Tools of the Trade

Public relations professionals use a number of tools to complete their jobs everyday. Therefore students aspiring to work in the field of PR need to become equipped with these tools. The following posts will contain tips on the tools of trade. 

One of the most important set of tools is news values because without adhering to these values any information you want the media to pick up must encompass one or more of the following news values to become newsworthy.

žProminence - the people a news story is about. If the people are well-known, then the news story is deemed newsworthy because of prominence.

žProximity - the physical or emotional closeness of a news story to a media outlet’s audience and helps readers/viewers relate to a story on a more personal level.

žCurrency - the ‘flavour of the month’ news value. Currency comes into play when a particular story or theme is already being covered by the media and further developments or side stories are likely to be appreciated.

žTimeliness - refers to harder hitting stories and important developments in a story that would lose their newsworthiness if not reported as soon as possible.

žConflict - or dispute between two or more parties such as wars, politics, opinion, sporting teams, or even reality TV competitors.

žImpact - the shock or “wow” factor requires a story to affect a large group in a large way. Earthquakes or tsunamis are an example of impact as a news value. Footage of the destruction has a great impact.

žHuman interest - heart-wrenching stories — happy or sad — about challenges or achievements. Human interest stories are typically considered soft news or feature-style stories.

Odd or unusual – has novelty value and is about things that are out of the ordinary. 

Find out more about news values at this helpful page: http://suite101.com/article/the-eight-news-values-a255406