Media Relations Management and Its Impact on Organisational Reputation in Nigerian Corporations

This study examines media relations management practices and their impact on organisational reputation in selected Nigerian corporations, assessing how communication departments manage journalist relationships, control information flow, and leverage earned media for brand building. Media relations remains a foundational corporate communication function, and in Nigeria's high-media-attention corporate environment, managing the media relationship effectively is critical for reputation maintenance. This study uses a mixed-method design combining surveys of 55 corporate communication managers and PR directors from manufacturing, banking, oil and gas, and consumer goods sectors across Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt, with interviews of 20 business journalists who regularly cover corporate Nigeria. A reputation tracking component analyses media sentiment scores for 10 corporations using media monitoring data over 18 months. Findings reveal that proactive media relations, including regular journalist briefings, media tours, and transparent information sharing, is associated with significantly more positive media sentiment scores than reactive media relations approaches that engage the press only when required. Organisations that maintain dedicated media relations officers with journalism backgrounds generate more accurate and favourable coverage than those handled by generalist PR staff. Crisis media relations failures, characterised by delayed responses, corporate jargon, and information withholding, create disproportionate reputation damage. Social media has changed media relations by enabling journalists to research corporate stories without corporate engagement, reducing PR gatekeeping power. The study recommends proactive media partnership models, journalist secondment programmes, and transparent communication as the cornerstones of effective Nigerian corporate media relations.

Keywords: media relations, corporate communication, organisational reputation, Nigeria, PR management.