Reflection on the Role of Media

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Role of the media in campaigns

By Ippy

1 Introduction
2 Group aims
3 Messaging
4 Types of communication
5 Planning a media campaign
6 General tips and summing up
7 Resources and examples

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Introduction

Why should we use the media in our campaign? Perhaps this is a strange way to begin a section/chapter of the handbook about using the media, but it is an important question for groups to ask themselves before beginning a relationship with mainstream or alternative media outlets. The media is pervasive in modern life, especially in the western world, where images and sounds – TV, radio, the web, billboards – bombard us every where we go.

But attempting to use the media for our campaign work is like picking up a double-edged sword: the media can both support and also destroy good campaigns. It should be approached with caution and also with a good understanding of what you want out of the relationship. This section/chapter should help you identify what you want from the media and why, and suggest some strategies for success in getting your message out to as wide an audience as possible.

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Group aims

Think about what you want to get out of using the media. Discuss it in your group and be clear about your aim. Your aims could be to:

- Gain new members/participants for action or event.

- Apply critical pressure on a specific issue through showing widespread opposition.

- Mainstream an unpopular issue/way of working.

- Send messages to your opponents.

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Messaging

Spend time in your group working out what your “key messages” are. They should preferably not be more than three for one action or campaign. Define them as carefully and concisely as possible. Write them down and make sure everyone in your groups knows what they are and is happy/can live with them. Remember: these are your public messages, so write in clear and easily digestible language that everyone can understand. Think about how they key messages will be received by your target group/s. Can they be changed to attract more and still stay on focus? Defining your messages is useful because, having agreed them, they can enable and empower more people in your group to communicate with the media. It will make your communications more consistent, reinforce your position and keep you focused. Make sure that all your communications with the media include one or more of these key messages. Role play encounters with journalists to practice your key messages and how to interact with the media in an effective way.

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Types of communication

There are many different ways of engaging with the media. Common for all the different ways presented below is the importance of thinking like a journalist. Ask yourself the questions: What is news worthy? What is interesting for others to read? What is the news? At the same time keep your focus on your key messages! Note that media in different countries functions differently. Find out how it works in your country and make appropriate changes to the suggestions in this piece. Ask a journalist or an activist with media experience in your country to give you hints about what to think about.

Press releases: a good press release will get picked up. Try to piggy-back on bigger news stories if you can relate them to your campaign activity. For example, if a government or celebrity makes a statement about your general field, write a short press release the same day with your group’s response. You can also use this opportunity to flag up an event or action you have planned, or a particular campaign strand you have underway (example: a petition you are running). Write clear and concise, give it a snappy/topical/clever headline, and know how to get it to journalists (maintain email/fax/phone database). Always date and include contact details for spokesperson/media contact from the group. Make targeted press releases to local and thematical press. For example: Woman from Oxford arrested in nuclear weapons protest to an Oxford paper or Swedish priest arrested in nuclear weapons protest to a Swedish Church/Christian paper. The media person makes sure to collect information for the targeted press releases from everyone in the action group: i.e. name (correct spelling), age, occupation, origin, quote about the action. If quotes, facts and background are included in a press release you have done much of the journalistic work and media can easily publish it.

Spokesperson/designate media person: make sure there is always an identifiable contact point for the media. Get that group member an email address and a mobile phone. Make sure they are always well briefed and are watching the media themselves for developments in your field so that they can respond adequately to new information. If there is a risk of arrest the media person should be a non-arrestable to be accessible for the media while the arrestables are in arrest. Ideally there should be more than one media person.

Meeting journalists: it is possible to build good relationships with individual journalists. Remember, if they are interested in your issue then you will probably get most of the relationship if you help them by supplying good quality, accurate information and doing them the odd favour, such as giving them key information which you have not given to other journalists. After all, most journalists love a scoop. However, be careful too: some journalists will misquote and misrepresent you (deliberately or otherwise). This is most likely with tabloid press and more right-wing press, but not exclusively.

