Media and Communication

We were very lucky to have Juhani, Ms. Pottier's husband, to discuss the power of media and communication. For this blog, I will be discussing my reflection on media and communication and not on their cute love story. Although, I am not sure if cute is the right term. Maybe international would be better since they have this certain thing on going to different countries.

First, Juhani shared the importance of communication, internally and externally, in project management. Internal communication means the exchange of ideas of every member of the project. Internal communication is particularly helpful in project management because it promotes a healthy and open environment for all members. If a member knows that he can openly give suggestions or tasks, he would be confident enough to share his ideas or comments regarding, for example, a certain part of the project. The work place may become a venue for ideas, good and bad, to flourish. On the other hand, external communication is the exchange of information between the project and outside. If I want my project to be known, then I should hire an eloquent press release officer. Moreover, my externals team should think of persuasive ideas so that people would be interested with the project. The more interested people are translates to more donors or advertisers willing to fund the project.

The media is a wide and effective environment to make the project known. However, this outlet also has its drawbacks. If the press release officers of my project fail to deliver out clear, persuasive, and relevant information to the media, then the project will be put into bad light. It is important to relay only the necessary information readers, viewers, or listeners need to know regarding your project.

In order to write a good press release, writers should be able to give all the necessary information using only a little amount of words. Readers would not want to read a very long article. It should be concise and straight to the point. However, creativity should still be evident in the articles. No matter how important the article is, it would be useless if readers will not notice it because of a unappealing heading. Identification of the audience is necessary since the article would revolve around them. What would these people want to read?

I cannot deny that media and communication is not my forte. I have a hard time writing appealing, grammatically correct, and sensible articles. My style of writing is always formal since I am used to write only when papers are required. However, as a reader, I am also part of this media world. I know what good articles are because I know precisely what to look for in an article or a book. Even on Twitter, I would not click a link that does not appeal to my interests like entertainment, politics, and economics. On projects, if I were a donor, I would like the facts to be presented in an organized and logical manner. Media officers should be persuasive enough to convince me to give them my money. In he future, I would certainly want to attend classes regarding article writing and persuasive talking.