In the News: The Practice of Media Relations in Canada

M. Wayne Cunningham is a past executive director of the Saskatchewan
Arts Board and the former director of Academic and Career Programs at
East Kootenay Community College.

William Wray Carney draws on his more than 20 years’ experience as a
journalist and media lecturer in a book intended to show “how the news
media work and how the [communications] practitioner can work with the
media to get his or her message delivered to an audience.”

Carney provides an enlightening discussion of the love–hate
relationship between journalists and professional communicators (i.e.,
public-relations personnel), and includes a listing of the codes of
ethics for both camps. He surveys not only television, radio,
newspapers, and the Internet but also specialty media such as the wire
services, in-house news agencies, specialty-television outlets, and
special-interest newsletters as potential additional communication
carriers. He outlines strategies for creating a research-driven media
plan, for approaching the media, and for telling one’s story via
opinion-editorials (op-eds), letters to the editor, ads, public-service
announcements, and cable broadcasts. In his last chapter, he discusses
how to complain about the media and get away with it.

Carney’s five principles for practising effective media relations
will be particularly useful for those with little or no experience in
the field. His book is recommended for students and practitioners of
media communications, and for the interested general reader.