Suppose you returned to the role of journalist with the insight of the PR practitioner, exploring what it means to serve the public. For writers working in PR, the primary responsibility is to promote the client, and while this can lead to interesting stories for journalists to share with their readers, content must be filtered to serve the public good. Additional research and interviews are needed to ensure important information has not been omitted from the story that best serves the PR practitioner’s client but that might be important for the public to know.

Apply what you have learned to write a news report based on a press release. Include the press release on which you based your story

The requirements of your press release and statement-based stories include:

• Selecting a press release and a statement about a newsworthy event.

• Creating an original story from the press release so that it serves the public interest and properly cites direct quotes from the release.

• Making use of background research that is not in the press release. This may also include quotes from additional sources.

• Beginning with a strong lead and organizing information in the inverted pyramid structure.