Slide KOM666 Organizational Features

ORGANIZATIONAL FEATURES

Penulisan Public Relations – KOM 210 Program Studi Ilmu Komunikasi

Dosen Pengampu

Prida Ariani Ambar Astuti, S.Sos., M.Si.

Smith, Ronald D. (2003), Becoming public relations writer (2nd _{ed.). New}

• Are the reports that go behind the news & beyond it

• Features are the how & why

• Is not restricted to the inverted pyramid format.

• The writer has more flexibility in choosing a style that fits the particular topic.

• Less time-bound

• Is information that makes the story come alive

• Is analogy or a particularly well-phrased metaphor, revealing quotes & insightful narration

• Is the level of description that helps readers

‘see’ the event for themselves

• Goes beyond the basic facts to provide a depth of description that helps draw the reader emotionally into the story

WRITING ABOUT

Writing About Issues

Writing About Organizations

Writing About People

Writing About People

about people

involved with

our

Personal Interviews

Personal Profiles

Biographical Narratives

• About people important to an organization, cause or event

• Is a straightforward account of a person’s work

history, accomplishments, education & so on

• Provide information that can be useful as

supplements to news release, advance information for speaking engagements,

background for awards presentation & event fliers

• Brief factual accounts

• Chronological presentation of the person’s accomplishments

• Sectionalized presentations dealing with

significant aspects of the person’s life such as professional accomplishments, educational

achievement, family background

PERSONAL PROFILES

• Goes beyond the biographical narrative

• Provide information about a person where interest lies more in the personality rather than in

particular accomplishments

• More likely to focus on what other people say about the subject

• Half a dozen personal reminiscences lay the foundation for a profile

• Quotes & anecdotes from people who know the subject

PERSONAL INTERVIEWS

• Better tools for writing about what people know

• The writer asks a source to comment on what has, is or will be happening & to explain what the writer already has discovered in background

research

• Identify relevant questions to ask your interview subject

• Quotes are important aspect of the interview

• Accuracy, honesty, fairness or others are crucial to editing process

PERSONAL INTERVIEWS

Narrative Features

• Based on interviews

• Drawing on the

feature-writing skills

Interview Notes

• Near verbatim transcripts in a

question & answer format

• Begins with a

brief narrative paragraph to set a biographical sketch of the person being interviewed

WRITING ABOUT

ORGANIZATIONS

Help the news media

understand

organizations &

report accurately on

their concerns &

Organizational Backgrounders

Organizational Profiles

ORGANIZATIONAL HISTORIES

• Presents a narrative on the beginnings & development of the organization

• Often important for a complete understanding

of what organization does or stands for

• Often, an organization will team history with a mission & vision statement

• Research organization’s past & put it in a form that

is interesting & useful to anyone

• Historical articles should have a factual basis that offers names, dates & other specific pieces of the

past

• Put into a framework that helps explain the

organization’s current mission, the

contributions & achievements it has made, the problems & opportunities it faces & the vision it holds of the future

• Chronological narratives or more colorful feature articles

• Brevity is important

• Bulleting key points is a useful technique

ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILES

• The history is expanded into an organizational profile

• Also call corporate backgrounders

• Sometimes are written for readers with technical experience in the field

• Or written to untangle some of the technical

terms & information (for readers unfamiliar with the field)

• Executive team

• Paragraphs on each of the department

• Mission statement

• Operating philosophy or credo

• Objectives

• Description of each programs

• Including statistics on costs & service provided

• Etc.

Explaining Various Departments

Annual Report

EXAMPLE

BACKGROUNDERS

• Factual pieces that provide a backdrop to a product or service associated with an

organization or explain the context of a situation affecting the organization

• Also deal with technical information

• Need research to understand the topic & its significance

• Flexibility in format as long as it effectively present the factual information

• Appear as narrative with section subheads or chronologies

WRITING ABOUT ISSUES PR Writing

Articles taking a

strong consumer

approach

have the

greatest chance of

being used by the

KEY INGREDIENTS

Significant Local Balanced

CONSUMER INTEREST ARTICLES

Informal & Personal

Use ‘we’ words

Emphasize what ‘can be accomplished’

Consider source credibility

Reader may not have much background with the problem

WRITING ABOUT ISSUES PR Writing

Without commercialism

Clearly impart useful information & advise Without excessive or self-serving promotionalism

Information to organization matter-of-factly Attract to various kind of consumer interest

4 Common Approaches to

Consumer-interest release

Information Digests

Case Studies

Question & Answer Features

How-to Articles

HOW-TO ARTICLES

• To address the wants, interests & needs of media audiences

• Called a service article

• A consumer interest release

• Provide step-by-step instruction in addressing a problem or issue

• Should be timely & significant to local readers

• Should be balanced, objective & not self-serving to the organization

1. Problem (to help reader solve problem or achieve a desired result)

2. Cause (the cause & background of the problem)

3. Significance (how will this affect the organization)

4. Solution (detail explanation of the solution) 5. Conclusion (final motivational message)

• Consists of a series of carefully selected

question that address relevant aspect of an issue, followed by short paragraphs

responding to the questions

• Writer should understand both the topic & the key public well enough to anticipate all of the important question

• Keep it focused on the audience

1. Topic (the topic should be sufficiently new or complex to provide readers with useful information)

2. Reader Interest (focus on the WIN of the key public)

3. Questions (presented in logical order, phrased in

personal terms)

4. Responses (written in style to complement the

question)

5. Write (include a quote as part of introduction then

provide a series of short questions & concise responses)

• Called case history

• Associated with product/service publicity

• A narrative of how the product has been used by a representative consumer

• Story about how a program, product or service has been used by audiences

1. Problem (identifying the problem) 2. Solution (narration about how the

organization solved its problem)

3. Benefits (ends with a clear indication of the value of the solution approach to any

organization facing a similar problem)

4. Illustration (to help the reader identify with the problem & to better understand the

proposed solution)

• Material from research reports or

technical accounts and ‘translate’ it into

accessible language for the average consumer

• Two special abilities to write information digests:

1. They must be able to understand complex or technical information

2. They must able to interpret this information for readers

• Consists of a series of carefully selected

question that address relevant aspect of an issue, followed by short paragraphs

responding to the questions

• Writer should understand both the topic & the key public well enough to anticipate all of the important question

• Keep it focused on the audience

1. Topic (the topic should be sufficiently new or complex to provide readers with useful information)

2. Reader Interest (focus on the WIN of the key public)

3. Questions (presented in logical order, phrased in personal terms)

4. Responses (written in style to complement the question)

5. Write (include a quote as part of introduction then

provide a series of short questions & concise responses)

• Called case history

• Associated with product/service publicity • A narrative of how the product has been used

by a representative consumer

• Story about how a program, product or service has been used by audiences

1. Problem (identifying the problem) 2. Solution (narration about how the

organization solved its problem)

3. Benefits (ends with a clear indication of the value of the solution approach to any

organization facing a similar problem)

4. Illustration (to help the reader identify with the problem & to better understand the

proposed solution) 4 MAJOR ELEMENTS

• Material from research reports or

technical accounts and ‘translate’ it into

accessible language for the average consumer

• Two special abilities to write information digests:

1. They must be able to understand complex or technical information

2. They must able to interpret this information for readers