My public relations work involves a lot of liaison with different community-based committees. This can be both rewarding and frustrating. Volunteers often bring a special passion, but sometimes their perceived knowledge is greater than reality.
A common misconception that I encounter is the belief that a media release, or an article in a newsletter, can remedy a problem.
It’s my experience that highlighting a problem can frequently be counter productive at worst or benign at best, no matter what positive spin you place on the story.
A layman’s view that publicity is the solution derives from a genuine desire to be open and transparent, but simply isn’t effective in all cases.
I’m particularly reluctant to write a story when it’s in response to an isolated incident or an individual’s unique experience.
An example I had put to me recently involved trying to explain government policy as it relates to long-term hospital admissions for nursing home type patients.
Most people won’t bother to read such an article unless it relates to their own experience. Given the small target audience, it’s better to explain such complex issues directly to the people involved (as had already happened in this case).
Blanket publicity for something like this will only confuse people who aren’t interested and turn them off reading more relevant material.
The best way to communicate complex material, or unusual circumstances, is one-on-one contact.
To illustrate this point I couldn’t help but smile recently when I heard a radio news item that a Sydney man was run over while sunbaking in his driveway.
The publicity pushers would argue in a like situation that the PR machine should crank up to issue media releases and advertisements warning against the danger of sleeping on roadways.
A similar campaign might alert people to the risk of meteorites landing on their heads.
Of course this is absurd. The circumstances are so unusual that the information, if it is read, won’t be absorbed.
Media publicity is only one tool in the PR armory and it’s often the least effective.
