That's a question we put to one charity communicator recently as part of our Joseph Rowntree Foundation research project investigating poverty and the media. Yes, was the answer, followed immediately by of course.

I'm part of the research team from St Chad's College, Durham University, partly because I'm an academic and partly because I work as a media practitioner - sometimes in the third sector. And I'm beginning to think charities are missing a trick. Not their comms personnel - always hard worked and often running to stand still - but their executive staff.

The reason? A belief - misplaced in my opinion - that anyone can 'do media'. Too often comms teams (sometimes a 'team' being just one person desperately trying to keep up across a number of media) are seen as just a service department. Yet increasingly analysts are suggesting that charities' comms teams could, given proper support from their executives, help shape and influence the media agenda in a more structural way by organising and producing content.

I and my research colleagues would be interested to know what you think, either through posting a comment here or by emailing: richard.else@durham.ac.uk. In the new year we'll be reporting our findings but in the meantime - for comms staff who see an undiminished workload ahead, here's what I do to counteract that attitude that 'doing media' is simple. I tell people my hobby is brain surgery. It's a fulfilling pastime: it keeps my mind working; is a useful skill and helps reduce waiting lists. I love it.

Of course, such an idea is preposterous, but, by the same token, why do the same people think 'doing media' is easy? Let's just take still photography: from James Agee and Walker Evans' pioneering Let Us Now Praise Famous Men onwards, through Philip Jones Griffiths Vietnam images, to the work of Dutch photojournalist Geert van Kesteren in Iraq, 'doing media' well has always been as difficult and demanding as any medical procedure. But the rewards can be great in terms of impact and enabling a ground swell of opinion for change. And isn't change what we all want?

Perhaps charity executives need to take a longer view - away from the media release - to discover how their own comms staff can, given the resources and support that other departments (like policy and planning) often receive, be a more effective instrument for change in a rapidly evolving media landscape. One where, to give just two examples, people, especially the younger generation, take content from non traditional outlets and where audiences are looking for alternative viewpoints. It's about gaining trust and respect that what you produce is credible and then using the existing methods of drawing people to that content.

Richard Else
Professorial Fellow, St. Chad's College, Durham University.