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Public relations vs media relations assistant

The differences between public relations and media relations assistants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a public relations and a media relations assistant. Additionally, a public relations has an average salary of $48,383, which is higher than the $45,450 average annual salary of a media relations assistant.

The top three skills for a public relations include press releases, web content and facebook. The most important skills for a media relations assistant are press releases, athletics website, and press conferences.

Public relations vs media relations assistant overview

Public RelationsMedia Relations Assistant
Yearly salary$48,383$45,450
Hourly rate$23.26$21.85
Growth rate8%8%
Number of jobs22,72123,773
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 75%Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Average age4242
Years of experience44

What does a public relations do?

Public relations is a strategic way of developing and maintaining a client's or company's public image through media coverage, appearances, and press releases by designing and developing events to raise funds or to spread awareness to the public regarding products, brands, or individuals. It involves research and evaluation of programs including financial, marketing, employee, or government relations using topics of public interest and news items. Due to our present technological innovations, public relations now use webinars, blogs, and downloadable resources under one convenient website.

What does a media relations assistant do?

A media relations assistant is an entry-level media and public relation professional. They offer administrative support to a public relations department within an organization. They perform a number of tasks such as researching relevant trends and data that help with the company's PR campaign, helping create marketing materials, maintaining relationships with existing clients, and working to find new clients. They also have to keep accurate correspondence records and monitor social media accounts.

Public relations vs media relations assistant salary

Public relations and media relations assistants have different pay scales, as shown below.

Public RelationsMedia Relations Assistant
Average salary$48,383$45,450
Salary rangeBetween $32,000 And $72,000Between $32,000 And $62,000
Highest paying CityRichmond, VA-
Highest paying stateVirginia-
Best paying companyEdelman Financial Engines-
Best paying industryProfessional-

Differences between public relations and media relations assistant education

There are a few differences between a public relations and a media relations assistant in terms of educational background:

Public RelationsMedia Relations Assistant
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 75%Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Most common majorCommunicationCommunication
Most common collegeStanford UniversityNorthwestern University

Public relations vs media relations assistant demographics

Here are the differences between public relations' and media relations assistants' demographics:

Public RelationsMedia Relations Assistant
Average age4242
Gender ratioMale, 36.1% Female, 63.9%Male, 41.8% Female, 58.2%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 10.0% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 11.9% Asian, 5.3% White, 67.0% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%Black or African American, 10.3% Unknown, 5.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.2% Asian, 5.3% White, 66.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage12%12%

Differences between public relations and media relations assistant duties and responsibilities

Public relations example responsibilities.

  • Manage LinkedIn profile updates and new leads.
  • Manage all copywriting elements for live broadcasts and promotional commercials.
  • Create an official office page on instagram to facilitate interaction with students.
  • Track and analyze local talent and trends on social networking sites (MySpace, YouTube).
  • Coordinate multiple marketing campaigns (SEO, CPA, CPM) and optimization of organic search traffic.
  • Edit and create YouTube videos for clientele, creating proper titles and tags to increase viewership ;.
  • Show more

Media relations assistant example responsibilities.

  • Manage athletic contest statistics using various programs including Dakstats and other software.
  • Calculate statistics for basketball, soccer, volleyball and baseball to later be publish online.
  • Assist in developing PowerPoint presentations, including graphs and charts.
  • Experience with all Microsoft office products, Photoshop, and accounting software.
  • Travele with men's basketball, baseball, and to championship events.
  • Increase daily likes of official Facebook page (160k likes) by 300 percent in six months.
  • Show more

Public relations vs media relations assistant skills

Common public relations skills
  • Press Releases, 22%
  • Web Content, 12%
  • Facebook, 5%
  • Event Planning, 4%
  • Blog Posts, 4%
  • Twitter, 4%
Common media relations assistant skills
  • Press Releases, 17%
  • Athletics Website, 12%
  • Press Conferences, 4%
  • Alumni Events, 4%
  • NCAA, 4%
  • Twitter, 3%

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