Analyzing Media Relations in Corporate Communication and Performance

This report examines the pivotal role of media relations within corporate communication and its influence on organizational performance. It explores how media relations facilitate the dissemination of information, build brand reputation, and manage crises. The report delves into the impact of new media and social media platforms, such as blogs and Facebook, on corporate communication strategies, emphasizing the importance of integrated communication, crisis management, and the democratization of information. The analysis includes the benefits and drawbacks of new media, the use of social media during crises, and how public relations departments establish branding and communication strategies. Through a review of relevant literature, the report concludes that effective media relations are essential for enhancing organizational visibility, building trust, and ensuring positive media exposure, ultimately improving overall performance and brand image. The report also references the assignment brief provided by the university, highlighting assessment criteria and expectations.

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MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Need of Media Relations to increase Organization’s Performance.............................................3
New media and Corporate Communication................................................................................4
Organization and role of social media during crisis....................................................................5
Public Relations in Media............................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Abstract
Increasing expansion of media as well as technology has resulted to a situation that cannot be
easily predicted by organizations. Internet in recent times has turned out to be a chief channel for
public in order to include in a cyberspace for communication, thus offering organizations
avenues to offer opinions. Media in recent times has been revolutionizing the face of public
relations domain. Concurrently, the importance of media relations has been pertaining to remain
crucial. It has been noted that as media chiefly constitutes liaising directly with individuals
creating news. As a result, the vital target is to improve the positive exposure in media without
shelling out financial resources for it directly by means of advertising and promotion. Shared
realization which social media tends to creates significantly offers individual involvement not
only for use of daily news, reports, information as well as communication but further focuses on
nearly all political, ideological, monetary, cultural domains. The paper has offered inclusive
insights of the way media relations serve a role in corporate communication and the way it
improves organizational performance.

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Introduction
Media in recent times has been revolutionizing the face of public relations domain.
Concurrently, the importance of media relations has been pertaining to remain crucial. According
to Young (2017), as media chiefly constitutes liaising directly with individuals creating news. As
a result, the vital target is to improve the positive exposure in media without shelling out
financial resources for it directly by means of advertising and promotion. When an organization
maintains robust relationships with media executives, it has been easier for them to pitch for
coverage. Effing and Spil (2016) have noted that one of the most important aspects of attaining
press coverage through strong media relations campaigns enables companies to establish greater
degree of regulation and control and further reinforce the brand image that organizations are
intending to create through advertising and marketing. The purpose of the report is to analyse
media relations in corporate communication and the way it improves organizational
performance.
Discussion
Need of Media Relations to increase Organization’s Performance
In the age of improved responsibility, the interrelationship between competent media
relations, superior corporate repute as well as sales performance has grown to be incredibly
prominent. Marques, Critchley and Walshe (2015) have noted that robust and excellent media
relations have the capacity to stimulate interest in target audience of the organization. Mounting
globalization with increasing expansion of media as well as technology has resulted to a situation
that cannot be easily predicted by organizations. Internet in recent times has turned out to be a

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chief channel for public in order to include in a cyberspace for communication, thus offering
organizations avenues to offer opinions. Both public and private organizations in developed and
developing countries have gained knowledge regarding the vitality of understanding events
taking place in their surroundings, in the industry, consumers and amongst funders and
communities (Siamagka et al. 2015). Thus, they have been showing substantial inclination
towards using various methods for obtaining most recent information through communicating
with media channels and ensuring immense media exposure, thus developing elevated visibility
for the brand at local and global level.
New media and Corporate Communication
Integrated communication strategies show greater propensity to advance towards media
coverage and increase visibility and awareness of organization in the industry. Organizations
further recognized that media messages in several media platform tend to align to one another,
resulting to a greater communication impact rather than any single message can attain. Jin, Liu
and Austin (2014) have noted that due to the ever-increasing costs of long-established mass
media promotion and the opportunities offered by the internet, many organizations have
therefore re-examined their media presence and ways to regulate it. Authors have claimed that
with increasing rise of advanced technology, internet has been changing business models, value
chains and distributions systems. In the past years, several business corporations have aimed to
create their own website in order to serve robust communication platform with their focus groups
(Lipschultz 2014). As the primary objective of corporate communication is to attain substantial
corporate reputation of the organization to establish trust and gain idea of potential future
employees and further to generate value for investors and stakeholders. As per Young (2017),
new media that is related to the internet and the interplay between technology, images and sound

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along with digital supremacy facilitates the formation of thriving corporate brand and sets up an
encouraging reputation within the vital target groups. According to Siamagka et al. (2015), new
media has been serving as striking platform to form collaboration for sharing most effective
practices, tools, strategies and methods to combat crisis.
Drawing relevance to these evidences, Kane (2015) has noted that new media has been
serving as a vital role in dealing with crisis situations in businesses by proficiently safeguarding
and sustaining organization’s brand reputation in the market. For instance, if a blog or a post
articulates unconstructive information regarding company’s services or disseminating false
communication, crisis communication tends to react by posting counter criticisms and remarks or
relating to other blogs as well as online content which tends to establish record straight. In this
manner, crisis situation can be significantly reduced. There have been identified positive and
negative elements of the new media (Jin, Liu and Austin 2014). According to Valentini (2015),
the positive aspect of the new media depends on creating shared consciousness as well as
democracy culture while the negative aspect of the new media relies of the dissemination of
information pollution in general society through the combination as well as indistinguishability
of reliable and fraudulent information. Moreover, the shared realization which social media tends
to creates significantly offers individual involvement not only for use of daily news, reports,
information as well as communication but further focuses on nearly all political, ideological,
monetary, cultural domains.
Organization and role of social media during crisis
Business enterprises which show high understanding towards changes as well as
technology use and the internet constantly use social media such as Twitter, blogs, facebook

