The number of people who work in the field of communications has increased significantly over the years.
According to Service Canada, the reason for this increase is due to the growth in company demand for communications personnel in order to reach both internal and external clients. Service Canada also believes the rising trend of employment in communications will continue for the next few years. They also say that according to 2006 census data, every single industry employs communications staff.
Why the need for communications personnel in each and every industry?
Is it that taxing for an oil and gas employee, a forestry worker or the head of a department for a municipality or county to answer a few questions from a newspaper reporter?
The majority of the time, these industry workers and department heads answer the question anyway, the only difference is the path the questions take before reaching the final destination: The request initially goes to the communications advisor; gets passed on to the appropriate person; the questions are answered; they get passed back to the communications advisor, who reviews the answers to ensure they are ‘appropriate’; and they are finally sent to the reporter who initiated this chain of events.
Even though this may sound like a lot of steps just to get answers to a handful of questions, for many reasons, it’s easier this way...but easier certainly doesn’t always equal better.
It’s easier only having to contact one person and let them do the work finding the answers; it’s easier sending an email and waiting for a reply; and it’s easier not having to figure out who is best to answer your questions. But, getting answers this way means, as a reporter, you’re letting others control the information you are trying to collect.
In the days prior to communications advisors, reporters dug deep for a story, looking under every rock and talking to multiple sources, some helpful, some not. It took a lot of time and effort, but in the end, the story was strong, as it was not rushed and it had multiple sources adding to its validity.
Communications staff play a huge role when it comes to relations with local newspapers, like the Cochrane Eagle.
The bond between communications personnel and media can be best described as a love/hate kind of relationship. On one hand, a newspaper reporter tries his/her hardest to get as much information about a particular issue as they possible can, in an effort to provide readers with as many of the facts and sides to a story as they can.
On the other, someone who works in communications tries to steer them in the right direction, collect information and pass it on to the media, but at the same time, act in the best interests of the company or entity that provides their paycheque.
So, there’s always a friendly, yet professional back-and-forth that goes on between reporters and communications personnel.
It is important, however, that the ‘professional’ never vacates the relationship.
Dialogue between the two parties may never be a fully open door, but as long as each respects the job that the other has to do, issues should never arise.
This same principle of cooperation and mutual respect would hopefully apply to everyone in the community. A local newspaper (or any media outlet for that matter) should never be out to smear or defame any person, company or association. It is out to tell a story based on facts, and does so by including as much information as it possibly can. Let’s keep the communication going...it never hurt anyone.
