modern times We get stuck in these kind of echo chambers of you know People get stuck in the Fox News echo chamber and that's all they hear or the MSNBC echo chamber And that's all they hear sienna or whatever their news source is even if it's just you know Facebook or the late-night TV shows That's what they hear. That's what they seek out So in essence that they are gatekeeping by eliminating those other news sources and Focusing in on only what is being made available through those particular ones that they choose So and what we so what we let in for our lives and how much we're paying attention to it Those are gatekeeping functions that the audience performs So there are gatekeepers at lots of different levels in the transmission and and reception of News right starting with us as public relations media relations people and through the media and then even into the audience themselves So gatekeeping happens at all different levels There are lots of gatekeeping actions to that have been identified and then some primary ones that include things like Agenda setting agenda setting is a classic communication theory that says the media doesn't tell us what to think so much as what to tell It's as they tell us what to think about So it's not so much the media is telling us. Here's what you have to believe and here's what you should think about this It's so much as they're telling us Here's what ought to be on your mind and that of course is going to lead us to we're thinking about certain things over others and ignoring Certain things and taking on a particular perspective, but you know, it's not the media selling telling us Here's what's true. Here's what's not although they're edging closer and closer to that of course But but really it's the media telling us what to think about rather than what to think That's the agenda setting function and that happens through gatekeeping that happens through You're telling us in what stories are worthy of our time and what they're going to share with us And what they're not going to share with us what they're going to eliminate leave out because they have X amount of column inches or X amount of time in their program or X amount of attention that they're going to get from the audience So they they prioritize different things to tell us. This is what you should be thinking about Not these other things so much. These are less important things So the media certainly performs that agenda setting function in a large way You also have what we call media framing Which is again look at the difference between how Fox News and MS in NBC report a particular story They're gonna maybe be reporting on the exact same story the major news event that moment But they're gonna do so in a very different way. They're gonna have a different spin on it they're gonna provide very different perspectives and so we need to be aware of that though that the Media then another type of gatekeeping function is they are choosing a Perspective and a spin to put on that story now, you know, hopefully more traditional news outlets are really just giving it to a straight and not including that that type of perspective but But but a lot of modern media is you know, they can putting their own spin on it They're deciding how to frame it how they're gonna talk about this Are they gonna talk about it like it's a positive thing or a negative thing? Who are they going to talk to about this and and what perspective are they going to bring on that? So there's lots of media framing activities happening in the gatekeeping functions as well And then finally we have focusing events that the operators gatekeeping actions Meaning major events. What is it that we're going to talk about? Is there a massive mass shooting event? Certainly that's going to gather the attention of the entire nation and and so so things we're gonna talk about there Or is there a you know, a Supreme Court justice trying to be appointed and so they're gonna talk about that a great deal And so these major focusing events then will act as gatekeeping actions as well And then different people will put their own perspective on it in terms of how they're gonna talk about it And what elements of that they're going to present but they will largely be focused on these massive Focusing events when they when they occur One thing we need to keep in mind as public relations professionals then is that there's so much news out there There's so many things that people want to report on so much It's gonna occupy the time then of of the audience and the and then news makers and the gatekeepers That we have to do something then to kind of add value to our news If we're just doing our own thing and ignoring what's going on in the world or what's important and what what media people are Looking for then that's going to not get our stories noticed as much So what we can do is then what we call add value to our news by trying to identify What about our news connects with with one of these different things that add value to it? So for example timeliness, is there some Time-based element that's related to this story something that you know an event That's taking place that we can connect our story to and somehow You know intertwine it then with something that's happening right now an event That's happening either a focusing event or a literal event You know that's going on Is there some sort of timeliness that we can use to add value and connect to our story in that way to add value to it? Impact is there a particular impact that our story will have that are that our news will have is there some way that That it's going to have a substantial impact on the audience and then be That kind of make it that kind of priority Where this is going to add value to it and connect with with what's happening in some way either You know focusing event or something that's that's in the public consciousness at that moment Is this going to be connected and have an impact on that? Proximities that literally nearby something that's happening Are we having you know in a geographic sense? Are we as something that we have to share connected to something that is geographically happening in that area nearby proximity can do that Is there some sort of conflict that we can connect with it and engage in and and be a part of not sure in a physical sense But you know, can we do we have something to add? We have some element of something that's going on that we can add to something that's happening in the public consciousness that moment that may be a conflict Is there some sort of human interest element right people are interested in what's happening with people we care about That's why you see all these stories about people helping other people. You know when there's a massive Natural disasters you see stories about people who are helping their neighbors who are helping other people survive