By Lívia Caixeta
The diversification of communication channels requires versatile and proactive professionals
In a brief search on the internet I have found a few definitions for the term “press officer”. Check out one of the most complete that I reply from Infojobs website:
“The press officer is the professional responsible for performing the mediation of communication between a company, organization, people and the media.
A press officer disclose the activities of a particular person, company, product or service, arousing media interest for issues related to the client. (…)
For the professional’s good performance as a press officer, besides the graduation it is necessary to be highly skilled, to know well the operating structures of each media outlets and the profile of their respective professionals”.
http://www.infojobs.com.br/artigos/Assessor_de_Imprensa__3714.aspx
Maybe this definition is not that complete. With different types of media and the invasion of social networks, strengthening the interactive/participatory communication, information start to circulate much faster. With this, the press secretaries also had to updated themselves.
What at first was limited to practically produce an informative and contextualized text, today asks for globalization, strategy, focus and multi platform knowledge, which means that the work of the press officer cannot be limited to the contact with the journalists of big media outlets. We also have to recognize the potential of dissemination of news that blogs, Facebook profiles, Instagram, Twitter, etc. have.
Therefore, the press secretaries not only are proactive researchers, but also need to have strategic management skills to achieve their goals. Above all, with so many publications it is necessary versatility to see, understand and be able to communicate with the range of channels where the customer may be exposed.
