Megan's Blog

Growing up, family dinner was always important. I remember coming home from school and watching the news because that is what my parents always watched while they cooked supper together. When I went away to college for the first year, the schedule I was used to vanished. I didn't realize how much you can miss just by not turning the television to a news station every once in a while. One day my Nana called and was talking about how my cousin had come down with the swine flu. Having not turned on the tv in several months, I had no clue what she was talking about... Sad, I know. Since then I have made it a point to watch the news at some point in time each day.

I love the Today show in NBC. It aires each morning and I make it a point to watch it every morning if possible. However, as I have matured in my agricultural communications degree, news stations have begun to have an even greater meaning in my life. Through my internship as the community and media relations intern I have developed a more personal relationship with the media past just watching the morning or evening news. I have learned how to contact and negotiate media time, submit press releases and media advisories and develop a relationship with a person on a news team so that my press release is not thrown in the trash with hundreds of others but rather it makes the evening news.

This month, Tyson Foods has donated over a million pounds of food to 37 food banks across the United States. These donation events began after Tyson Foods launched the findings of a new hunger study called KNOW Hunger at a nationwide press conference in Washington D.C. The day before this conference, I called major news stations around the United States telling them about the conference and encouraging them to tune in by satellite. I have also helped write press releases and media advisories for all 37 food banks as well as helped arrange the press conferences for each event.

The face of television news has taken a new meaning in my life. From flipping the channel to watch Friends as soon as the news went to commercials, to working with them on daily basis and developing a relationship with them. I have learned that one must be assertive and continuously follow-up with the media. They have a million and one things going on in the news room and you have to use the inverted pyramid and set up your story to pitch angles that the media will be interested in.