who are providing food and basic Basic needs like that to other people in their community and or that are you know, they're helping someone else in some way that's a human interest story or someone who's engaged in some sort of Prolonged suffering that we can help highlight and help them find some solution to there are these human interest elements that Will drive and add value to our news Is there some sort of prominence or celebrity? Connected with our news story that we can connect to is there's some sort of celebrity engagement that we can that we can Highlight that we can focus on you know this famous person is involved in this or is there's you know In some ways this is a celebrity cause that we can connect to and add value to our news in some way that way There's some sort of novelty meaning is it different? Is it new is it fresh? Is it you know not something that people would hear about all the time or be engaged with all the time that we can connect to that? The newness and the freshness of it. Where's there's some sort of currency? Trend-based connection, you know, is this something that is again very prominent You know this the latest tick-tock craze or whatever that we can connect to with our news Somehow and add value to it in that way if we can find some way to connect it to something that the audience is concerned with that's going to gather more immediate interest because it's going to pull more eyes in and and the News outlets depend on those audiences in order to to drive their ratings in order to drive their revenue through Through advertisements and things like that. So anything we can do to connect with that audience a little more using one of these value-adding Items will be very very helpful in the long run in getting our media On our news event placed well in the media and discussed by the media Okay, the last item I'd like to talk about in relationship to the news and newsmaking is really the importance of knowing your audience Again, the purpose of the media is to make money. They're a business. So they do that by drawing in audiences and and and we do that by By reaching out to a particular audience. We ought to be identifying what we call that target audience We don't necessarily need to or want to reach all people and that might be a really really difficult task Anyway to reach all people so we need to identify Who is it that we're trying to reach out to and connect with and then how do we do that through these media outlets and through our News story selections and things like that So we really need to know who our audience is and identify that target audience who it is We're trying to reach so we do that by things like Understanding the demographics of our audience demographics things like the general age range and you know, is there a particular Income category that we're looking at a particular, you know social economic profile that we want to see is a particular geographic Element that we're looking at it if you're not a nationwide organization if you're a very local organization that makes a difference You don't need to reach these national news outlets. You'll want to focus on your local one So what are the demographics that make up our audience? What's their general things like age occupation? race social economic background things like that that we can use to then shape our news stories and shape the Identification of the news outlets that we're trying to reach those news makers that we're trying to reach When I identify in geography that can I mention this just now? But but you know, is this a local organization is a national organization is an international organization That's going to help define our audience and then define what media that would be best place to reach that particular audience Is there a specialization of our audience? Are we an industry group for example? If you're in the if you're in an organization that that creates Healthcare products then you'll want to focus on you know healthcare organizations and healthcare institutions, right? You don't need to reach that general audience if you're not a commercial Organization so there's some sort of specialization you focus on you know some particular industry or some particular group Are you you know trying to reach people who play Dungeons and Dragons? Then then you need to find a way to do that and know who your audience is Know what they're interested in so that'll shape you the news you're trying to to create and the way that you do that And then the news outlets that you reach out to and there's a particular format again And sometimes you know this we need to identify Does our audience focus on a print media or are they podcast people or do they watch the news and if so? What outlets and identify very specifically what kind of format and then how can we best reach them if we're if we're If we're reaching out to a podcast we know that our audience listen to podcasts then creating a bunch of print You know Infographics and things like that is not going to be helpful because podcasts are an audio Format right then and so we don't need to create a bunch of imagery to go along with this What we need to do is create quality audio and find outlets for that So we need to understand what format our audience is interested in and how we can best utilize then that format in producing the news that we create So when we think about the news remember we're focusing on a particular audience and And that audience sometimes could be the general public that audience sometimes is the news makers themselves the news media themselves And we need to consider at all those levels What can we best do to pull in the specific people that we're looking for? We don't have to try and please all people all the time or reach all people all the time In fact, there's an old saying that if you if you speak to everyone then you speak to no one Because you're not individualizing you're not focusing enough That's going to grab the attention of the people that you really want to speak to so we need to consider that in the news as well And when we're thinking about news and news making from a public relations perspective that we're we are focused on a specific Type of outlets specific type of audience and and so we need to have that in mind as we create that and try and add Value to the news that we were presenting and and placing in the public Hope this helps you understand the news and news making function in public relations a little bit better Please don't hesitate to if if you have any questions shoot me an email and be happy to hear from you there and discuss it with you there In the meantime, I hope you do take on a new perspective on the news news gathering and what that means for you as a public relations Professional media relations professional and how you can best use that to serve the purposes of your organization