intelectasia™/

Institute of Journalism Studies,

Universiti Teknologi MARA

2010 MEDIA RELATIONS

PRACTICES SURVEY IN

MALAYSIANovember 2010

1.0

INTRODUCTION

1.0 Introduction 3

•The survey was initiated in 2009, 90 respondents : Understand better the needs of

journalists

•In early 2010, we collaborated with Assoc Prof Kiranjit Kaur.

•Gleneagles Kuala Lumpur sponsored 500 health screening vouchers valued in RM391

each.

• Major setbacks:

-Cooperation from media

-Sample size

--Language

2.0

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

52.0 OBJECTIVES (s)

1. To determine the preferred mode of communication when receiving press

releases, media invites from PR practitioners

2. To determine general perceptions about PR practitioners when dealing with the

media

3. To determine the popularity of social media tools as sources of information for

journalists

The three major objectives of this survey are:

3.0

METHODOLOGY

73.0 METHODOLOGY

Method: Online Survey

Consists of four parts :

Part A : Basic Information [5 questions]

Part B: Media Relations Practices in Malaysia [4 questions]

Part C: Online Tools and Media Relations Practices [4 questions]

Instrument : surveymonkey.com

Type of questions: Close-ended

Sample

Size : 442 respondents

- Non-probability

- Purposive

4.0

FINDINGS

(Part A: Basic Information)

94.0 FINDINGS Part A : Basic Information

Question # 1 :

What is your job title?

The overwhelming majority of respondents to this survey were journalists-more than 90.9% reported

titles of reporter/writer, editor/editorial staff.

N: 442

104.0 FINDINGS Part A : Basic Information

Question # 2 :

Which media agency are you attached with?RTM 1/RTM 2

TV3

NTV7

TV8

TV9

Astro Awani

Bernama TV

The Star

The Sun

New Straits Times

Malay Mail

The Edge Financial Daily

Malaysian Reserve

Utusan Malaysia/Mingguan Malaysia

Berita Harian

Kosmo

Harian Metro

Sin Chew

Nanyang Siang Pau

Makkal Ossai

Tamil Nesan

Malaysia Nanban

Business/Trade Magazine

Lifestyle/Fashion Magazine

Radio Station

Online Media

Wire Service

114.0 FINDINGS Part A : Basic Information

Question # 3 :

Gender

Majority of the respondents (59.7%) were females.

124.0 FINDINGS Part A : Basic Information

Question # 4 :

Years of experience in this field

There was a good balance of respondents for the number of field experience. 47% were senior staff

with more than 6 years of experience.

4.0

FINDINGS

(Part B: Media Relations

Practices in Malaysia)

144.0 FINDINGS Part B : Media Relations Practices in Malaysia

Question # 1 :

Preferred mode for receiving press releases from Public Relations

professionals.

Email (Work) 92.4%

Face-to-Face 50.3%

Fax 48.3%

Email (Personal) 46.9%

Courier/Snail Mail 22.1%

SMS 14.7%

N: 435

154.0 FINDINGS Part B : Media Relations Practices in Malaysia

Question # 1 :

Preferred mode for receiving press releases from Public Relations

professionals.

An overwhelming majority of respondents - 92.4% - prefer to receive press releases via

work email, a popular choice for its accessibility, easier storage and reference.

Face-to-face receiving method came in second with 50.3% of respondents prefer this

mode as it creates an avenue for a two-way and immediate communication between the

journalist and PR professionals.

What might be surprising, contrary to popular PR practitioners choice was a distant third

choice -fax (48.3%).

Courier/snail mail (22.1%) showed a higher preference compared to SMS (14.7%).

164.0 FINDINGS Part B : Media Relations Practices in Malaysia

Question # 2 :

Preferred mode for receiving media invitation from Public Relations

professionals.

Email (Work) 93.4%

Work Phone 63.0%

Fax 55.9%

SMS 48.4%

Mobile Phone 48.0%

Face-to-face 46.2%

Email (Personal) 43.8%

Facebook 35.7%

Courier/Snail Mail 26.9%

Twitter 21.4%

N: 436

174.0 FINDINGS Part B : Media Relations Practices in Malaysia

Question # 2 :

Preferred mode for receiving media invitation from Public Relations

professionals.

Once again, the majority of respondents - 93.4%-prefer to receive media invites via work

email, as it is easily accessible, convenient to forward and also simplifies the task of the journalist.

However, work phone came in as the second most preferred choice with 63% of respondents

choosing this mode.

More than half of the respondents (55.9%) of respondents preferred fax for receiving media

invitations.

