OM 7.12.0 Dealing with the News Media

Policy

The Vice President for External Relations and the Director of News & Digital Content Services are the official spokespersons to the news media.

All University faculty and staff who wish to release any information to the media should contact Marketing & External Relations; they should not contact the news media on their own.

Marketing & External Relations has worked very hard to build a relationship with the media, and can usually get a receptive response.

This enables Clarkson to insure: 1) that information going to the public is both accurate and complete; 2) that news is written to meet journalistic requirements; and 3) that news is released in a coordinated manner so as to avoid several Clarkson stories competing for a journalist's attention.

Anyone contacted by the news media should politely tell the caller that they must first contact the Vice President for External Relations or the Director of News & Digital Content Services. The employee should then contact Marketing & External Relations.

This allows the office to advise employees on such important matters as: 1) how to insure that main points are not overlooked by the reporter; 2) how to minimize the chance of being misquoted; and 3) how to avoid breaking etiquette with the media.

This policy applies to social media (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.), as well. Employees should not engage the news media via social media, but should instead direct any questions or inquiries to those listed above.

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History

Revised August 1969

Editorial revisions August 1974, 1977

Revised April 1979, October 1991

Editorial Revision (position titles), July 2017