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along with other social network tools tend to disseminate the news of the crisis. On the other
hand, Lipschultz (2014) has identified that identify that blogs serve as highly effective tools for
refurbish an organization’s image and repute while averting a boycott in crisis situations. Thus,
authors suggested the blog-mediated crisis communication model to aid the organisation or crisis
communicators to supervise the blogosphere and tactfully respond correctly to influential
bloggers during a crisis. Furthermore, as Facebook comprises over one billion of users across the
world, it has been enabling organizations to deliver information based on their requirements
rapidly as well as efficiently during a crisis period. Feldman, Bahamonde and Velasquez Bellido
(2014) have revealed that Energex an electric power distribution company in Australia
effectively communicated as well as shared detailed messages with the public with the use of
social media tools. According to Felix, Rauschnabel and Hinsch (2017), Energex has offered a
social media networking page on Facebook with the primary aim of sharing information
regarding power disruptions, safety and storm information in addition to energy saving
guidelines, funding opportunities as well as community schemes, offering feedback on explicit
issues and further informing the public of new substance on the digital channels. As a result, new
or social media has been identified as an effective communication platform not specifically to
lessen the level of crisis impact but also serve as a tool in order to share knowledge with the
management of a crisis by a business enterprise.
In recent times, a range of social media platforms have facilitated organizations to offer
information regarding a crisis as they tend to categorize the new way of communicating related
to digital, computerized and communication technology which permits networking in the fastest
and highly efficient way to varied audiences at the same time. According to Lipschultz (2014), as
social media has the capacity to influence individuals thought process, performance and respond

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to messages and situations in general in times of crises, the role of social media as an effective
communication platform during a crisis is imperative and inevitable. Furthermore, social media
can be constructive to improve vigilance and responses and further to lessen the expenses caused
due to crisis. Furthermore, social media has been efficiently enhancing level of transparency of
decisions and also augment the prospective recognition of outcomes. Thus undeniably, social
media has been seen as one of the chief crisis communication strategies during a disaster within
any organization.
Public Relations in Media
Two important factors ranging from social media tend to influence corporate
communication policies. Siamagka et al. (2015) have noted that social media comprises a
significant democratizing outcome which tends to impede organizations in order to manage in
the pursuit of corporate goals. On the other hand, another critical factor relies on the irregularity
of emergent situations which instigates from intricate communicative processes of the diverse
actors who shape the social media participants. Drawing relevance to the democratization effect,
Lipschultz (2014) has noted that organizations tend to encounter issues relating to these crisis
situations in order to create business value unless organization develop suitable ways of outlining
relations with media. Several public relations department establish the branding and counsel on
developing communication strategies and building media relations. Australian Lutheran World
Service (ALWS), Australian Red Cross (ARC) along with other NGOs in Australia have
maintained robust relationship with media while they intend to fund certain issues in the
community in order to strengthen greater degree of repute and trust from the public and donors.
Authors have cited the example of the Act for Peace National Council of

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Churches Australia (NCCA) that has now developed as a brand through media exposure and
their participation in humanitarian projects within various parts of Australia (Theaker 2016).
Conclusion
Therefore from the above discussion, it can be concluded that media relations facilitates
organizations in order to disseminate press releases on news media wires to publish
organizational news at internal as well as external level. It has been noted that proper
comprehensive enquiries must be done on establishing media relations as it is the view, and the
underlying principle concerning the role of public relations in determining which information
should be communicated instead of focusing on the way it must be communicated.

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References
Effing, R. and Spil, T.A., 2016. The social strategy cone: Towards a framework for
evaluating social media strategies. International journal of information management, 36(1),
pp.1-8.
Feldman, P.M., Bahamonde, R.A. and Velasquez Bellido, I., 2014. A new approach for
measuring corporate reputation. Revista de Administração de Empresas, 54(1), pp.53-66.
Felix, R., Rauschnabel, P.A. and Hinsch, C., 2017. Elements of strategic social media
marketing: A holistic framework. Journal of Business Research, 70, pp.118-126.
Jin, Y., Liu, B.F. and Austin, L.L., 2014. Examining the role of social media in effective
crisis management: The effects of crisis origin, information form, and source on publics’
crisis responses. Communication research, 41(1), pp.74-94.
Kane, G.C., 2015. Enterprise social media: Current capabilities and future possibilities. MIS
Quarterly Executive, 14(1).
Lipschultz, J.H., 2014. Social media communication: Concepts, practices, data, law and
ethics. Routledge.
Marques, M.D., Critchley, C.R. and Walshe, J., 2015. Attitudes to genetically modified food
over time: How trust in organizations and the media cycle predict support. Public
Understanding of Science, 24(5), pp.601-618.

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Siamagka, N.T., Christodoulides, G., Michaelidou, N. and Valvi, A., 2015. Determinants of
social media adoption by B2B organizations. Industrial Marketing Management, 51, pp.89-
99.
Swann, P., 2014. Cases in public relations management: The rise of social media and
activism. Routledge.
Theaker, A., 2016. The public relations handbook. Routledge.
Valentini, C., 2015. Is using social media “good” for the public relations profession? A
critical reflection. Public Relations Review, 41(2), pp.170-177.
Young, J.A., 2017. Facebook, Twitter, and blogs: The adoption and utilization of social
media in nonprofit human service organizations. Human Service Organizations:
Management, Leadership & Governance, 41(1), pp.44-57.