Getting and using information
Media release
Also: press release
An official statement sent to news outlets by an organisation, written to announce something and angle it favourably.
A media release is the raw material of a great deal of news: an organisation's version of events, packaged for easy use. The skill is to treat it as a starting point, not a finished story. Strip out the spin, check the claims, make the calls and find what is actually new. Public relations exists to get releases run; journalism exists to test them first.
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