Coca Cola Company in Media Story - Term Paper Example

Table of Contents Introduction 2 Analysis 2 Stage One 2 Stage Two 4 Stage Three 5 Stage Four 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Bibliography 11 Introduction Media news writing is a technique which involves different sections like sources and contacts, interviewing, brainstorming the story and finally writing the story. The media plays a very important role in people’s life. Therefore, media has a responsibility to judge the news properly which is to be displayed before making it public. News story should also consist of certain facts like simplicity, people, facts, order, and waffle-free, everyday language (Unison, n.d.). News story selection basically depends upon the factors like importance, impact, emotion, interest and timeliness. The stories can also be divided into hard news, soft news, feature, and editorial. Media news process basically consists of planning, researching, and writing (Media Awareness Network, 2010). Analysis The story selected for the news is business budget related story. The business story can be prepared by following four sections of media news preparation. Stage One In the process of completing the news story, the company selected is Coca Cola. The four primary sources that will help in completing the story regarding budget scenario at Coca Cola are going to be finance committee members, president of the particular business segment related to budget section, chief executive officer and chief financial officer. Also there going to be six secondary sources for taking the interview. They are going to be officers in general management, supply chain management, food service management, and strategy and business development, brand marketing, strategic growth officer as well as global marketing manager (The Coca Cola Company, 2009). The above mentioned sources form the core part of budget related decision making. Therefore, their point of view is crucial in preparing the news story. Finance committee is generally responsible for preparing a budget of company. The committee helps the board members and higher authority of the company to discover the facts and figures associated with a budget plan. Also, they make the board and decision making authority like chief financial officer aware of previous year’s budget and also the areas that are going to need looking after in preparing the budget. The committee prepares a review of the capital expenditures, budget operations, and financial operations. They also recommend about the dividend policy (The Coca Cola Company, 2009). The budget related information then is streamlined to decision making authority like chief financial officers, chief executive officers and the president. They all are part of the decision making authority regarding budget allocation like which department should get main importance in preparation of budget. Therefore for preparing the news story with actual facts, which is one of the main criteria about high quality media news an interview with above discussed four primary sources, will provide necessary amenities in completing a faultless story. The secondary sources mentioned like officers of supply chain, food service, brand marketing, global marketing, and strategic growth plays a vital role designing the budget of soft drink oriented company like Coca Cola. As departments like marketing and supply chain are vital component of budget allocation, therefore they will have a say in amount of budget allocated to each section. So, an interview with them will help in getting further insight into the budget planning of Coca Cola. The budget planning is a very important piece of information for a company. Therefore, for getting the correct piece of information the above mentioned sources are very relevant in this context. For contacting the sources firstly location of the office of the sources are found out through various sources like website of the company. Then a prior appointment has to be fixed with the intended interviewees by contacting the office of the company. The interview has to be conducted on the appointed time by preparing a set of questions on the subject of the preparing news like budget news. The entire process will help in the researching process of preparing news. Stage Two This stage comprise of the interviewing process. The primary sources are main decision making authority in case of budgetary segment. Therefore, the four primary sources president, vice president, chief financial officers, chief executive officers are the backbone of budget related decisions. Therefore, they can be asked about the main budget related questions like the total amount of budget allocation for the impending financial year, which segments of business they are focusing on for this financial year, how have they changed their decision in the allocation of fund to the segment from the previous year, why they have changed their financial planning, which area of their business segment they feel needs a financial boost up, how the financial committee sees the growth, budgetary allocations for the previous year and what they are going to recommend the decision making authorities to focus on in their budgetary planning. Also, the president and chief executive officers role is to take the final decision regarding the planned budget. So, their opinion could lead to a proper assessment for the intended story. They could be asked about their thoughts regarding the proposed budget, what they are thinking of about the overall growth perspective of the company and whether they are happy with the present progress. These questions will help in collecting substantial information for news story. Stage Three The third stage is about brainstorming the news story. After planning and researching and also interviewing the intended person for collecting the relevant information, the entire information is now sorted out. This helps in finding the important points for discussion among the discussed news items. The review of collected information from the primary and secondary sources will have to be edited to finalise the ultimate presentable information. The value of news to the readers and listeners is one of the prime issues for preparing any news story. In the selected news story related to budget in Coca Cola, the valuable information would come from primary sources like chief financial officer and finance committee. Their information would give a valuable insight into the core planning