COMU 1152 Media Conference 2

In this week’s COMU 1152 lecture, our guest speaker was Frances Whiting, who is an author, journalist and public speaker. 

According to her, our generation is the lucky one as we are able to choose our own carrier and have many opportunities. Before she became a journalist, she used to teach in a primary school, and she think it was a wonderful experience while she don’t think “that’s what I want to do forever”. Therefore she started to write for a local newspaper called Sunshine Coast Extra, and this “small” job led her into the whole industry. The suggestion she gave to us is “Think about what you want to do”, “What you begin is not what you end with”.

The first column Frances got is about EKKA, she gave her best into it and had success. She said the high pressure give her chance to lean things and improve. Now she writes her own column for the Sunday Mail, she said it’s essential to know your readers; it helped her to adjust the writings. During the time she wrote columns, she received lots of mails from readers, who loved her writings and felt like know her personally.

She also writes for the Q weekend magazine, in that column it requires a totally different writing style as the readers want to be guided and feel. The advice she gave is to be flexible and versatile in writing for different audience. “Don't copy another person's style.  Do it your own way, and if you do it with passion and enthusiasm, you will succeed." For the secret of her success, she said is “Find your own voice”.

In Frances’s following talk, she mentioned the basic rules in the PR filed is building contacts with any potential customers, and be professional in every form of communication you can. When getting into PR industry, first of all is having good relationship with the journalist. And it’s also important to find your own way as the industry is always changing with opportunities!

Summary
- Do something you love, and do it with passion
- Know the basics rules and do it your way
- Build good relationships with people
- the most important one, FIND YOUR OWN VOICE

I also found a website of Fraces's columns, here is the link:  http://www.couriermail.com.au/spike/columnists/frances-whiting