Unexpectedly, Facebook and Twitter were not among the popular choices. Only 35.7%

preferred receiving media invitation via Facebook, and 21.4% via Twitter.

184.0 FINDINGS Part B : Media Relations Practices in Malaysia

Question # 3 :

Preferred mode for receiving story idea/pitch from Public Relations

professionals.

Email (Work) 90.6%

Work Phone 59.4%

Face-to-Face 55.3%

Mobile Phone 46.5%

Email (Personal) 45.3%

Fax 40.8%

SMS 40.7%

Facebook 33.5%

Courier/Snail Mail 26.3%

Twitter 23.3%

N: 431

19Part B : Media Relations Practices in Malaysia

Question # 3 :

Preferred mode for receiving story idea/pitch from Public Relations

professionals.

The results are quite similar to Question #2. A high number of respondents - 90.6%-prefer to

receive media invites via work email.

A distant second choice is work phone with 59.4% of respondents preferring this mode of

communication.

Face-to-face pitching is the third most preferred mode, with More than half of the respondents

(55.3%) of respondents preferring this mode.

Again, Facebook and Twitter were not among the popular choices. More than 56% of

respondents said sending story ideas via Twitter is the least preferred choice.

And only 33.5% would prefer story ideas sent via Facebook

4.0 FINDINGS

204.0 FINDINGS Part B : Media Relations Practices in Malaysia

N: 433

Agree Disagree

Material sent by PR is usually not relevant to my work. 5.2% 33.9% 57.3% 3.6%

Most PR professionals do not understand which subjects I cover 8.5% 44.1% 45.5% 1.9%

PR professionals often overlook the element of newsworthiness 14.2% 57.9% 27.4% 0.5%

Generally phone calls from PR professionals interrupt me and waste

my time

7.3% 39.7% 50.9% 2.1%

Most PR professionals have low media relations skills (poor press

conference management and follow-ups when requested by media,

weak press release writing skills)

10.4% 40.0% 47.5% 2.1%

Most PR professionals lack professionalism (i.e. disseminating

information in a professional, timely and accurate manner when

requested by media)

8.8% 37.1% 52.0% 2.1%

Most PR professionals often try to shade or “spin” a story to their

advantage.15.6% 59.0% 24.8% 0.7%

Money giving by PR is common practice 2.2% 12.3% 43.8% 41.6%

Gift-giving by PR is common practice 17.2% 63.3% 18.4% 1.2%

Question # 4 : Indicate your level of agreement with the following about some general perceptions

about public relations professionals.

214.0 FINDINGS Part B : Media Relations Practices in Malaysia

Question # 4 :

Indicate your level of agreement with the following about some general

perceptions about public relations professionals.

For purposes of this report, we have combined scores of „fully agree‟ and „agree‟ to indicate general

agreement and scores of „strongly disagree‟ and „disagree‟ to indicate general disagreement

Most respondents fully agreed that most PR professionals overlook the element of

newsworthiness, with 72.1% in general agreement; emphasis on understanding what elements create

news

PR professionals might take more seriously another prominent and perennial complaint: PR

professionals do not understand which subjects journalists cover, with more than half (53.6%)

generally in agreement; putting a greater need for PR professionals to do media research before pitching

Also, a very discouraging fact is more than half of respondents (50.4%) are in generally believed PR

professionals in Malaysia have poor media relations skills.

On the positive side, 54.1% of respondents disagreed that most PR professionals lack

professionalism. Another relative positive was the fact that more than half of the respondents (53%)

disagreed that phone calls from PR people interrupt their workflow and waste their time-an indication

that journalists understand the importance of PR professionals in their work.

4.0

FINDINGS

(Part C: ONLINE TOOLS AND MEDIA

RELATIONS PRACTICES)

234.0 FINDINGS Part C : Online Tools And Media Relations Practices

N: 431

Question # 1:

How often do you regularly use these social media as a source of story ideas or to

research stories you are working on?

Several

times/

Week

Once

Weekly

Once

Monthly

Once

every

three

months

Once

every six

months

Once a

year

Never

37.8% 13.3% 8.6% 8.4% 3.5% 2.6% 25.9%

23.5% 14.8% 11.4% 8.5% 2.9% 6.3% 32.7%

10.7% 12.0% 8.0% 5.2% 3.0% 5.0% 56.1%

19.0% 12.0% 6.5% 5.8% 2.3% 2.5% 51.9%

Frequent Not Frequent

59.7%

69.3%

50.4%

40.4%

49.7%

30.7%

37.5% 62.5%

244.0 FINDINGS

Question # 1 :

How often do you regularly use these social media as a source of story ideas or to

research stories you are working on?