of the company, their previous financial situation, present allocation of resources, and also why a particular segment has been allocated a certain amount of revenue over the other. These news are of immense value in case of preparing a budget related news, as the budget news has to incorporate facts and figures, financial statements to make it more believable and also relevant to the readers of the story. The story can be presented with headline relating to Coca Cola’s past financial years’ review and present financial year’s budget plan. The photos in this story can include that of the interviewed personalities like chief executives, and president. The tables are also vital part of budget news. In the tables the comparative figures of company’s financial statement can be put up to make readers aware of the reasons behind a certain budgetary allocation over the other. The entire budgetary information can be made a part of the news article. Also, some quotes from the interviewed executives could make the story more interesting. A story regarding budget has to look for both previous and present implications of the proposed budget. Also, the reason behind focussing on a particular product segment like in case of coca cola, the flavour brand which is getting the main focus in the budget allocation. The story can be printed in the financial segment of a news paper like The Guardian, The Telegraph, and The Financial Times. Coca Cola is a multinational company and their business operations are of immense value to all reader segments especially the readers who deal with financial matters like that of analysts. They will find the news story to be of great value. Even general readers can derive valuable knowledge from the story as it will provide them with an insight into the minds of the interviewed executives, who are of great repute. The entire story can become a value adding exercise for all reader segments. Stage Four This stage consists of writing the news story from the gathered information. The written news story will consist of sections like lead, a link par, and quotes. The lead section is one of the most important elements of a news story. It is generally the summary section of the entire story. It is used to draw a reader towards reading the story. In case of the story on the selected topic of Coca Cola’s budget planning, the lead of the story may consist of the Coca Cola’s financial review and their proposed plan for the coming year. The view of chief executive, president, financial planners could be used as a quoted remark. Then, Coca Cola’s facts and figures will be stated like company’s profit figure for the previous year, the figures relating to their most profitable brand and the amount of profit it made for the company will be put up in this segment. Their expected profit for the upcoming financial year will be included after this segment. The allocation of funds and revenues to different segment of business and the reason for them opting for the segment has to be included in the story. The reason behind the decision of such allocation will be displayed by quoted statement from chief executive. The importance of global marketing in their decision making and also the importance of competition on influencing their budget decision have to be included in the discussion. The recent problem regarding any issues related to the company can be highlighted in the discussion and also its impact on budget will also be of significant importance in the story. Company’s last quarter financial report will be of great value to judge the reason for certain amount of budget allocation (Marketing News, 2008). The points included in the main body of the story will be a summarised collection of entire relevant information and also relevant quotes from the interviewed personalities of Coca Cola Company. The concluding part of the written story will comprise of the future aspirations of the company from their business and how they are hoping to see their financial situation planned out in the coming financial year when they are going to conduct the budget again. Conclusion Media news writing is a very constructive and responsible task. Media is a medium of communication which can create trust or can destroy belief of people towards a particular company or personality. Therefore, it is an absolute responsibility of media news to reflect absolute free and fair reporting in the news without any bias and malaise. A proper news story can make people knowledgeable and also aware of the present day’s global happenings. Media thus plays a vital role in global audiences’ life and also on their work. References Marketing News, 2008. Coca Cola to slash marketing budget. Marketing. [Online] Available at: http://www.marketingnews.co.uk/2008/07/coka-cola-to-slash-marketing-budget/ [Accessed June 19, 2010]. Media Awareness Network, 2010. Writing a News Story. Media toolkit for youth tip sheet. [Online] Available at: http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/resources/special_initiatives/toolkit_resources/tipsheets/writing_news_story.cfm [Accessed June 19, 2010]. The Coca Cola Company, 2009. The Finance Committee. Notice of annual meeting of shareowners. [Online] Available at: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/investors/2009_coca-cola_proxy.pdf [Accessed June 19, 2010]. The Coca Cola Company, 2009. Working as a Global Team. Our People. [Online] Available at: http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/ourcompany/meet_our_people.html [Accessed June 19, 2010]. Unison, No Date. How to write a news story. Article. [Online] Available at: http://www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/B1872.pdf [Accessed June 19, 2010]. Bibliography Babbage, J., 2009. 'Ain't singin' for Coke'. BBC News. [Online] Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8357593.stm [Accessed June 19, 2010]. Deahl, R., 2010. The Basics of New Writing: The 5 W’s. News Writing. [Online] Available at: http://mediacareers.about.com/od/thenecessaryskills/a/WritingSkills.htm [Accessed June 19, 2010]. McKane, A. News writing. SAGE, 2006. Rosenberg, A., 2010. A Rough Year. Newswriting. [Online] Available at: http://www.newswriting.com/ [Accessed June 19, 2010]. The Write Market, 2006. Cut Energy Costs with New Insulated Wall. Example of a Sample News Story. [Online] Available at: http://www.thewritemarket.com/press/index.php?press=samplestory&title=Example%20of%20a%20Sample%20News%20Story [Accessed June 19, 2010]. Read More