Road Policing – Telling It and Selling It – Old Media versus New Media

Road policing and the media is an odd relationship at best. For the subject matter to be covered misfortune generally has to occur. Then there is the matter of what stage to tell the story from – New Media? Old Media? Some combination of the two? _x000D_
As more newsrooms in metropolitan areas close and/or merge an country newsrooms disappear altogether – the question for road policing professionals is – Are we heading towards a media environment where the enforcement story is told only on the social media stage?_x000D_
During the NSW Police Force Christmas road policing campaign of 1996/1997 more than 60 media interviews were conducted on radio and television_x000D_
During the 2015 Easter road policing campaign, a keynote post on the NSW Police Force and Traffic and Highway Patrol Command Facebook page received a combined reach of 143,200 and an engagement rate of %15 _x000D_
Just as the early edition newspapers and 6am radio news bulletins used to set the tone for the media cycle of the day – as road policing professionals we must ask ourselves: do we and how should we use social media to prompt mainstream media into telling our story?_x000D_