Media Relations Guest Lecture Discusses Tips & Tricks for Maintaining Relationships with the Media

Students of the Faculty of Communication are enthusiastic about attending the Media Relations Guest Lecture (Doc. UMN)

Tangerang—Universitas Multimedia Nusantara (UMN) once again organized a guest lecture event, this time with the theme “Looking Media Relations to the Future and Beyond.” This event featured two prominent speakers in the field of Media Relations and Publicity Effectiveness: Melanie Masriel from L’Oreal Indonesia and Abies Besman from Kompas TV.

This guest lecture aimed to give students insights into tips and tricks for maintaining and nurturing relationships with the press and digital media, a competency increasingly crucial in the ever-evolving media era.

Melanie Masriel revealed that mass media has a vital role in business development. “Companies need to establish a good relationship with the media,” said Melanie. She explained that at L’Oreal, giving ‘envelopes’ or gratuities is strictly prohibited. Instead, L’Oreal builds good relationships with the media through personal approaches such as having coffee together and remembering journalists’ special days.

Melanie also realizes that the mass media and companies have different publicity needs. Companies focus on marketing, while the media only want to cover stories that have news value. “We invite media that also have the same concerns as the company. For example, for L’Oreal, we invite media related to care and beauty,” Melanie added.

On the other hand, Abie Besman stated that nowadays people’s sources of information no longer solely depend on television. Many different media, such as social media, websites, and so on, are now the main sources of information. 

“Being a journalist, you need to be careful in packaging the news to attract media interest,” Abie said.

Abie also shared many experiences with students about the world of journalism and public relations. The lecture provided practical insights that can be directly applied by the participants of this guest lecture.

This event is expected to provide new knowledge and inspiration for UMN students in facing challenges in the ever-growing world of media and public relations.

by Ivana Auliya | UMN News Service

English translation by Levina Chrestella Theodora

Kuliah di Jakarta untuk jurusan program studi Informatika| Sistem Informasi | Teknik Komputer | Teknik Elektro | Teknik Fisika | Akuntansi | Manajemen| Komunikasi Strategis | Jurnalistik | Desain Komunikasi Visual | Film dan Animasi | Arsitektur | D3 Perhotelan , di Universitas Multimedia Nusantara. www.umn.ac.id