Focus on Asian Public Relations Management & Writing a Media Release

Part 1: Focus on Asian Public Relations Management

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For particular topic, we must first get into the perspective of Asia. It is not possible to copy wholesale or apply Western PR theories to Asian regions. There must be a tweak and modification of these theories for application. For this post, I would like to center on China as a case study in Asia and how they managed PR successfully and their apparent difficulties to establish PR in their countries.

China being one of the largest economic trade players in the world, is able to pull attention to its country. It is especially disadvantageous to China because of its human rights problems in 1989. This is highlighted by the Tiananmen Square incident and the student demonstrations. China was able to turn its weakness into strength by showing how quickly they can be aware of the importance of public relations and the media. This is done so by education, to learn and import skills and expertise from Western countries to learn PR and media techniques. An interesting argument by Ni Chen and Hugh Culbertson (2003) states that China's long history of more than 5000 tears, a state that requires continuous support from citizen is a great public relations achievement. This is very much so for the Chinese, their long history and rich traditions of being a "People state" allows it reach its economic status today.

However, we cannot exactly prove that relationship development is not as important as Western-style PR, I do not really agree that one can compare the two aspects to see which outweigh each other. Relationship development also allows Chinese businesses to flourish but at the same time, the Chinese are able to keep up with the Western world of PR by rapid education of PR relations and media techniques. The phenomenon of PR growth in China merely states that the Chinese is being updated and incorporating PR into their country.

One can also identify China's quick progression to learn English language to cope with the millions of tourists looking forward to attend the Olympics in 2008. On a personal note, one particular documentary, "Mad about English", showcases this particular phenomenon of the Chinese trying to learn English and due to the growing necessity to communicate to tourists. This is a very good lesson for PR practitioners that in order to have a successful PR, language plays an important role. It will be good to identify the target audience's primary language to communicate and to learn their culture if possible. If not, it is of utmost importance to have a local as a guide to conduct PR in foreign countries or non-English speaking countries.

China was also capable in establishing PR due to the openness received by the Chinese government. The government intent was made very clear: to receive the Olympics with open arms and to be ready by 2008. They readily knew who their target was - the world. Another lesson to learn is that target audience must be identified first before any PR can be conducted. Research on the audience is also important to tackle any cultural/potential problems that one may face. As the chapter mentions, stakeholder identification is crucial.

Another very interesting point about PR in Asia is that PR practitioners there highly regard personalisation and professionalism. One example is Toyota's PR plans for exporting its motor technologies to the U.S. In order to cater to the U.S. market, Toyota sent its teams to U.S. to live for 2 years and with much observation and study, they developed LEXUS which stands for Luxury Export United States. Now, LEXUS is well-known not only in U.S. but the rest of the world for Toyota Luxury motors. A personal touch mixed with professionalism creates a great impact and awareness to the brand.

Part 2: Writing a Media Release

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A media release is a bridge between PR and the Journalism world. Hence, a good media release (a strong bridge) is important to make sure they would use your story and help generate publicity (best part of it, its free of charge!).

Here are some of the advantages:

- saves times for you and the reporter

- helps the reporter get the facts right

- may be used word for word in local or trade media if it is written in the right style

- it forces you to think through what you want to say, condense it and check your facts

- easily clear it with your organisation

- have a copy of what was issued

- it enables multiple dissemination to a number of reporters and publications at the same time.

To create an eye-catching story, it must have one of the following:

- celebrities/politicians

- timeliness (current or future)

- local angle (relevancy)

- public interest (well-talked about or something that people want to know)

- novelty (new and unusual at first)

- achievement (by an individual or an organisation, although must be well-played)

- emotion (humour, conflict, tragedy or romance)

In conjecture with the short loans online readings, I would like to focus back on Chapter 11 of our PR book which gave very good advice on how to write a good and successful media release. It provides the same information from the short loan's book but in a concise version. This is taken from McLean & Phillipps (2009, pp. 315) for easy reference:

1) Headline, do not overplay it, but do not underplay it either; include a verb

2) Use the active voice with strong, interesting quotes

3) Have one or two main points of the story in the first sentence.

4) Include the five Ws and an H early in the news release: the 5Ws and 1H of the issue and event

5) Keep it simple--a dozen or so short paragraphs at most, with more information as backgrounders available on request or in the media kit.

6) Standardise dates to the style the outlet uses, most often as in Friday, April 4 2008 or, Friday , 4 April 2008. If you refer to 'tomorrow', put in the date.

7) Introduce a new spokesperson before direct quotes; make sure quotes are relevant.

8) Standardise on titles and minimise punctuation

9) Localise the release: target the editor's specific audience: address their information needs

10) Cut out all clichés, jargon, claims of uniqueness or spectacular success.

Writing a news story can be extremely tricky, but through practice and first success, one can be assured that there will be a second time.