From Assignment to Message

Assignment Clarification

The "5 Ws and H" (Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How) checklist that journalists use in covering a story or that strategic communicators would need to consider when developing a campaign can be used with a slightly different orientation for communicators who need to clarify an assignment.

Let's imagine that in the strategic communications context your boss sends the following text: "Our client is interested in exploring bitcoin. See what you can find out". Or in the newsroom your editor drops by and says, "The Times had a big story about bitcoin. Should we cover this?" How do you even start? In upcoming lessons we will delve into the kinds of questions you'll ask and answer when developing a research agenda (who is the audience, what are the angles of the topic, where might you find information). But before you can begin to understand the specifics of the research task itself you need further clarification about the gatekeeper's expectations. Following are some of the kinds of questions you might ask to clarify the assignment.

WHO? Who will be seeing the report you produce? This will give you clues as to the nature of the language to use, the formality or informality of the report you deliver. Previous experience with this person or team will inform you about their expectations.

WHAT? What form should the information take? Learn if this is just an informal backgrounder, information needed to justify a whole new campaign or series idea, or a competitive intelligence report. Knowing what type of report or document is expected will help you set a framework for the task.

WHEN? When is the work to be delivered? Knowing the deadline or desired delivery date for your work will help you gauge what level of work can be done (and help you manage your boss' expectations).

WHERE? Where will the report be delivered? Do they want a written report, a briefing at a meeting, a document shared on the office cloud?

WHY? Why is the information needed? Is a campaign / series already planned and they need concrete information to move the plan forward? Is this just exploratory to see if there is justification for a particular direction?

Once these questions are answered, the HOW to begin researching will be much easier to answer.

Most of the assignments you are given are intended to ultimately lead to a communications message of some type. Whether it will result in a news release, or a new advertising campaign, or a news story, knowing as much as possible about the intended outcome of the research work you do will help you understand the amount and type of information you'll need to research.

Although the answers to these questions might be revealed later in the process, it is important to understand that the answers will help form your information strategy.

Source: University of Minnesota, https://open.lib.umn.edu/infostrategies/chapter/3-2-assignment-clarification/
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License.

Message Purpose

Another important consideration when clarifying a message task is to determine the ultimate purpose of the message. Messages fulfill seven functions:

1. they provide information about the availability of products and services: advertising and publicity
2. they entertain: special features, advertising
3. they inform: basic news, advertising, publicity
4. they provide a forum for ideas: editorials, interpretive stories, documentaries, commentaries
5. they educate: depth stories, self-help stories and columns, informative pieces, advertising with product features and characteristics
6. they serve as a watchdog on government: investigative pieces and straight coverage of trials and other public events
7. they persuade: advertising, publicity, editorials and commentaries (ftnt 2)

Communicators pay attention to these expectations as they seek information for messages. In order for a message to have audience appeal, it must meet the audience's expectations in purpose and form. Analyzing the context for a message includes the task of clearly understanding the purpose of the message. All of the subsequent information-gathering steps are affected by this basic requirement.

Time / Space

Messages must be tailored to meet the time and space constraints imposed by the context within which the message is being created. You cannot explore all information available for every message on every occasion. Deadlines and costs involved in collecting some information force you to make choices about particular angles and information sources.

A long, interpretive news story on which a reporter might work for days must use many information sources. That stands in contrast to a breaking news story about a fire that must be posted immediately to the news website or sent out as a 140-character tweet.

The brand advertising campaign that will run over many months and include ads in several media is likely to rest on a large information base. But one retail ad placed in a local newspaper by the neighborhood shoe store does not require such an extensive information search. You make choices about the management of both time and money based on the time and space constraints of your message task.

Time factors in broadcast news, for example, may be the major information constraints. If you have just 1 minute and 20 seconds to tell a story with words and pictures, you must tailor the information strategy to help in identifying the most efficient sources for telling that story.

Space factors may be the major information constraints for a message that will be delivered on mobile device. The efficient information search is essential to the audience's expectation of effective storytelling and the media organization's requirement for economy in producing a message.