At last night’s PRIA session in Adelaide, Clipsal 500 media spokesman Mike Drewer made an important point about the responsibility of a PR person to be highly aware of the world around them and what is going on at any moment in time. This week, as the first year students look at the concepts of systems theory and boundary spanning, we are reminded of that point again.
Mike said that when he started in the media industry, he was expected to have read three newspapers before he started work. So how do you stay in touch with what is happening in the world around you?
Without entering the debate as to whether our lives today are any busier than those of the working professionals 20 or 30 years ago, what has changed in our favour is access to information. It is faster, more varied and more available than ever before.
We should all be reading, watching, listening and absorbing as much news as possible – and from a variety of sources too.
We need the local news, so the Messenger, Advertiser and the Independent Weekly are a good start. We don’t even need to pick up the paper from the newsagent anymore. For online access go to http://www.adelaidenow.com.au and get In Daily in your email box every day by registering at http://www.indaily.com.au. But we also need national and international news, so try varying your reading by looking at The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, the Financial Review just to name a few. Then go international and try out http://www.guardian.co.uk/ , http://www.nytimes.com/, or http://www.aljazeera.com/ for a change every now and then.
Radio is a great way to catch up on the snippets of news while driving to and from uni and work. And stations like ABC891 will give you some more in-depth analysis at various times of the day. Get to know the programs and the type of material they cover – you may need to get your story on their station one day.
And TV is fine too, but again vary your sources. Look at local, national and international news and current affairs. Compare the news coverage on the commercial stations with that on ABC and SBS. Understand the different styles and how they are pitching to different audiences.
But above all, become aware of what is happening in the world around you. How much time do you spend each day on helping you become a more effective PR boundary spanner?
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