The public face or spokesperson of an or ganization should be someone able and dynamic as he or she will make a significant contribution to the overall image, which is of great im portance. A few years ago I attended an important workshop for economic journalists in Amman, and one of the speakers was the Prime Minister s Economic Advisor. What he had to say was extremely interesting, but once he had finished, a Dutch journalist remarked that of the 20 journalists present, only four had taken notes. The foreign media organizations need stories to jus tify spending tens of thousands of dollars on having people in this region, and you should consider it part of your job to help make sure that they get them. In this respect it is always useful to tie minor events with major ones, even if you have to spend some time racking your brains to find a way to do this and even if, under certain circumstances, you feel that this is somehow taking advantage of people s misfortune.
Human drama is extremely important in the world of media.
Whether preparing an annual report, a brochure or an article, one should try to draw attention to it by using human drama. A lot of the problems in the Middle East in general and Palestine in particular are the result of gross injustice, but the media does not work according to justice, but according to drama and entertainment, which must be used in order to introduce a mes sage and get a story into the media. A second point is that if one wants coverage by the international media, he should play on the fact that journalists talk to each other all the time. A good relationship with a few respected journalists increases the chances that they will give your name to their colleagues when asked who would be a good person to contact. The strength of such a relationship will depend to a great extent on the credibility of the information that one supplies and the willingness to provide information without necessarily expecting some form of instantaneous reward.