How to prepare media releases, images, presentations, and media packs for minimal damage to the poor hacks who receive them. Which might help when it comes to choosing to use them
7. Start with your headline
“You’re not actually writing the headline.
You’re finding out what your story is really about”
- Tom Whitwell, assistant online editor, The Times
www.slideshare.net/TomWhitwell/how-to-write-awesome-headlines-presentation
8. About headlines
Gimme the whole story
Sucks if you try to be clever
Sucks if you try to be funny (punny, too)
Sucks if you over simplify or patronise
“The difference between a good headline and a weak headline isn’t 5% or 10%,
it’s 10x, 20x or more” - Tom Whitwell
10. Learn from fiction
5 essential elements of a story
Characters (who)
Setting (where)
Plot: the action from start to finish
Conflict (what)
Resolution (how)
17. 6. Overcoming the monster
Evil creatures/people/things
The Silence of the Lambs
Dracula
Hansel and Gretel
18. 7. Rags to Riches
From zero to hero: and often back again
Aladdin and the Genie of the Magic Lamp
Cinderella
Great Expectations
19. Media releases:
The five basic food groups
Logical order
Verifiable quotes
Verifiable facts
Spellink & Gramma
Links (real world & online)
20. Stories: the golden rule
“Every story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.”
- Every teacher who ever lived
21. By Me: great Twitterature
in 140 characters, 29 words,
1 paragraph
She came to my room. She was pretty as a
summer sunrise. We argued about the
state of the place. She left and I’m sad. Ooh
look! She’s back!
22. Media releases:
The dry ingredients
Date & embargo
Image information (who’s who?)
Word count
Who ordered it
Who wrote it
23. Date (no embargo here)
Image information
Story
Contacts
Word Count
Who ordered it
Who wrote it
28. Feeding images to
Online publications
.jpg format
72 dpi
Standard 1024 x 769 pixels or 800 x 600 pixels
Useful toy: Photo Gadget Picture Resize
www.xemico.com/photogadget/freeware.html
29. The staple diet of the
Picture editor
Composition – Unclutter! Zoom in!
Exposure – Not too dark, not too light
Lighting – Side lighting is nca! (Trash the flash)
30. Does your picture tell your story?
Google: ‘Free online lessons digital photography’
29,700,000 results
Useful presentation: It’s not the size of your camera
www.slideshare.net/n8vision/its-not-the-size-of-your-
camera-digital-photography-in-3-parts
33. Media CDs & memory sticks:
Dietary basics
Media releases
Biographies
Feature articles
Facts sheets
34. Media CDs and memory sticks:
Dietary basics
Documents
.pdf AND text or MS Word formats
Images
.jpg, 300 dpi, 250 mm wide – or wider
Text information about each image
35. Media CDs and memory sticks:
Dietary basics
Videos
AVI
Presentations
.pdf only!
36. Media CDs and memory sticks:
Dietary basics
Achtung! Verboten!
Password protection
Images embedded in .pdf or Word docs
37. A pantry full of learning
BBC – Online learning, support & advice
www.bbc.co.uk/learning/subjects/media_studies.shtml
Free online courses
Harvard Extension School
www.extension.harvard.edu/courses
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Open Courseware
www.ocw.mit.edu/courses/
Ron Mader’s Planeta Wiki (Ron certainly doesn’t suck at collaboration)
www.planeta.wikispaces.com/media
Martin Hatchuel:
Managing Perceptions: The Care and Feeding of the Media
www.slideshare.net/MartinHatchuel1/managing-perceptions-the-care-
and-feeding-of-the-media
39. Martin Hatchuel
martin@barefootclients.co.za
www.barefootclients.co.za
www.thistourismweek.co.za
www.twitter.com/@martinhatchuel
Attributions: Images
Sushi
www.flickr.com/photos/thinkdraw/
La Tomatina
www.flickr.com/photos/flydime/
All other images are in the
public domain and were
found on
www.commons.wikimedia.org