Getting media coverage...

On the professional front, I never had an opportunity to work towards getting any sort of media coverage for my company or a client. However I would like to share an experience on the personal front. A few years back a very unfortunate incident had happened. A friend’s friend who was studying abroad was found dead in his apartment. Police investigation revealed that he was actually attacked and killed; the motive however remained a mystery. My friend was absolutely devastated. What was more alarming was this wasn’t a standalone incident. In a span of 7-8 months, quite a few incidents had been reported involving killing of Indian students. This sent a wave of panic among the Indian student community and everyone was at a complete loss as to what was going on.

To ensure proper investigation so that such incidents can be prevented in the future, a huge campaign was launched using the social media channels. We circulated online petitions requesting the Indian government to address the issue of the security of Indian students residing abroad and for “an efficient, transparent and expedited investigation” of these killings. We contacted a few Indian journalist friends and asked them to request their foreign colleagues in that country to give full news coverage to this issue. Protest rallies held in the slain student’s hometown; criticisms, concern, anger vented on the social media sites helped gather the Indian media’s attention and this unfortunate incident was extensively written and talked about in all national newspapers and TV channels.

This is the closest I have worked towards getting media attention to an incident and I would say it requires a lot of hard work, patience and PR skills.