Analysis: Constructing A Strategy For Message Distribution

By Author: Jordon
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In Chapter 4 we spoke of the principles and processes involved in influencing news media. In the last chapter we noted avenues consumers can use to effect change in media practices. Here we combine the principles of these chapters in a checklist of steps useful in creating strategies to influence the media.

Following is an outline of steps in constructing a strategy for distributing a message through the mass media. These steps are appropriate for individuals, citizen groups, news managers, and political consultants.

Step I: Isolating the Message
Distill the essential message to be communicated from the ocean of information, and draw together essential support material (forceful, dramatic evidence in support of your claim or position).

Step II: Defining the Intended Audience
What the audience is expected to Tag Heuer Replica do with information often determines the target audience. Reach all the essential people but only the essential people with the message. (Prepare to answer the questions, "Why is this on my desk and not on the ...
... desk of the assignment editor?" "Why is this on my desk when I don't write about this subject?") Determine whether the message will pass through more than one pair of hands if it accomplishes its objective.
Consider who the possible target audiences are for this message—employees of a cabinet department? other government employees? members of Congress? scholars interested in this subject? ordinary citizens affected by this policy? residents of particular localities? anyone else?

Step III: Determining the Newsworthiness of the Message
Consider whether you will have to pay to distribute this message, and whether it can be communicated as soft news if it will not be used as hard news. Decide if it can be made newsworthy by piggybacking on other news, holding it for a slow news day or for dead news time, releasing it in a newsworthy setting, or releasing it through a newsworthy person.

Step IV: Determining Factors Constraining Release
Factors that may affect release of a news item include a congressional deadline, a public promise by a supervisor, someone wanting to see it buried, or someone wanting to see it released and heavily publicized.

Step V: Selecting Appropriate Channels
In deciding the channels through which to release information, consider which channels best reach the target audience. Does your media list contain all relevant outlets (all publications reaching target audiences, all specialized publications that cover this subject, all outlets in a particular locality)? Have all possible channels been considered (press releases to county papers, radio feeds to the Tag Heuer Replica Watches rural United States for use in pre-drive time)? Is the form of the message compatible with the selected channels? Different channels may require different forms. Is the language of the message compatible with the channel—popular language to popular channels, technical language to specialized channels? If the message is transmitted by phone or given in response to phoned inquiries, the information should be stored in a manner that lends itself to quick, clear retrieval. Responses to inquiries by phone or stories that must be transmit-ted by phone to meet deadlines should be written down.

Is the message to be released to selected outlets or mass-released? Decide if you should use the elite media such as the New York Times to draw the attention of the other media, and if you should use one medium (such as radio) to sensitize others (for example, print and television) to your message. Determine whether your message is part of a larger message.