Strategically Communicating

Recently, katieaoreilly explored the question content vs. credibility in the “media.” What allows one idea to rise above the rest for a ‘click?’

Our reading explains that in The Hierarchy Model, content is ultimately just a function of ideological positions that maintain the status quo, as guided by media organizations and routines (8).

When pitching editors in attempt to secure PR coverage, I always have to remind myself what my email will be going up against. My little baby of a pitch will soon find herself in an inbox containing sensationalized headers such as Eva Mendes, Ryan Gosling Gave Baby Girl A ‘Family Name’. Step one in a pitch: engage your reader enough to at least open the email – who is on the receiving end?

In his communication experiment, Newsweek reporter Zach Schonfeld decides to read and reply to every single PR email he receives for a week. His weeklong media log (let’s call it) sparked heated discourse from PR professionals and editors alike. Why? He usually gets to choose which emails he reads and which ones will never be opened, thus determining what “news” he will report. As for the email headers (read as ‘content’) that don’t spark his attention – they just get deleted.

How can we so quickly pull out our pitchforks when the same can be said for our own media engagement tendencies – we decide what news stays and what goes. We read, follow, and ‘click’ on the content we find amusing (even if just for one second).