Purpose 🎯

Media Releases form an important part of any career in media. Through this assessment you will learn how to communicate with other journalists and professionals in your space. In the process developing skills in academic and media research, documentation, as well as, clear, logical, and convincing writing.

Task Description ✏️

Write a description for the media release scenario here

Additional Information 📚

To help you complete this task successfully, the following resources are provided:

Marking Rubric — refer to this to understand how you will be assessed
Checklist: How to write a Media Release — use this to help you complete the task
Example: Media Release — review this to see a completed example of the task
Glossary — use this to interpret any words that you do not understand
Resource name — describe how students should use it

💡 Remember: Attach or link the resources you mention in the Resources section

Checklist: How to write a Media Release ✅

Copy + paste this checklist into the Notes section in Cadmus and tick off items as you complete them

💡 Remember: Adapt the steps below to suit the specifics of the task

Step 1: Task Understanding

To help you understand what you need to do for this task and how will be assessed, you must:

Read the Instructions and Checklist carefully using the Glossary
Read the Marking Rubric

Step 2: Plan Media Release

To help you plan your Media release, jot down dot points under each of these headings:

Contact information: add your company’s contact details on the right-hand side
Headline: this is a short, attention-getting statement about the event
Deck: or subheadings, these give your press release more substance with more insights to your story
Dateline: this is the beginning of your body paragraph and is where you add the date and location (in capital letters) and then a dash (—): e.g. HOBART, AUSTRALIA, February 15th — (body paragraph)
First Body Paragraph: this is where you answer who, what, when, where, why, and how questions. This should be about stating the facts
Remainder Body Paragraph: this is where you sum up the headline and story you introduced in the first body paragraph. You can add media, hyperlinks and quotes here
Boilerplate: add any factual information about your company, ie. what it does
Final note: add your contact to help anyone who wants to get more information from you

Step 3: Submit Draft

Submit your Media Release plan as a draft before the tutorial

Step 4: Peer Review

To make sure you’re on the right track, it helps to discuss what you’ve done with others and get feedback — we’ll do this in a tutorial:

Engage in a discussion with your peers about your release, sharing valuable sources and tips. More instructions will be provided in-class
Review your Media Release plan, making changes based on the discussion

Step 5: Write Release

Building on your plan, write your Media Release. Things to remember:

News angle/s: ensure that your news angles are well identified
Important details: ensure you include all important information about the event
Identify spokesperson: clearly identify the spokesperson with contact details and quotes
Clear and concise writing: use short simple sentences and familiar terms (and no errors!)

Review Example: Media Release

Step 6: Submit Final

Read the Marking Rubric again to check that you have met the criteria
Submit your Media Release
Once graded, review your feedback in Cadmus

Media Release

Provide students with a templated structure and clear process for developing an effective media release.

How to use this template

References