Readings according to the schedule - catching up (pt.2)

Reading for week 6: Ch. 11 Engaging with the Media by Hamish McLean and Richard Phillips
This chapter sounds more like journalism course than PR course. But, anyway, both of them are closely related. So this chapter talks more about the things we'll need to understand the media more. There's even a section about writing news story (which we learn intensively in Introduction to Journalism course, but it's always good to have more information from other sources) and media release.

One of the things that captured me the most is that, the timing choice to release a news is crucial. Now I know, when we need to inform public about a bad news, wait till there's another big news, so the public's attention will be divided. That's new. It sounds like Sun Tzu's Art of War, too.
Somehow, this point reminds me of Jack Neo's scandal. Many people think it's a publicity stunt for his new movie, "Being Human" (released on March 4). Kind of makes sense, seeing the timing of the scandal was revealed (three days after the release of the movie). But, looking from PR practitioner's perspective, is it worth risking his career by gaining attention with negative news?

There's a section that discus how to minimize the media attention. Simple: by giving one particular media outlet an exclusive story. That way, only one media will talk about it; others will only have second-hand information, thus, will be more questionable.

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Reading for week 7: Ch. 9 Strategies to Proactively Manage Activity by Melanie James