School of Communication, Cinematic and Creative Arts

By Daisy Atino

The public relations writing class taught by Dr. Caroline Kiarie invited Strategic communications specialist Hazel King'ori on Thursday, November 23 to speak to the students on PR writing. Hazel is an established PR professional with proven experience in running impactful multi-media campaigns with national reach.

Hazel's talk focused on the 5 W’s and H – Who, What, Where, When, Why and How as the fundamental framework for effective communication. These elements, she argued, form the backbone of any successful public relations strategy.
The main takeaways were that the ‘Who’ is important because it defines your target audience. Whether it's consumers, stakeholders, or the general public, knowing your audience is the first step towards crafting messages that resonate.

The ‘What’ which is the specific message you want to communicate is critical and being able to create a clear and compelling message is just as important. As for the ‘Where’ and ‘When’, context and timing is key. This means selecting the right platform your target audience is on and choosing the right moment to deliver your message to them.

The ‘Why’ which speaks to the need for a purpose-driven narrative. Whether it's to inform, persuade, or inspire action, a clear sense of purpose adds depth and authenticity to PR writing.

And lastly, the ‘How’ which is about the different ways one can communicate. Whether it’s through traditional means or digitally, the point is to select the right channel that will deliver the message to the intended audience and in some cases produce real time feedback.

The talk was very informative and provided students with the opportunity to connect real-life scenarios to their classroom knowledge through engaging question and answer sessions and insightful feedback.

Third year journalism student Leslie Kashando said: “The lecture was really amazing. I liked how we got to have a perspective of how public relation writing is used in the field. She talked about writing for your public, "you write for your public not for you". And I really liked that part.”

“The public are the receiver of the information and it's important to make sure that the message speaks to them, a message that they can understand. I feel like it's something that we forget a lot,” she added.