What is the difference between media relations and public relations?
Media relations and public relations are often used interchangeably which makes it important to identify the difference between both terms. The emphasis in public relations is on building relationships, especially in an ethical manner.
Media relations is a type of public relations that refers to the strategic management of relationships between an organization and the media (traditional and digital) to ensure accurate and favorable media coverage while public relations encompass the strategic communication efforts undertaken by an organization to build and maintain positive relationships with the public, including customers, investors, employees and the media.
Definition of Terms
Media Relations
Media Relations has to do with the way an organization utilizes the media to pass across information of their goals, vision/mission, updates and even roadmap.
“Media relations involves working with media for the purpose of informing the public of an organization’s mission, policies and practices in a positive, consistent and credible manner. To be an effective communications practitioner, it helps to know how the traditional media works, especially if you are in a sector or business that is relevant to governments, global investors and institutions. It is immensely helpful to understand the media landscape and build your understanding of how to navigate the space for the benefit of the organization.”
~ Sola Abulu
When an organization carries out the following activities, it is said to be involved in media relations:
- Press release
- Media strategy
- Media relationship management
- Media response/inquiries
- Media highlights/news reviews
- Early warning system
- Public events
- Issues and crisis management
- Media profile
- Media training
- External stakeholder management
This short webinar explains media relations as a core competence.
Media relations therefore becomes a very important practice in communications as it helps an organization maintain an effective relationship with the media. In instances where there is a negative sentiment circulated by the public through digital platforms around a brand, a good relationship with the media can result to a faster process of de-escalating the sentiments.
Public Relations
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) defines public relations as seen below:
Public Relations is the discipline which looks after reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics.
According to Sola Abulu, PR focuses primarily on stakeholders, relationships, perception and actions. Learn about the difference between PR and communications here.
In a public relations strategy, the way an organization will relate with its stakeholders is defined with an aim to build or strengthen the brand’s image and perception. A stakeholder is typically anyone with an influence or interest in a brand.
Some of the activities that a public relations practitioner is involved in include:
- Monitoring online and offline actions and behaviours
- They focus on identified stakeholders which also includes the media among others like investors, government, community, etc.
- They focus on shared media platforms like TV, print, radio, etc.
In an instance where a public relations effort is targeted at growing awareness or visibility, the media is utilized. Both competencies work together even though the practice of a public relations professional encompasses that of a media relations professional.
One important attribute of public relations that cannot be over-emphasized is its ability to not only build a positive brand image but maintain the reputation of a brand through stakeholder relationships.
It is common to see many non-practitioners interchange both terms in their definitions. However, a key difference between public relations and media relations is that public relations is a discipline that focuses on managing relationships with stakeholders while media relations is an aspect of public relations that focuses on strategically managing relationships with the media.
Aside from the fact that the terms public relations and media relations are often interchanged, another common mix is public relations and communications. It therefore becomes important to state both practice areas are similar but with their key differences. While public relations may be the approach to resolving organizational challenges, communications is the strategic approach where PR is rooted on. According to Sola Abulu our principal consultant, “public relations is externally-focused whereas communication is focused on both internal and external audiences.”
Is there a difference between PR and communications? We answered this here. You can also watch this short webinar on Public Relations and Communications: Understanding the Basics by Sola Abulu
We have also announced our Public Relations, Media and Stakeholder Management Course.
You should enrol especially if you are new to the media management space.
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As with all our courses, we run discounts as follows:
-30% in the first week from May 1 – May 8
– 15% from May 9 – 16, 2024
Full course price applies from May 17 till end of registration on May 28, 2024.
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Sola Abulu & Associates is a strategy and communications consulting and training firm committed to enabling businesses, brands and organizations to achieve their objectives through strategic communications, organizational effectiveness and reputation risk management.