After a while, you might think going to a series of media relations or social media conferences would all start to run together. Each conference or workshop though tends to have its own flavour, and the one I’ve been attending in Toronto is no exception.

For a start, the moderator and main speaker for this event is Mark La Vigne and he really knows his media. He’s not just another PR Practitioner ready to dish out his own messaging formula to a room full of attendees looking for a quick fix. He was a working journalist, has his own PR firm, and teaches at Seneca College. That broad background served the audience well – an audience who are here to take in as much as they can.
Mark pointed out that there are close to 100,000 news releases ( not ‘press’ releases please ! ) making the rounds every year so getting the attention of the media can be a challenge. Think about it – that’s 270 news releases being sent out every day!
The first speaker of the conference was able to shed a little light on the current media environment and offer the insight that can help rose out of that mass of releases. Ira Basen is probably best known for his work in CBC Radio’s series “Ideas” and for his series on the media and public relations called “Spin Cycle”. When Ira talks about the media you should be making notes. One thing I took away from his talk was that the media is in a spot of trouble. He did not put it that way but that is what it ultimately comes down to. He played a segment from the now defunct CBC Television program ‘Undercurrents’. The segment was on a medical story that got a lot of ink and air time but as the program clearly illustrated, once a story makes it into the right hands, it develops a life of its own - whether or not the story is a good one. Overworked, understaffed, thin budgets, and junior staff are a problem when it comes to issues of accuracy and in-depth reporting. Not good for news junkies but if you’re in PR it seems to me there is an opportunity to get your story out. For researchers and for the general science community it is an even bigger opportunity.
Think supply and demand. The hungry news machine has an ever-increasing demand for something to fill the airtime and column inches. We have something to supply that demand. The public and the media like science stories and in particular science stories that have toned down the jargon and tech speak to give it a context they can easily understand. Look at the feature on page 10 of the latest Popular Science Magazine. Some GREAT pictures to tell the story and there is our 4-D project as photo-of-the-month. If you have a story to tell we can find a way to get it into the hands of the right journalists to help spread the word.
And one other lesson we took away from the conference. When the elevator is not working the hotel staff should put the out-of-order sign on the OUTSIDE of the elevator. Not on the inside of the door so you can see it once you’re locked in !