Guest Speaker: Cameron Satterfield

Our guest speaker this Monday was Mr. Cameron Satterfield who is a Public Information Officer in the Health Department (St. Louis). He is mostly in charge of the press releases in the media; the person giving the information.

Some of the topics that we discussed in class were about his beginnings in media (focusing on radio and television). After having a background in TV news, he decided to work as a Public Information Officer.

Mr. Satterfield explained to us some of the main function in his job, writing news releases, and most of the time he says that his job is focuses on “disorder preparedness” which gets people prepared through difficult situation.

The right information at the right time plays a major role in his job, giving the example of Hurricane Katrina saying the “timely accurate information in media avoid a bigger disaster” because without the right information the media would just speculate. It is very valuable to be sure that people are informed. T he Internet (online information) plays a major role in the importance of adjusting the way delivery of information and how it reaches people by being proactive.

The evolution and the technology nowadays was also one of the topics that we talked about in class, the development of technology throughout history and the impact that it has in our societies especially in mass media; It is very important for us to be prepared and adapt to all the changes that technology will bring in the future. He says that we should know and have an idea about everything that is going on.

He says one of the principle skills that we have to have is writing because it expresses the importance of the words, and also reading local media and the stories that can impact the department.

To conclude with our discussion we spoke about the importance of internship especially for us the students because it gives you some idea of the media, work experience and you get to know people.

I think this Mr. Satterfield it gives us a better idea of the different carriers in media and some important advices to succeed.