Two weeks ago we reported on the Department of Environment's workshop for the media at the Baboon Sanctuary. Today the department held part two of this workshop at the Radisson - and this time it was for public officers - so that they could learn about the process of newsgathering. Why is this relevant to their field of work? Well, according to Communications Consultant Daedra Haylock, if environmental officers understand and appreciated the work 'we' do, there will be a more fluid and efficient flow of information on environmental topics to the public. She told us how this session will achieve that.
Daedra Haylock, Communications Consultant
"The first half focused on the media and how to inform them on what is going on - on the environment, department official's standpoint. This part is focusing on the government officials, trying to make them be equip for working with the media, so that they can understand the dynamics of working with the media, the dynamics of the media in Belize and help them to prepare and understand the work of new gathering and the work of media management and the work of that whole process of assembling a newscast. A lot of these departments have press persons, or public relations or communications persons. They don't necessarily have media background, so they need to understand what goes into a press release. Who, what, when, where, why and the how's and how to assemble that together. So there is an activity that we pick a topic that is related to environmental issues and to try and let them be able to come up with questions and concerns that the media may have in relation to this scenario."
Martin Alegria, Chief Environmental Officer
"We think about the media only the news. No, it's also to work with them and come up with topics, thematic areas that we would like to be focused on for the benefit of Belizeans, general people. It's an ongoing initiative, hopefully from now hence forth and as we go along we will build more stronger partnerships, produce more products that we can work on together."
Topics such as how to write more succinct press releases were also discussed. The first phase of training was held on January 8th.
Email
Print