Meet the Media Panel discussion

Last night I attended IABC's (International Association of Business Communicators) meet the media panel at the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo. Originally I didn't know what to expect and I was mainly interested in attending because I really like watching panel discussions.

The panel consisted of Michael Melling and Joel Bowey from CTV news, Joe Pavia of AM 570 News and Bob Vrbanac of the Waterloo Chronicle Newspaper.

I attended the event with Mike Christie and Jocelyn Lagerquist, two classmates of mine and it was nice to have them there because we were able to compare notes afterwards on what we found useful.

Basically the theme of the night was how to best get your story picked up by the media. A lot of the items were things I had learned in various classes from school but it was certainly nice to get a fresh perspective on things from actual practicing journalists and editors.

There were two concepts in particular I found enlightening. The concept of "head, heart and health" was mentioned. This basically means:

Does it improve/affect your life?
Does it tug the heart strings?
Does it have to do with health or well-being?

These are things that are apparently of immediate interest to a reporter or news editor and you should ask yourself if your story has one or more of these elements.

Another notion was that of the human element. Journalists can like a story but what will put it over the edge is if you can provide them with a real person to talk to, especially if that person is effected by whatever is going on. Journalists like to show someone their audience can relate to.

Many more interesting points were discussed and I will definitely keep them in mind the next time I begin to write up a story pitch.

IABC Grand Valley Chapter