ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at three important media tactics: media conferences, familiarisations and events. The media conference-also called a press conference or news conference-is an important tool for getting important messages out to a specific group of media simultaneously. While leaks and behind-the-scenes stories can place an issue on the media agenda, the media conference has a quality of fairness and democratic access to it because generally it will be open to any interested media. A media conference provides a great opportunity to associate your key sponsor/s with your event, individual or organisation. The conference provides the opportunity to have sponsor logos or products in full view to be captured in photographs and vision. The sponsorship tie-in will often be organised in conjunction with a marketing department. Media conferences are used widely to set the record straight. Rumour is often the outcome of unanswered questions, and this can be extremely damaging.
