A Happy Media: Using Public Relations to Meet Your Outreach Needs is based on the half-day workshop delivered to participants at the Community Literacy of Ontario Annual General Meeting and Conference in October 2000.

The workshop – and this resource – approach the topic of media relations using a progressive series of exercises designed to help you clearly identify who it is you are trying to communicate with and how to reach them through the mass media. More specifically, we expect that by the time you have completed the seven exercises, you will:

1. recognize the role of the media in your organization’s outreach strategy.
2. understand the criteria for selecting and approaching media.
3. be able to apply the principles of developing a good press release.
4. be familiar with methods of preparing spokespeople for media exposure.
5. be able to develop strategies for ensuring the media’s involvement.
6. understand techniques for getting articles published without a reporter.