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 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 transcripts in a
question & answer format
• Begins with a
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
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
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
Without commercialism
Clearly impart useful information & advise Without excessive or self-serving promotionalism
4 Common Approaches to
Consumer-interest release
Information Digests
Case Studies
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
