Santa Ana City Hall, Photo: Chris PrevattSanta Ana City Hall, Photo: Chris Prevatt
4 Comments
There seems to be confusion abotu what a PIO does and what a PR firm does. A PIO’s job is to act as a clearinghouse of information to make it easy and accessible for members of the public to get. It’s a “just the facts ma’am” job. Crime rate stats, here you go. How many acres of available parkland in the city, it’s this much. PIOs can set certain limits on how they present information to the public and who press gets access to based on the story, but its not their job to pitch rosy puff pieces.
From comments from some city council members, they want someone out there pitching good news stories about Santa Ana–and there are many. That’s what a PR firm does.
But a PR firm cannot spray perfume on a present your dog left behind and insist it doesn’t smell. No respecting member of the press is going to buy that. So your only recourse is to buy positive coverage which is a practice common in Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as South America. But all that is is advertising disgused as editorial.
I’d point to how Criag Reem in Irvine handles his duties
Uh oh — now you’ve done it. A new Santa Ana blog critical of the city council and efforts to bring soccer to the city. Be prepared to be called haters and racists by those who got a check or an appointment to a city position last year.
Transparency is the enemy of PR/ PIO.
PR & PIO is just a way to spoon feed info (often propagandized) – to a lazy press. To lazy to go to meetings, to do their own homework & digging. To get to know the players & their agendas.
Like drug addicts – the media can easily become dependent on their source(s) of “easy” stories. That dependence is what creates the lack of transparency – as the “reporter” cannot afford to offend the source of easy, regular “news.”
There seems to be confusion abotu what a PIO does and what a PR firm does. A PIO’s job is to act as a clearinghouse of information to make it easy and accessible for members of the public to get. It’s a “just the facts ma’am” job. Crime rate stats, here you go. How many acres of available parkland in the city, it’s this much. PIOs can set certain limits on how they present information to the public and who press gets access to based on the story, but its not their job to pitch rosy puff pieces.
From comments from some city council members, they want someone out there pitching good news stories about Santa Ana–and there are many. That’s what a PR firm does.
But a PR firm cannot spray perfume on a present your dog left behind and insist it doesn’t smell. No respecting member of the press is going to buy that. So your only recourse is to buy positive coverage which is a practice common in Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as South America. But all that is is advertising disgused as editorial.
I’d point to how Criag Reem in Irvine handles his duties
http://santaanasos.blogspot.com/2011/07/official-city-of-santa-ana-statement-on.html
Uh oh — now you’ve done it. A new Santa Ana blog critical of the city council and efforts to bring soccer to the city. Be prepared to be called haters and racists by those who got a check or an appointment to a city position last year.
Transparency is the enemy of PR/ PIO.
PR & PIO is just a way to spoon feed info (often propagandized) – to a lazy press. To lazy to go to meetings, to do their own homework & digging. To get to know the players & their agendas.
Like drug addicts – the media can easily become dependent on their source(s) of “easy” stories. That dependence is what creates the lack of transparency – as the “reporter” cannot afford to offend the source of easy, regular “news.”