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Tips On Journalism And PR By Kim Kaiser

Garth Beyer

Straight forward, her biggest suggestion was to get internships.

If this is the first post you’ve read of mine, you’ll quickly notice how often I remind everyone that nothing compares with first-hand experience when it comes to PR and journalism.

During those internships, don’t go in a suit, unless it’s armour because Kim mentioned multiple times that “You have to have tough skin.”

If you want to keep that internship, you better learn that Fact Checking isn’t just in the political realm.

To help understand b2b and consumer business: b2b you are connected all the time, it’s focused, one-on-one. Consumer to consumer has much more variety.

In your writing, it’s okay to repeat topics. There will always be new people coming in to read it for the first time and any veterans could likely use the reminder.

My personal favorite of the night: If you don’t give feedback, you wont be viewed as talented. Who ever criticizes your work, criticize their work as well.

Kim Kaiser is a business-to-business editor based in Milwaukee, Wis., She is the managing editor of Farm Equipment magazine and associate editor of Rural Lifestyle Dealer magazine, both published by Lessiter Publications. She has been working in business-to-business publishing for seven years. Prior to joining Lessiter Publications, Kim worked as a freelance writer and editor for various publications and digital properties.

The Shannon-Weaver Model

Garth Beyer

The Shannon-Weaver Model, also known as the Linear Communication Model and the Mathematical Theory of Communication, demonstrates the process of communicating. It also helps you realize why the most effortless acts of communication can result in complete misinterpretation or misunderstanding.

It was in 1947 that Claude E. Shannon created this theory with the intention for it to be used in facilitating information transmission over telephone lines. Not surprisingly, it took on an entirely new role of being one of the most largely used inter-personal communication models to this day.

The model contains 8 key components: Source, Encoder, Message, Channel, Noise, Decoder, Receiver and Feedback.

Source: The source of communication is an individual creator or group of individuals who have a message they wish to be received by another individual or group. The source, or origin of the message, must also have a definite purpose of initiating the communication model.

Encoder: The encoder, also referred to as the sender or transmitter, puts the message into specific signals that will later be interpreted. The encoder must choose distinct forms of signals to represent the meaning of the message clearly.

A gesture of a handshake can be encoded as an image, but it would not work as effectively if it were put into a text format.

Message: The message is the content that is being communicated from one end of the model to the other. Naturally you will send multiple messages that are precise, rather than a single message which has too many meanings.

Channel: The channel is the path on which the message travels. The encoder, while deciding how to best transmit the message, must also consider the best path on which the transmitted message will travel. This channel can be any medium such as magazine, radio, film, internet, etc,.

Noise: Inevitably the channel is already filled with noise; anything that interferes with the transmission of the message. This can be the radio playing too loudly in the background or the encoder’s own inability to enunciate correctly.

Decoder: The decoder simply does the opposite of what the encoder does. The decoder interprets the original message in a way that the receiver will understand. Additionally, the decoder will act as a filter in the sense that the message will have as much noise removed as possible.

Receiver: The receiver is the individual or audience whom the sender had the intention to deliver the message to.

Originally the linear model of communication had stopped there. It wasn’t until Warren
Weaver worked on the fundamentals of the model and added a necessary component. Weaver made the effect of the model orbicular in the sense that he had attached feedback to the model. *See image above.

Feedback: Feedback is the receivers response to the message. The feedback’s intent is to let the encoder know exactly how accurately the message was interpreted as well as simply reporting whether the message was received or not.

Feedback allows the once linear model to become cyclical so that each party – the individual or group at each end of the model – can continue communication.

As an example, we will stick to the model’s origin by using the telephone.

You, the source, wish to convey the message that you have completed the report early to your boss. The message is then encoded as a voice message into the phone, with the phone, or the phones cable being the channel on which the message is traveling. The noise present is simply your daughter screaming in the background as you were working from home this evening. The decoder will present the message as a voice message for the receiver, your boss, to listen to. Your boss will than reciprocate the process and present you with feedback, whether that is simply telling you that you did a good job or hinting at a promotion in the future.

Who Writes for Writers?

Garth Beyer

A writer is someone who writes. Or is it?

Eliot Rose seems to express it as something much more than someone who simply writes.

It is sort of obvious the difference between a Writer and someone who writes. What I want to know is who writes for writers?

Every career in the world has someone writing on them. The politicians have journalists swarming over them like they just battered their bee hive. Even small home improvement business’s have writers discussing their products in articles and people online blogging about their experience at the business and videos of their products. (More often funny than promotional) Even the common person has people writing for them, that is how we get both non-fiction and fiction books. I ask again, who writes for writers?

The answer slightly touched my mind as I was reading blogs at ProBlogger which is mainly a collection of guest posts. Guest posts?

Many blogs use guest posts instead of interviews. The blog will let someone who they think has something worthy to say and relates to their niche to write a post for their blog. This is best promoted when the guest blogger is someone of extreme significance and is well-known. The ability to impact readers works just the same for someone who simply has an interest in what the blog naturally discusses.

Then I was wondering how negatively effective it is to have a guest post that has nothing to do with your niche. Sparingly, it could throw people off track, inspire a new idea, change perspectives, and simply remind people why they come to your blog. Of course the guest blog would be different than what your niche is, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be something your passionate about. (Ex. Your niche blog is Public Speaking. You also have a passion for exercise but never blog about it. Guest blogger comes and writes a blog on fitness.) Now you get a chance to create a connection between fitness and public speaking. Let’s see how good you really are as a Writer. Proving that you can make those sort of connections interesting would attract all the more writers.

Now instead of attracting readers who have an interest in Public speaking, you now attract readers who’s niche is fitness but have a passion for public speaking. Viewers go up. Well I gave my answer for the question, “Who writes for the writers?”     What’s your answer?

Stay Positive and Go Out And Write For Other Writers Too (someone has to)

Garth E. Beyer

“Two is better than One. Especially when Two can multiply your followers”

I am looking for Guest Bloggers that write about life lessons. You can email me at TheGarthBox@gmail.com