Using the news values discussed in class and the press release writing tips from our textbook. Your goal is to demonstrate your knowledge of public relations by determining whether or not the news release provides newsworthy information and a clear presentation. You will be graded on the depth and sophistication of your analysis. Make sure to be specific, use examples and support your opinions.

You can analyze any press release published in 2021 or 2022, except you must avoid any press release affiliated with the University of the Cumberlands and any press release less than hundred fifty words in length. Also, if possible, please choose a news release from a company/organization you are familiar with.

Consider each of the following questions:

• Does your release include an attention-getting headline?
• Does the news release include an engaging news lead that includes essential facts?
• Does the press release story avoid puffery or exaggeration (words/phrases like exciting, revolutionary, one of the best)? Is there boasting, bragging or lying? Is appear to be biased or objective? Does it read like a story or like a commercial?
• Does the press release include any specialized jargon or acronyms that went unexplained? Clarity's important.
• Does your news release follow proper newswriting style things like the inverted pyramid and answering the five W's? Is it written in third person and in correct AP style? Does it answer the sort of questions you'd expect a story to answer about the topic?
• Are there quotes? Are the quotes interesting?
• Is the wording concise with tight writing? Most press releases should contain less than five hundred words. Is the story too long? Too short?
• Does the story seem newsworthy and worthwhile to the average reader or reporter? Use the news values that we discussed in class things like conflict, prominence and impact to help answer this.
• Are there any proofreading errors? Typos? Misspellings?
• Is the news release formatting correct? Does it include a release date like "For immediate release"? Contact information for reporters looking for more information? Boilerplate information describing the company/organization in the last paragraph? A mark to end the story like "###" or "0 -"?
• Would a media outlet publish this press release and/or turn it into a story? Would readers actually care about the subject matter?