The agriculture, forestry, and natural resources industries may not necessarily perceive the media as an ally. AgForestry Class 41 recently participated in the “Working with the Media” seminar in Spokane and learned, over the course of three days, how to make the media their friend. Class members learned valuable lessons from TV, radio, and newspaper personnel on how and when to reach out to journalists and reporters. A common theme surfaced from all media organizations; If you don’t tell your story, someone else will! Each speaker emphasized how important it is to reach out to the media professionals
now
in order to build relationships. Those relationships will prove to be valuable one day.
Class 41 held a reception at the Spokesman Review and Rob Curley, Editor of the Spokesman, surprised the entire crowd by inviting them on an exclusive, all-access tour of the Spokesman’s 127-year-old building, including the clock tower! Rob also shared with the class the “hot-off-the-press” copies of the new book published by the Spokesman Review titled, “A Year in the Fields: The State of the Washington Farmer.” Curley and staff spent the last two years chronicling the state of Washington agriculture, and published it in book form.
Finally, Class 41 learned about the ever-increasing importance of utilizing social media. Russ Vaagen of Vaagen Timbers reminded the class that social media has become the new norm in getting your message out to consumers. Phil Bradeen, IT and Content Director for Vaagen Bros. Lumber, explained to the class through a flying drone demonstration that you can’t tell the forestry story from standing on the ground. Overall, everyone left with a new excitement to embrace the media, in all its forms, in a much more productive way.
What Class Participants are Saying:
- It was a revelation to find out that we can actually impact what is in our local media by reaching out to them and engaging. That is empowering, and I hope to use this to help my business or other organizations I work with get their story out to the public.
- I gained so much insight into how media is gathered and released. My perception of media was generally negative before this seminar but now I'm able to see the realities. I learned about the importance of carefully forming your story and how to reach out to the different media avenues.
- Overall this was probably my favorite seminar so far. The tours were great, and I learned so much about how media just has a job to do like myself. If we work together it's a lot easier for all of us and will benefit myself when I really need the media on my side.
- There is real value in building a relationship with local or regional media personnel ahead of a crisis. As in many aspects of leadership it is also about your willingness to show up. When media calls, we want to answer and deliver our story and our message.
