Description
Value: 35% of final grade
Length: 10–12 pages long (3,000–3,500 words)
Notes:
This assignment must be event-based and must be at least 3,000 words.
If you build your plan around a past event, please clearly indicate your personal role in the event.
Read the instructions for this entire assignment, including the notes at the bottom, before beginning.
Instructions
After reading Chapters 6 and 7 of the course text (Carney, 2008), prepare or revise a proactive media coverage plan to attract attendees through free media coverage to a one-time theoretical or actual upcoming event (e.g., conference, workshop, dinner, fund raiser) for your organization. If you do not currently work for an organization, prepare a media coverage plan for the last organization for which you worked, or invent an event.
If none of these situations applies to you, speak to your tutor.
Your media coverage plan should be 10–12 pages long (3,000–3,500 words) and must include the following elements, as discussed in Chapter 6 of the text:
The measurable, numeric objectives for the media plan
The key message(s)
Your target audience(s), including some analysis of audience demographics, values, attitudes, and beliefs
The best media to reach the audience(s)
Your approach to these media
Your strategies for the interview
Analysis of coverage received if the event has occurred, or how and for what factors you will analyze coverage if the event has not occurred (see text for analysis criteria)
Evaluation of the effectiveness of your overall media plan against the stated, measurable objectives if the event has occurred, or how and for what factors you would evaluate the overall plan’s success if the event has not occurred.
Notes
Simply issuing a news release does not constitute an event (though news releases might be involved) nor is a news conference the event we are looking for.
If you do not currently work for an organization, prepare a media coverage plan for the last organization for which you worked or volunteered or have strong connections to and knowledge of.
If you were not in charge of the event or the media relations related to it, do not use it for this assignment. If you were, clearly indicate what you have learned from this course and would have changed when you planned the event, rather than simply reporting on what occurred.
Analysis of coverage and evaluation of plan: if the event has not occurred at the time of writing, simply indicate this rather than imagining that it has. Then indicate how and for what factors you would analyze coverage as well as overall effectiveness of your plan after the event occurs attached
