Press Release Assignment: Effective Information Publishing Media Release

Question

Task: Media releases are a useful and important tool for communication within a range of disciplines. Developing and distributing a media release is one of the most effective ways of telling your story to the media. Consequently, the purpose of this assessment is to help you to gain an understanding of what a media release is, why they are useful, and how they are developed.

There are two components to this assessment

Pare A – Rationale and setting
In this part of your assessment you will be focussing on demonstrating an understanding of the role and importance of media releases to your chosen discipline. You will need to define what a media release is, provide a rational for its importance in your discipline, and include some discipline specific examples of media release use. Where possible, this needs to be supported by evidence.

This section also needs to very briefly note the context/setting in which your media release will be based. E.g a media release from a community health organisation that has introduced a new service to meet the needs of a local vulnerable group.

Part B – Media release
Based upon the setting/context provided at the end of Part A, you now need to develop a media release. If you are unsure of the focus of your media release please speak with your workshop facilitator for clarification or guidance. Your media release should clearly identify a topic/issue and key information should be presented in the first couple of sentences. You need to be very clear about what the essential information is. The use of quotes is necessary in a good media release. For general context you can use quotes already documented in the media/literature. If relevant quotes cannot be located for your chosen context you can create some quotes to support your media release.

Answer

Part A: Rationale and setting
This press release assignment outlines media release as one of the most effective methods for publishing information or a story through the media. It is a document, which is a brief official statement detailing the campaign or story needed to be delivered to the audiences. The channel that is used to reaching to the target audience is press media. The key purpose of a media as per this press release assignment is to promote something specific and significant. In every field, press release plays a crucial role in communicating with wider target audience. It is a significant public relations tool, which is publicizes useful information about the upcoming event or something that the audience should be aware of. It is also a cost – effective tool, which can be easily distinguishable (Webster et al., 2015). Anyone can write a media release, to several media outlets, which are free of cost. However, besides the traditional options, online media release option is becoming more common and easy to access for the audiences. It is easy for public to distinguish between an advertisement and media release. For instance, the media release consists some unique characteristics, which make it different from advertisement, which are “a headline, clear, concise wording” and a “fact-based presentation of the information” (Grimes et al., 2008).

This press release assignment outlines how the healthcare sector, in order to promote health awareness, media release is an important tool, which can easily grab attention of a lot of audiences. Several organizations in Australia, which are responsible for health promotion related actions. Health promoting actions include health education and information distribution among the target audiences, for enhancing their awareness and shaping their health related behavior. In this regards, VicHealth is such a health promotion organization in Australia, which is undertaking actions for promoting health awareness and preventive behavior among the Australian population (vichealth.vic.gov.au 2018). The organization is using online media release as a key tool for increasing public awareness. Making the media release catchy and fact – based, the organization is grabbing attention of potential target audiences. Several media releases are published by the organization, in regards to health and disease as well as the facts related to health and wellbeing of Australian population (Grimes et al., 2011). In the following press release assignment, the key emphasize would be health risk of the Australian children for consuming fast food, considering the facts found by Heart foundation. It would be released by VicHealth for making the parents in Australia aware and take preventive steps for ensuring health and wellbeing of their children.

Part B: Media Release
Heart Foundation revealed Australian kids are having high salt intake through Fast Foods
Recent findings by the dieticians at the Heart Foundation revealed that typical fast foods and processed foods in lunchbox of Australian kids are delivering more than half salt content of their recommended daily allowance.

The dieticians at Heart Foundation have analyzed the salt content in kid’s favorite lunch box items and the following data has been revealed:

“Chicken loaf and cheese sandwich” with white bread and mayonnaise, consist on an average 2.8 gm of salt. The amount covers 80% of 4 to 8 years old and more than 50% of 9 to 13 years old child’s daily recommended salt content.
“Ham and cheese sandwich” with white bread and butter consist 3 gm of salt, which is 91% of 4 to 8 years and 61% of 9 to 13 years old child’s daily recommended salt allowance.
Cheese and vegemite sandwich” with white bread and butter consists 2 gm of salt, which is 57% of 4 to 98 years and 40% of 9 to 13 year old child’s daily recommended salt allowance.

According to the CEO of Heart Foundation Victoria, Kellie Ann Jolly, parents should be aware of the fillings they are putting in their kid’s lunchbox, how much salt it is containing. However, that does not mean that they should stop giving sandwiches to their kids.

Further, recent studies found that 60% more salt is consumed by 2 within 3 schoolchildren in Victoria compared to their recommended daily allowance. They also revealed that more than half of this excess salt is contributed by their core food groups”, like “cheese, breakfast cereals and cheese”.

Although salt content in core food groups are alarming; but there is no recommendation from Heart Foundation to cut them all out from daily diet of children. As these “core food groups” are contributing to the source of healthy and balanced diet; thus, “it is crucial to read the label and select the lowest salt option”, as highlighted by dietician Sin Armstrong.

This resport also reviews a recent study performed by the Deakin University, welcomed by VicHealth, has found that 80% of Australian kids are consuming “too much salt”, most of which are coming from processed fast foods. CEO of VicHealth, Mr. Jerril Rechter argued “too much salt was having an alarming impact on kids’ health”, “it can put them at high risk of blood pressure, leading to stroke and heart disease in adulthood”, he added.

The dietician Jenny Reimers revealed that recent research has raised the need for continuously pressurizing the manufacturers and Australian government to minimize the salt content in the processed foods. She added, “Setting targets can be effective to drive down salt levels in foods, as was seen by the reduction in salt in sauces and bread”.

“Australia is committed to achieve the WHO’s goal for 30% reduction of salt by 2025”; and “we need to minimize salt content in processed foods immediately, for getting close to the target”.

“We know parents want their kids to be healthy which is why it’s so important that the food industry start reformulating their products to contain less salt” said by Ms. Reimers.

Press Release Assignment are being prepared by our marketing assignment help online experts from top universities which let us to provide you a reliable Australia assignment help service.

Bibliography
Cobiac, L. J., Vos, T., & Veerman, J. L. (2010). Cost-effectiveness of interventions to reduce dietary salt intake. Heart, 96(23), 1920-1925

Grimes, C. A., Campbell, K. J., Riddell, L. J., & Nowson, C. A. (2011). Sources of sodium in Australian children's diets and the effect of the application of sodium targets to food products to reduce sodium intake. British journal of nutrition, 105(3), 468-477.

vichealth.vic.gov.au. (2018). Aussie kids’ favourite sandwich fillings hide excessive salt, Heart Foundation figures show. Online. Available at: https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/search/aussie-kids-favourite-sandwich-fillings-hide-excessive-salt [Accessed on: 14th May 2019]

vichealth.vic.gov.au. (2018). Most Aussie kids still eating too much salt. Online. Available at: https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/search/most-aussie-kids-still-eating-too-much-salt [Accessed on: 14th May 2019]

Webster, J., Trieu, K., Dunford, E., Nowson, C., Jolly, K. A., Greenland, R., ... & Bolam, B. (2015). Salt reduction in Australia: from advocacy to action. Cardiovascular diagnosis and therapy, 5(3), 207.

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