Facebook seems to be the most used network for professional purposes, with 37.8% of respondents

saying that they use it several times in a week.

However, there is a great disparity in the usage of other social media networks. Twitter for once, is

not a popular choice amongst the respondents with a majority (51.9%) of respondents have never

used it for professional purposes.

YouTube seems to have some interest amongst the respondents when it comes to professional

purposes. However, majority (50.4%) do not use it frequently.

The data when compared to other studies done in other countries, especially in the US in particular,

clearly indicates that Malaysian journalists have not embraced the social media culture for professional

purpose compared to their western counterparts. PR professionals in Malaysia can use this data as

benchmark when starting an online media relations campaign.

Part C : Online Tools And Media Relations Practices

254.0 FINDINGS Part C : Online Tools And Media Relations Practices

N: 435

Question # 2:

How many blogs do you read regularly in order to keep up with the subject matter you

cover as a journalist?

264.0 FINDINGS

Question # 2 :

How many blogs do you read regularly in order to keep up with the subject matter you

cover as a journalist?

Blogs seem to be a popular avenue for alternative news amongst the respondents. According to the

data, a majority of respondents (68%) read 3 or more blogs regularly.

This indicates that blogs have gained the popularity as a credible source of information or provides an

alternative view point on issues for journalists.

Part C : Online Tools And Media Relations Practices

274.0 FINDINGS Part C : Online Tools And Media Relations Practices

N: 432

Question # 3:

How many blogs, podcasts, corporate websites or other news services do you regularly receive via

an RSS feed?

284.0 FINDINGS

Question # 3 :

How many blogs, podcasts, corporate websites or other news services do you regularly

receive via an RSS feed?

By broadening the question to include other forms of subscription digital services in addition to blogs,

the data indicates a majority of the respondents (48.1%) do not use RSS feed to keep abreast with the

blogs, podcasts, corporate websites or other news services.

However, 19.2% of respondents have said that they receive updates from more than 5 sites.

Part C : Online Tools And Media Relations Practices

294.0 FINDINGS Part C : Online Tools And Media Relations Practices

N: 436

Question # 4:

How often do you visit corporate websites to research subject matter you cover as a

journalist?

304.0 FINDINGS

Question # 3 :

How often do you visit corporate websites to research subject matter you cover as a

journalist?

The importance of corporate websites as a preferred choice of information is indicated in this

question. 94% of respondents indicated that they use corporate website for their work.

41.3% respondents report visits frequently than once a week and more than 81% report a visit at least

once a month.

Part C : Online Tools And Media Relations Practices

5.0

CONCLUSION

&

RECOMMENDATIONS

322.0 OBJECTIVES (s)

Work email is the preferred choice for all ; press release, story ideas, media invite

Work phone and Face-to-Face modes are also the preferred choices

Least preferred choices: Social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter

The three major objectives of this survey are:

1. To determine the preferred mode of communication when receiving press

releases, media invites from PR practitioners

332.0 OBJECTIVES (s)

Most respondents fully agreed that most PR professionals overlook the element of

newsworthiness, with 72.1% in general agreement; emphasis on understanding what

elements create news

PR professionals do not understand which subjects journalists cover (53.6%)

50.4% respondents agree that PR professionals in Malaysia have poor media

relations skills.

More than half of the respondents (53%) disagreed that phone calls from PR people

interrupt their workflow

The three major objectives of this survey are:

2. To determine general perceptions about PR practitioners when dealing with the

media

332.0 OBJECTIVES (s)

Blogs seem to be a popular avenue for alternative news amongst the respondents.

According to the data, a majority of respondents (68%) read 3 or more blogs regularly.

48.1% respondents do not use RSS feed to keep abreast with the blogs, podcasts,

corporate websites or other news services.

Only 37.8% of respondents saying that they use Facebook several times in a week.

Twitter is not a popular choice amongst the respondents with a majority (51.9%) of

respondents have never used it

YouTube seems to have some interest amongst the respondents (More than 50%)

94% of respondents indicated that they use corporate website for their work.

The three major objectives of this survey are:

3. To determine the popularity of online tools as sources of information for

journalists

THANK YOUPresented by: Ms Manminder K. Dhillon (MIPR)

Analysis by:

a. Associate Proffessor Kiranjit Kaur

b. Manminder K. Dhilllon

c. Puspavathy Ramaloo

d. Saraswathi Muniappan

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