Media Reflection Week: PRSSA Metting

For my media reflection week I attended the PRSSA meeting on April 7^th at 7:00pm in White 46. PRSSA as I learned stands for Public Relations Student Society of America and is essentially a club for all students either majoring in or interested in public relations. The meeting was led by three members of the PRSSA attended by about ten to twelve other students. The meeting was part an informative session about what PRSSA is and does and then three examples of what current members have been doing. The three speakers for PRSSA who detailed the recent experiences with PRSSA were Charissa Soltz who spoke about here time at a Knott’s Berry Farm PR event, Jessica Aerie who attended the PRSSA’s national assembly in Seattle, and Melissa Operman who attended “so you want to be a PR professional?” weekend.

Since this was a PR meeting there was no deadline work occurring rather it was a time about informing us what PRSSA is about and what they do. This began with Charissa Soltz who shared about here time at the Knott’s Berry Farm PR event about Knott’s Berry Farm’s Halloween festival Knott’s Scary Farm. She shared with us the tips and insights into PR that she learned from attending this event. She spoke about things such as the need to publicize early and often, how to utilize every step of the advertising process, and how everything in PR revolves around the Internet and social media now. She shared numerous stories and emphasized how being a member of PRSSA allows for opportunities to attend such events and network with PR professionals and other PR majors.

Then Jessica Airey shared about her experience at the PRSSA national assembly in Seattle Washington. She spoke of how over two hundred other colleges were in attendance along with the director of communications for Starbucks and Xbox. She shared with us how she learned about social media and tips on how to effectively use it. Additionally she shared a story she heard at the assembly about how employers now employ their interns to use social media in order to stalk potential hires and what this means for personal and professional use of social media tools for PR and journalism professionals.

Lastly Melissa Operman spoke about her time at the “so you want to be a PR professional?” weekend. She detailed the importance for aspiring PR professionals to make business cards for themselves now and to use those cards when they network. She gave examples of this talking about the people she met such as Disney’s head PR man Matt Prince and PR professionals from Target. She made clear that if one wishes to succeed in PR networking is everything.

My analysis of this time was that although it was not an immediate experience with journalism of PR it provided an invaluable resource into what it will take in order to succeed. It also showed me how many opportunities are really out there and broadened my scope of what is possible with a degree in journalism. Additionally I learned about PR and what it really entails as well as its relationship to journalism. My perspective on media was definitely expanded as this showed me the other side of journalism and the people journalists work with and perhaps even against at times in order to convey information to a greater audience. After this meeting my thoughts as to what my potential part in the realm of journalism was expanded as now I can see there are many niche markets and topics in which to operate as a journalist. Rather than seeing journalism limited to the scope of national or international news now I see there are opportunities in various markets dealing with companies and nonprofits. Overall this was a great meeting and I am glad I attended. 

Why Journalists Should Talk About Difficult Topics.

It is important for journalists to talk about difficult topics because difficult topics are part of reality. A journalists job should not be to pick and choose what stories he or she wants to cover because of money or power but because they are simply the facts of reality.

For the most part reality is difficult and if journalists shy away from such topics they will be misrepresenting the world as it is. Journalist’s job is to convey to the greater audience what the nature of their world is and to do so in an accurate and truthful matter no how difficult the topic may be.

With that said journalists have an immense responsibility, especially with difficult topics, to be accurate in their telling of the story. Furthermore they have a great responsibility to not stray into sensationalism or intentionally play with the emotions of their audience for personal or corporate gains.

Stories of horror need to be covered by journalist because only then can people become aware and be called to action. If things need to be changed people must know first in order to do something. This holds true more so with difficult things than with the mundane everyday things. Journalist’s role in covering difficult topics is necessary for the progress of society and the world at large if people ever wish to solve any problems.