Bite Size Comms

In Public Relations, media relations work has traditionally been seen as crafting newsworthy press releases to pitch to media outlets. This has been a cherished skill since 1906 when Ivy Lee wrote the first press release (crisis communications as it was in response to a train crash). However, the media landscape is changing. Social news stories are increasingly important. We are in an age of visual storytelling.

Some stats from the excellent Taylor Herring report ‘The news is dead – Long live the news’. On TikTok, the top three news outlets are LADbible (15.3m), Daily Mail (9.9m), and Sky News (6.2m). On Instagram, it is BBC News (28.6m), LADbible (14.4m) and People (14m). On Facebook, LADbible (55m), Daily Mail (22m), and UNILAD (19.4m). On X, Economist (27.1m), BBC News (15.4m), and Sky News (8.5m). And on Snap, Daily Mail (19.4m), Insider (19.4m) and Vice (12.9m). Social media is reshaping the way that newsrooms operate. The age-old agenda-setting and framing theories beloved by journalists are dying, overtaken by user-generated content. News outlets must curate this visual content to survive financially and to grab audience attention. Newsrooms now have video editors and content creators, and fewer traditional word-based journalists. In Taylor Herring’s research, 23% of UK news outlets viewed social news channels as their primary focus in 2025, and 37% said it was becoming increasingly important. Think about some of the big stories from last year. The riots in 2024 were documented via user-generated content on TikTok. Donald Trump posts US policy on his social media before any news release to what he refers to as “the legacy media”.

Yet are public relations practitioners working in-house for organisations or at a PR agency responding to the shift to social news? No. Some 54% of news outlets said they rarely received news assets that work for social platforms, and 36% said they sometimes get the required assets. Only 7% said they usually get assets that work for social platforms. Press releases are overwhelmingly seen as too promotional by journalists. Are we, as PR practitioners, not missing an opportunity here?

At a minimum, we should link our press release to decent downloadable images. Always include pictures with clear attribution and the permission to use. News outlets need images for every story. In fact, 82% of social news journalists say these are an extremely important part of the story.

Next, think about supplying downloadable vertical video on the story. 29% of social news journalists said that video content was a very important component of a story, and a further 29% saw it as increasingly important. In my experience, only a few PR people supply video content. I’m thinking of a major museum that does that regularly as part of promoting an upcoming exhibition or event. 

Also, consider how you are packaging the story. What is the headline, the main picture and then the content? That is what the social news editor will review. The social post has to tell a story.

As PR practitioners, it is in our interest to embrace visual storytelling in our media relations work.

[Image of a hand operating a camera lens. Photo by Michele Tardivo on Unsplash]