February Round-Up & Published Articles

Ahhhhhhhhh, February how kind you have been. I cannot even begin to explain how much I have appreciated the past month, so much has changed and so much has happened and I am so happy about it.

It has been hard admittedly; balancing 3 jobs, my degree, my blog, my writing for different publications AND living in two different places whilst my parents were on their jollies(Thank-God for 3G and laptops). It's been tough, yet rewarding and I'm very much the kind of person that strives under pressure and thrives of the stress.

Lets start at the beginning...

In January I did some Work Experience (you will know if you read my post about it, if not catch up here) and much to my surprise I was actually offered a part-time job with the company (WHAT)!!! Yeah, so as you can imagine I was extremely excited. BUT I knew I had an interview the following week at my University *****What do I do******* I thought.

The company I did WEX with was a successful PR Agency called Connect PR and to be offered a job with them was quite a big thing for me as I want to go into the PR industry so to turn it down was not really an option. The job I was going for at Uni was 'PR and Marketing Assistant' also a super super cool job for me to have and quite easy too as I am at Uni at random times so if I got the job it would mean making better use of the time there. Can you see my dilemma here guys?

Sooo... what did I do? Of course I took the job with Connect as it was just too good and too stupid to turn down. So then I had the dilemma of: do I go to my interview or not? After a lot of deliberation(and a pro's and con's list) I decided to go to the interview to gain interview experience as it was unlikely I was going to get the job anyway, as I am only in my first year and very much at the bottom of the ladder, I was sure I wasn't going to get the job so I thought I might as well go for the interview practise.

Low-and-behold, I got the job - WHAT! - yes, so more predicament lay ahead.

I forgot to mention, I already have a part time job as a waitress where I work weekends. I have done this for just short of 3 years. So I thought, why not take BOTH jobs and it would mean having to quit my part-time job as a waitress, which was a difficult decision to make as I love working with all my friends but it was a no-brainer really, I couldn't not take the two jobs which would give me experience in the industry I want to go in to (and better money).  

So yeah, that happened. I had to give a months notice at the pub and start straight away at the other jobs so as you can imagine it has been busy, difficult and stressful to say the least haha.

But last weekend was my last weekend at the pub, and the end of a chapter... but now March is here and I am so excited to be able to work in the Media industry gaining experience whilst also developing skills and learning about the industry as part of my degree - win, win.

I am sad to see February go but I am excited to see what March brings too... Lets go!

Below are links to my online articles that have been published in February 2015 or any coverage I have had published as part of my new job. 

5 Celebrities you should be following on Instagram 

Charlotte Crosby's amazing body transformation 

#RethinkMedia 

BCU Creative looks for students to become paid mentors 

Week 2: The increasing power of the PR industry

This post is part of my 'Journalism, PR and The Media' theory module online portfolio 

The media is a very powerful tool in many ways; it can affect peoples behaviour, it can make individuals powerful, and it can influence public opinion. Media professionals have the ability to reach large audiences with their ideas and messages, whether it be through writing articles or producing TV documentaries. People now fear that media owners have influence over public opinion and behaviour as a result of their powerful position.

Last week we looked at the relationship between Journalism and PR but this week I am going to look more in depth at the power of the PR industry and how it can influence public opinion.

Julia Hobsbawn comments that 60% and more commonly 80% of any broadcast or broadsheet outlet has got a PR element in it. Thus suggesting that the PR industry has an increasing level of power over the news media. It could be argued that PR specialists use Joseph S. concept of soft power in order to get positive coverage in the media for their client. But is this coverage a representation of Karl Marx' theory of ideologies and are the press releases and press packages that fill our newspapers and magazines presenting ideologies rather than fact in order to shape a positive view of the client?

PR specialists are taught to learn how journalists think and work so that they can use specialised techniques to target the journalist and get the media coverage they desire for their client - thus, giving them them even more power over the journalist. The PR specialist has the power to speak to sources and get all the information the journalist would want for their story. Whereas the journalist might struggle to get this information out of the company themselves. For example the press department at the local council will be able to get all the information they need for their quotes and press releases but a journalist would struggle to get such information.

Last weeks reading spoke about the relationship between journalism and PR negatively, putting most of the blame on the PR sector, blaming them for the crisis journalism is going through. However, this weeks reading portrays less of this negativity and instead looks into the relationship from an unbiased viewpoint and concludes that journalists do in-fact need PR in order to fill their ever increasing publications.

The 'conflict' relationship presented recently is now seen as a 'trading' relationship. Journalists working in under-resourced and under-staffed newsrooms increasingly rely on PR sources to get them stories (Davis, 2002; Jones 2006; Larson, 2002; White and Hobsawm, 2007). The reading concluded how reliant current news is on PR by using charts, tables and various figures to support its statements.

Bibliography:

1) Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams & Bob Franklin (2008): A COMPROMISED FOURTH ESTATE?, Journalism Studies, 9:1, 1-20

2) Long, P. Wall, T. (2012), Media Studies, Texts, Production, Context (2nd Edition), New York, Routledge