Media relations

One of the most critical areas within any corporate communication function is the media relations department.The growth of business coverage in today’s media has made it increasingly important for companies to have good relationships with the media.

Some of the strategies to have a good and a successful media relations are:

• Involving media relations personnel in the formulation of company vision and strategy.
• Develop in house corporate communication department

• Also make use of externally expertise as and when needed especially for audits.
  

Companies of late have included online forums for media relations , which certainly helps in extending a hand to the media to have a look at the company details ,one good example for this http://www.infosys.com where there is a dedicated section for the media to get intricate details about the way in which infosys operates.

As far personal experience is concerned I was impressed by the way in which Coke India responded to the allegations made by the Indian government and also state governments about the so called 'pesticide cocktail' which was present in its beverage products.Coke came out all guns blazing by proving to public and others about its strict quality measures that they follow in the production of their beverages.They also launched a Advertisement campaign by Aamir khan(Top Bollywood actor) to reinforce its strict quality measures.They also allowed the media and the general public to visits its bottling factories to have a look at the quality processes they were following.I feel this crisis situation was well handled by Coke India.