1 Geert Jacobs & Tom Van Hout Dpt Language & Communication NewsTalk&Text Research Group Ghent University (Belgium) Milan, 23 April 2008 Press release seminar

2 What is a press release? a written or electronic text which organizations send to journalists and which the journalists can then use in their own news reporting

3 Press release seminar What is a press release? Why bother about press releases? personally relevant linguistically interesting - press releases are a very curious type of institutional discourse - the study of press releases has led to a couple of exciting innovations in linguistic methodology socially relevant

4 Press release seminar What is a press release? Why bother about press releases? Why bother about press releases now? the linguistic analysis of news production is new historically speaking, press releases are in the middle of a crucial development

5 Press release seminar Agenda: TOMORROW: survey of linguistically oriented news production research

6 Press release seminar Agenda: TODAY: feedback on press release portfolios (+ crash course in crisis communication) TOMORROW: survey of linguistically oriented news production research

7 Press release seminar Imagine you’re a journalist. Read the press release about the case that you didn’t work on. Decide if you would write an article about it or not. Why (not)? Draft a headline for your article. Highlight those extracts that you would definitely try to integrate in your article. Indicate what questions you’ve got left? (10 minutes)

8 Press release seminar Headlines Look at the headlines on the handout and comment on them. If you were a journalist, would you be interested in these stories? Why (not)? Which of the 4 headlines is the best?

9 Press release seminar Lead Read the following lead and then try to answer the 6 traditional wh-questions: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY and HOW?

10 Press release seminar Lead Peer feedback 1. “The reader receives sufficient background information on the company, but not enough on the case: I think you should tell which are the recent events concerning the company you talk about.”

11 Press release seminar Lead Peer feedback 2. “The pr uses a clear and correct language providing right but incomplete information. The reader does not receive sufficient background information on the issue itself. The pr focuses just on the solution of the case without talking about the reason why of the crisis. The headline does not contain the right number of details and the lead is to be considered incomplete for the same reason.”

12 Press release seminar Lead Revised version. BODAM BOTTLING TAKES ACTION AGAINST RECENT HEALTH-RELATED EVENTS Sheffield (UK), June 10th, 2008: Following the recent events concerning the tampering of a Fresh-Light Micro Diet can with a hypodermic syringe, Bodam Bottling is now taking care of its consumers, reassuring them that every measure will be taken in order to prove that the company is not involved in the issue and that customers are safe to drink Bodam Bottling’s products.

13 Press release seminar Boilerplate/style Read the boilerplate to the Bodam press release and the short extract from an ExxonMobil press release. Use the +/- pretest method to evaluate them.

14 Press release seminar PRETESTING As copy writers we are the worst people to judge our own work. Because we put 100 percent of our concentration into writing the text, we are no longer able to read it in the same light as our target group. (S. Vögele)

15 Press release seminar PRETESTING Misjudging the needs and preferences of the audience may put the effectiveness of the document at risk or it may even result in a communication catastrophe.

16 Press release seminar PRETESTING read the text and jot down pluses and minuses in the margin whenever you feel a part of the text is good/positive or bad/negative Part of the text = the whole paragraph, a sentence, a single word, a graphic element. Good/positive =well-written, funny, interesting, clear, important. Bad/negative = uninteresting, unclear, unimportant.

17 Press release seminar Boilerplate/style Peer feedback. In the second paragraph it may be probably better to omit the mention of the high flames that can be seen from far away, in order not to emphasize an aspect which could spread the panic among the people.

18 Press release seminar Boilerplate/style Revised version. 200 fire fighters are still battling the blaze. Flames are very high over Staten Island and can be seen far from the terminal.

19 Press release seminar Crisis communication The press release meets the requirements of effective crisis communication.  Brinson & Benoit’s image restoration theory

20 Contact details