5 

The media

This chapter discusses putting together your media strategy; how to write,

send and  sell  the release; the value of a good photo; interview

techniques; and what to do when you get negative press. It also looks at

working with Maori, Pacific and other specialist media. 

The media include newspaper and magazine journalists, radio presenters and television

NOTHING'S

reporters. By gaining an understanding of how the media work, you should be able to

FOR 

make the media work well for you.

FREE

One advantage of a feature article over advertising is that it is seen by the reader as objective

and therefore more believable than advertising. It also provides more information and human

Media coverage is not free

interest than a poster or an advertisement. However, one disadvantage is that you have little

promotion: you have to put

a lot of time and effort

control over what the reporter writes and you may not be happy with what appears in print. 

into an effective media

In 1997 1998, Creative New Zealand conducted a survey of arts participation by 

campaign.

New Zealand adults. One of the survey questions asked people to indicate the three main

ways they found out about  local arts activities . The three main sources of information

were community newspapers, major daily newspapers and the radio. Word of mouth

(friends and family) was also an important source of information.

Creative New Zealand published the survey findings in two publications, Arts Every Day:

mahi toi ia ra, which provides a general overview of all survey findings, and Know Your

Audience: me mohio ki to whakaminenga, which focuses on people who participated in the

arts  as a member of an audience , and analyses the findings by artform. Both publications

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are available in the Resources section of Creative New Zealand's website

(www.creativenz.govt.nz). Also check out Statistics New Zealand (www.stats.govt.nz) for

latest statistics on arts participation.

Media strategy

Before you start promoting an event you should put together a media strategy (see Sample

timeline, page 19), outlining how you intend to promote your event.  This involves:

  setting objectives of what you want your media strategy to achieve

  setting targets in terms of the media coverage you want to secure, including what stories

where and which angles you will offer to different media   keeping in mind that many

prefer exclusives

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Smart arts

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