Instructions: Select a real life company that you have an interest in and identify a crisis related topic that would merit a press release. Following the guidelines that we are discussed in the course, write a press release to be disseminated to media organizations. Your release must clearly explain the crisis and how your company has/will respond to it using the protocols we have been covering in the course (remember to emphasize the response rather than the crisis). Please make sure you carefully review the content of Unit 2 while working on this assignment including the sample releases.
You may invent any reasonable details associated with the crisis incident; if you use an actual crisis that has been reported by the media for the purposes of this assignment you must make sure that the content of the release is your own and that you wrote it yourself! In addition, please be very careful when using information/guidelines from other courses to structure your release; you are assessed on the content provided in this course so you must follow those guidelines. If in doubt, please contact the instructor prior to submitting your release.
Your release will be evaluated as to whether it meets the following requirements for effective press release writing:
1. Be based on a newsworthy topic.
2. Follow the proper contextual format (inverted pyramid)
3. Follow the proper release format (Preliminaries, continuation marks, block format etc) using an established release convention.
4. Be free of spelling and grammar errors.
5. Involve an event that clearly meets the definition of the crisis.
6. Attempt to meet the purpose of issuing a press release (i.e. damage control, image restoration).
7. Convince the news editor that your angle of the story is worth covering, provide the necessary information for the event to be covered and portray your company in a positive light.
Week 2 content link: (read chapter 1&2 ): https://reader2.yuzu.com/reader/books/9781071816622/epubcfi/6/2[%3Bvnd.vst.idref%3Dcover]!/4/2[cover-image]/2%4018:0
Sample release and supplmental link/doc
1: access the official Department of Justice link detailing how to obtain information under FOIA. https://www.justice.gov/oip
2: to read the Privacy Act of 1974. https://www.justice.gov/opcl/privacy-act-1974
3: to access the FEMA checklist for Public Information Officers. (document on the file as FIO Fema)
4: for a sample scenario and a press release based on that scenario. Can you discern the newsworthy item(s) doc in the folder
5: for a great overview on the purpose of media policies and a discussion of press releass.(doc in the file)
6: for an outline/sample of a media policy. Remember, this is just a sample; no two media policies are the same. (in file)
7: for an additional reading identifying the basic components of the press release as well s sample press releases.The sample press releases are versions that have already been published (different than the ones that you will be sending to news organizations). in file
I attached the screen shots of the rubric below on the file
