May 1995 HERMES
When you orchestrate a political action, what you are really looking
for is attention. In order to change public opinion or put pressure on your target, you
need to be seen everywhere, to be on every newspaper cover. Like it or not, the
mainstream, the Establishment, the controlled media is your principle avenue of access to
the greatest number of people. If the whole point of your political activism is to change
the dominant way of thinking, doing, and being in this great Western culture of ours, then
you need to get your issue on the nation's collective mind so that the idea of changing
things can eventually occur to people- with your help, of course. Unfortunately, getting
the media's attention takes some work, but there are a few tricks that will help you.
The media can help you reach into people's heads in two ways. First, it
can help you educate others about your issue and give them the background information they
will need to understand why they should be as pissed as you are. When disseminated a short
time beforehand, this background information can also convince people to support your
struggle when they read about your group's dramatic protest a few days later. If people
read that you were arrested at a rally for protesting an issue they don't understand or
haven't been made aware of, they think, "Geez, what a bunch of crazies." But if
they have been chewing for a while on a letter to the editor about the same injustice
you're fighting, they may think, "Wow, good for them."
Breaking into the constant flow of media babble requires something interesting. You will
only have your letter published or your press conference covered if your issue or action
is made to seem exciting. One of the greatest skills for media manipulation is the ability
to create an "event," even one about an ongoing issue, that is worthy of
attention. And what you're really trying to get with all your political action is
attention -- that will bring you sympathy, respect, fear or some other response that will
bring you change.
Here are your major ways of using the media and some brief suggestions
for how to it most effectively:
1. Letters to the Editor: You maybe thinking, "Oh, he means
Wespeaks," but in fact the Argus is only the beginning. Local newspapers will accept
your letters and people actually do read them -- unlike Wespeaks, or at least the
political ones. You can write either to broadcast new information or to respond to a
recent article or letter in an attempt to correct or interpret someone else's inaccurate
or biased facts. First, find out what the paper's policy about letters is. Often, this
will be printed somewhere on the op-ed page along with the letters, but if not, call. Some
papers have length or format requirements, and they will not print your letter rather than
contact you for corrections. Keep the letter simple. Make your first sentence especially
catchy, compelling, and short. Use local statistics if possible, and use personal stories
to make the issue tangible for readers. Also, use names. Identifying the Big Bad CEO by
name brings the issue down to a human level for people. And as many congressional aides
have claimed, letters to the editor that mention a congressperson by name will be seen by
that congressperson because it's someone's job in his or her office to clip articles from
the local papers. You could also clip and mail the letter to your congressperson yourself
-- it couldn't hurt.
Don't forget to use your credentials if they apply. Everyone believes
an "expert" before the average citizen. At the least, you can quote an
"expert" that you know. If your letter doesn't get printed, try again. There may
not have been enough room for all the letters received. You can send minimally revised
versions of the same letter if you need to repeat your submission. Last, if you are
working with a group of people, send simultaneous letters to many papers in your region,
maybe even addressing different angles of the same issue in each paper. This will simulate
what congressional aides call the "ripple effect," where they can see a popular
opinion about a given issue spread out through their district. When this happens, they pay
attention.
One of the
greatest skills for
media manipulation is the
ability to create an "event, "
even one about an ongoing
issue, that is worthy of attention.
2. Media Advisories: There is a difference between a media advisory and a press release. Media advisories are very short info-blurbs, much like campus posters, that announce an event to the media so that they will come and cover it. Press releases are basically articles that you write and give to the papers or TV channels when they show up at your event, to make sure they have a solid chunk of accurate information. The media advisory should be very concise and should immediately answer all the typical questions: who, what, where, when, why. It must contain as many specifics as possible, including directions to the location of the event and parking information. It should be fixed at least two days before the event and then again on the morning of the event.
3. Press
Releases: These should be given to all the newsfolk who show up at your event and
sent to all the papers or channels that didn't show up or who said beforehand that they
wouldn't. It must read like an article so that it can be printed as is by the papers who
didn't bother to send a reporter, and by those who only send a photo team. It's a good
deal, really -- they get to look like they were on top of things and covered the big
"local event" that they actually didn't, and you get in more papers than you
thought you would. The Wesleyan students who protested the Contract with America on March
29th actually got in the Washington Post.