Agencies: Make sure your press releases are sent to national and international press agencies. Sometimes stories which are not picked up by media outlets you have contacted directly are picked up later because the story appears on the wires. Call agencies and media after you have sent the press release. Ask them if they have received the press release and ask them if they will do a piece on it. Make sure they know who you are and how you can be contacted if they want more information later.

Letters page: one good way to communicate your messages to the general public is to have one or two people in your group who buy the main newspapers every day and who then write letters about the content of the papers which relates to their field. You can get a lot of letters published this way – especially with local/regional media and it all helps to make your campaign seem bigger, stronger and more engaged than it may actually be. Don’t get the same people to always write the letters – after a while the editors will notice!

Website: your website is an important tool for communicating your messages and journalists will go there for background. So make sure your site is always up to date. Consider creating a separate section – a “media centre” - for your press releases, high quality images which you own and do not mind them using, and succinct background information. Obviously it should also include direct contact details for your media person (phone, email). A blog is a new way to spread information about an action. Individual members or the group can blog, write in the style of a diary, about the action. Make sure you don’t write things that you don’t want to media to print, if you want to use the blog for the media.

Writing for/engaging with alternative media: the alternative media in all its many forms can be your friend in gaining support. But it is not generally read by a huge audience and you will probably have to do a lot of the writing yourself! Sites in the global indymedia network can help you communicate about your campaign to a generally sympathetic audience, but this is unlikely to “apply critical pressure” or “mainstream an unpopular issue/way of working”. It may however, gain you a few new activists and, in some cases “send messages to your opponents” (the police and some companies are monitoring bits of the alternative media round the clock). One thing the alternative media can do is to provide a space for disparate campaigns to identify opportunities for working together and to explore ideas about what works and what doesn’t based on collective experience.

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Planning a media campaign

So, we have some idea of the practical methods of communicating our message, but to get the most out of your effort, its worth investing some time planning a “media campaign”. This means figuring out how to communicate both effectively and strategically and with the consent of the rest of the group. Media campaigns are best suited for short-term projects or by breaking down your campaign into bite-sized pieces. But to get the most from this process, your media campaign must be integrated into a complete campaign strategy and your key messages need to be clearly defined (see above). For example, imagine a group which aims to expose and undermine a particular arms company. Say the group is planning to work for the next six months to get some of the company’s suppliers to stop working with them. In this scenario the groups may be considering writing to those suppliers, lobbying their workers, blockading their depots, and so on. A good media campaign should be able to sell the group’s activities as positive - and the company’s as negative. First, consider the obvious criticisms of the groups’ strategy. For example: “the trade is legal”, “you are disrupting ordinary workers” or “your tactics are threatening”. And, before you ever send a single press release, work out how to respond to such criticisms. One way to do this is to prepare a basic “question and answer” sheet for any group members who will be dealing with the media. This briefing sheet should include at the top your key messages (see messages, above).

If the campaign has key events over the six months, plot these out on a sheet of paper or spreadsheet and work out what information you should be sending to the media and when. Consider sending advance notice of events a couple of weeks beforehand, more detailed/confirmed information three of four days before (or at a time that meets local media deadlines – for example, in Britain, most weekly newspapers go to press on Thursday, so send information on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning). And send information about what happened at the event on the day itself. Plot these days out over the six months of the campaign. Likewise, if there are key government or industry events, reports being released, international bodies meeting, etc, on key dates, plot these too and work out how you can respond to them. Be prepared! Make sure you have a decent number of hi-resolution images that sell your campaign. Take good photos at events and actions and make them available to journalists on request, or for download from your website.

Work out which media are likely to be sympathetic to the campaign and its tactics, but also have a big and broad readership, and invest energy in cultivating your relationship with these ones. Regional media (press, radio, TV) are often keen for content and are more likely to publish/broadcast you. Make sure you include the local/regional media in any communications.

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General tips and summing up

Try and build good relationships with journalists – you can help each other. But remember journalists can’t always be trusted. Always release to agencies, you never know where in the world something will be picked up Always have a group member to be on hand to deal with media enquiries. Keep press releases short and simple. Be prepared for tough questions. Stay on message. Go for local angles. Ask other campaigners, share knowledge, read manuals, attend free/cheap training courses.

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