DOI: 10.36347/sjahss.2014.v02i05.025

Pages: 757-762

Media relation is a vital tool in communicating organization’s message and maintaining image. It’s either offered by organization’s public relations department or outsourced. This enhances customers, stakeholders and general public relationship and awareness of organization’s activities, roles and products. The objective of this paper is to discover how effective media relations was viewed and utilized in Co-operative societies in Kenya. More specifically, the paper hoped to find out if the media relations function was only used to generate publicity or if it also played a strategic role in relationship building with the media and achieving co-operatives’ competitive goals.The study assumes that the respondents gave honest views and responses and observation. The study also assumes that, the research tools developed gave correct results thus factual. None of the respondents had prior instructions on information researched upon. The findings suggest that media relations plays a strategic role in building relationships with the media as well as informing and educating stakeholders in profiling and better managing the co-operatives reputations.Overall, the respondents viewed media relations as an investment given its Strategic role. There is a suggestion that organizations that see beyond media relations’ promotional role fully benefit from its strategic value.