The greatest desire ahead of communications or press in an organization is to predict the future. This means knowing what the media will say in your next edition. Knowing the future seems like a wish for the genie in a bottle, but it is not so far away or impossible if there is a good report of the information published by the media. Few know that good monitoring, while it won’t do magic by telling you what the exact future will be, will give you substantial clues about where the media is going each day. If the media report is read well, informational surprise or threat of crisis will be avoided by 90%. Let’s see how the best ally of the communications office should be.
By: ottogutierrez@ymail.com
I have always said that media monitoring is similar to the tests requested by the doctor to the patient to understand the state of health and make the correct diagnosis. The same thing happens in corporate communications. If there is well-executed media monitoring, with explicit, concrete, and efficient content, all the work of knowing the current day-to-day situation will be simpler and more organized. Also, as if it were the weather forecast report that provides detailed information on the state of the weather, ahead of communications with good media monitoring will be able to understand better the media climate and its variations from hour to hour. There is no doubt that the best instrument will be monitoring to know what awaits a communications office every day. Based on this, the best decisions can be made when responding to an organization’s informational reality.
All media are essential when it comes to knowing what information they publish. The media dynamics are unthinkable, and that is why it is necessary to understand the day by day and hour by hour throughout the development of the media circle. I have always stated that a crisis is incubated in 40 minutes, which is the time that elapses between one news bulletin and the next. I have also said that information in a media outlet can generate a crisis by itself. That information published in a medium with a small audience, although it does not cause an immediate crisis, can feed a larger one to be published.
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Additionally, media worldwide have ratings classifying those with the most audience and those with the least. Looking at the panorama in Colombia, we will see what reality is like according to the measurement of TGI Colombia 2021-2022 between men and women over 18 years of age. By way of context, the result is as follows.
Media monitoring could be compared with the information offered by radiological images requested by a doctor to know the status of his patient. As in radiographs, the media report must be done by someone experienced so that its content is efficient. It must be said that although the author of the information may analyze the content and although the quality is good, the press office will retain the power to generate an action or strategy. The formulation of answers should never be left to the report’s creator, even if he is willing to do so. As in radiological images, the radiologist is the author of the information but never the treating physician.
A good media report fulfills three fundamental tasks in the work of a communications office. 1. It is the best way to predict the media climate and anticipate the future, crucial in the office’s task. 2. It is the best anticipator of a crisis. It is possible to see when and how a crisis is approaching if done well. 3. It will be the source of the highest quantity and quality of actual actions to protect the organization and its mission.
Media monitoring is the best way to know what is happening with the media, its news board, its news circle, and everything that can impact the organization and against which the communications office is called to take action. The best monitoring report should be tailored to the organization, avoiding wasting time and energy. It must provide reliable information on the following ten critical variables of reality and media impact.
| WHAT DOES IT SAY? To get to the root of a problem, it is essential to precisely specify each term, word, and scope. | WHAT DOES IT SAY? To get to the root of a problem, it is essential to specify precisely each term, each word, and its scope |
| WHEN IT IS SAID, It is not the same to say it one day or afternoon at the peak of the media circle as at another time. | HOW IT IS SAID, the form can become more important than the substance. That’s why it’s critical. |
| WHERE IT IS SAID, the geographic and social epicenter determines a strategic element in the message. | WHAT FORMAT SAYS IT, whether an electronic, analog, or digital medium. A high or low audience influences the evaluation of the event. |
| MEDIA OR SOCIAL MEDIA, Although both are important, it is necessary to specify if it is one or the other because the response actions will be different. | Whether it is a local or national media or a social network, what COVERAGE DOES IT HAVE is key to initiating a response. |
| REACTION TO WHAT IS SAID, how much snowball effect there is in a piece of information. | CREDIBILITY OF THE MEDIA, how much and how public opinion believes the person is reporting. |
To make effective the importance of the media report that an organization receives every day, it must serve as an input for the production of 3 different strategic versions that will help to circulate among the critical internal audience and the spokespersons for the case in which they must intervene. In the internal communications committees or before external requests from the media. These three post-report versions are 1—context analysis of the most critical issues for the organization. Only the narrative of the media report does not serve to provide elements that allow the understanding of the media table. 2. The ten variables mentioned above must be graphed in summary reports to enable a microscope view of each key issue. 3. Be an input for the base document that the crisis committee and the person responsible for activating the crisis should have if the information generates a crisis in the media. Triggering a crisis or starting management without this document is very dangerous and has harmful effects on the reputation and image of the organization.
Having a good media report that is the best ally of the communications office is a task that must be produced and managed by the communications team. If the office has a good media report, it must ensure that it has the three fundamental attributes and ten variables and produces the three complementary documents. An office that has this documentary infrastructure and knows how to use it will be a solid organization in terms of communications and vital to face times of crisis. To learn more about media monitoring and reports, write to me at ottogutierrez@ymail.com, tell me about your project or need, and I’m sure I can help you.
Otto Gutierrez 