Portfolio Press Kit

 

 

Task 1: Portfolio Press Kit

In order to successfully complete this activity:

• Review the press releases and backgrounder resources in WK 6.
• Select a fictional newsworthy event from the bulleted list below.
• Research your client and their fictional newsworthy event.
• Create the two documents needed for this basic media kit.
• Place them in a Google folder that you set to Public.
• Remember that you are not expected to be an expert media kit creator (this is just a simulation).

This assignment is the final job simulation project for the course. For this job, you will choose a hypothetical newsworthy event (from the list below) and create a media kit for your employer that delivers the newsworthy event to the news outlets.

You will choose one of these employers and fictional events to use when you create your media kit documents:

• You work for the NASA press office. Life was discovered on Mars when a Martian rover located a flowering plant of some sort. The discovery is the most monumental event of our time.
• You work for the Apple press office. The new iPhone X will be released this year with many major changes, including a vintage flip-phone style. This phone is so revolutionary the iPhone will never be updated again.
• You work for the Gotham City Tourism Board press relations office. It has been 10 days without a crime wave or a Batman sighting and the apple trees are in blossom so it is a wonderful time to visit. Also, the Bruce Wayne Downtown Art Festival will be this weekend.
• You work for the Miami Dolphins communications office. After many, many years the Miami football team is changing their mascot from a happy jumping dolphin to a squishy jellyfish. The change was partially a result of the Blackfish documentary and the organization’s strong desire to avoid the kind of controversial topics other professional football teams are facing.

Next you will create two documents for your media kit, a press release and a backgrounder. Once you have researched your client and created the these two documents you will share the links to the documents on the discussion board below.

Basic Press Release: This is the document in the media kit that is delivering the newsworthy event to the news outlets so they can decide whether to report on it or not. Companies promote their accomplishments and explain their mistakes using press releases. Since your news story is fictional you are free to add made up details for the press release. You would write this in a way that makes your client/company look their best. (200-300 words)

Basic Backgrounder: This is a document that gives background information on the company, organization, brand, or individual releasing the media kit to the news outlets. This helps news outlets tell a deeper story beyond just the basic newsworthy event that was being shared with the media kit. This document will have only true facts about the client/organization- information that explains who the story is coming from. (200-300 words)

Finally, on the discussion board, post two links, one to each of the two documents you create for his task. Each document should have a word count of between 200-300 words.

Task 2: Thirty (30) second Sound Bite

In order to successfully complete this task:

• Reflect on the press kit documents you created for task 1.
• Think about the fictional message you are hoping to broadcast with the press kit.
• Create a 30-second audio/video or audio-only media asset to go with task 1.
• Post the working link on the discussion board

After completing task 1 you will be very familiar with the fictional newsworthy event you were writing about. Now it is time to make a fictional sound bite to distribute with your press kit. This kind of asset might be used by news agencies when reporting on the event. You will be imagining and creating a 30-second summary of the news story being shared. You can record your own voice or have a helper read from a script you wrote. In either case, you will have exactly 30 seconds to summarize the newsworthy event.

Avoid reading your press release- you will need to create and record a short, unique script that doesn’t repeat the press release or backgrounder verbatim. With a 30-second limit you will need to summarize the documents quickly.

Deliverable – What you’ll turn in…

All of these tasks should be posted to the discussion board below. You do not have to post all of them at the same time. You can post task deliverables throughout the week. Be sure to label each task you post (Task 1, Task 2, etc.) and double-check to make sure you start a new post rather than replying work that another student submitted.

Task 1: Post two links, one to each of the two documents you create for this task. Be sure the documents are set to public viewing. Each document should have a word count of between 200-300 words.

Task 2: Share a working link to an Unlisted or Public audio/video or audio-only recording.