The press release, like any good newspaper article, has to follow a
pretty cut-and-dry format. The first paragraph, which is only one sentence long, must
answer the same questions as the media advisory in the same interesting, succinct style.
The second paragraph should include a really snappy quote which grabs the readers
attention. The third paragraph gives additional information, and the fourth paragraph
should include a quote from a member of your group explaining the importance or relevance
of your event.
4. News Conference: These can be used to get a whole lot of dramatic information across to a lot of the press at once, but they are actually of limited usefulness The big secret of the news world is that the press actually don't like "media events. " They like to think they're covering "real" stuff that would have been happening even if they weren't there, so events set up solely around the presence of media often draw less media attention ultimately. However, if your informational event has the potential for high drama or truly exciting news, they'll show. So, once again the pivotal task is developing your "hook." If your press conference is actually a "public accountability session" (a public meeting between your group and a representative of the power structure you are opposing) and therefore could include some heated debate, or if you have
When reporters
are looking
for quotes, only give them
your message; don't talk
about irrelevant material,
even if they ask a random
question.
some deliberately
dramatic or highly visual aspect of your presentation (dressing up as something symbolic
of your issue is always good), then the media might come.
Schedule your conference for a midweek morning; nothing else newsworthy
will be happening then. Tuesday through Thursday around 10 AM is ideal. Send out media
advisories early. Newspapers plan their weekly schedules on Sunday night or Monday
morning. Make sure you get on their calendar by letting them know before the weekend. A
few days before your conference, call the paper and inquire as to whether they received
your information and if they are coming. Call the day before also. Don't be afraid to
politely nag (it's called pitching your story). Since the specific daily schedules
are made up each morning, call the morning of as well. Besides, as Susan Smith of the
Democratic Socialists of America writes, "by this time, they will probably send
someone over just so you'll leave them alone." The day before, ask to speak to the
planning editor; the morning of, ask to speak to the assignment editor. The response
"we know about it" is bad; "It's on the boards " means they're coming.
The mornning-of is also when to fax your press releases to each office, along with
directions to your event. At the actual conference, you should have "press kits"
with your release, a list of the names of the key players in the issue and of the contacts
in your group, and any other background information you can provide. At the rally against
the Contract with America this spring semester, we put copies of each of the information
sheets from our letter-writing tables in our press kits. Some other things to remember for
the day of the conference are directions, parking, check-in list, name tags, refreshments,
podium, and restroom access.
Getting the media to cover a real event or action of yours can be
easier than drawing them to a press conference. The single best way to get media coverage
for your actions is to be newsworthy in the first place. As Mike Trapp of the Student
Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) is fond of saying,
"tornadoes don't send press releases, but they still get coverage." If your
actions are as dramatic as a tornado, you may only need to call the papers and the TV
stations an hour or two early. But most of the things you organize will most likely be
smaller, in which case you will need to use many of the same strategies you use for a
press conference. Send out media advisories, but don't do it too early -- if you're
planning to blockade the doors of a shareholders meeting or chain yourself to gates of a
power plant, you don't want your target to find out about it somehow and thwart your
plans. Calling the media on the day of your event is the most important step. Tell the
papers and TV stations to get to your event site about twenty minutes to a half-hour after
your protesters; it is embarrassing when the press is there on time and there is nothing
to cover except you standing around waiting for your carload of supporters to show up.
If you are trying to get on TV which is very possible on a local level,
you must time your events accordingly. To get on the 6 PM news, plan your action somewhere
from 2 to 4:30 PM to give the editing crew enough time to make a short clip of your event.
If you are going for live coverage, of course, the story is different.
To get on TV you must have good visuals. Your signs or banners must be
large, legible, and must summarize your point effectively. If it takes more than six
seconds of looking at your banner to figure out what your issue is, you won't get on the
TV news. When reporters are looking for quotes, only give them your message; don't talk
about irrelevant material,
The big secret
of the news
world is that the press
actually don't like "media
events"
even if they ask a random
question. It is best to avoid assigning a "media spokesperson" in your group.
Conservative newspeople will try to reduce all protests to the acts of a few mastermind
loonies who have hired some people to hold signs for them If all of your volunteers yell
the same message on the microphone and all seem equally well-versed on the issue, they
can't locate a ringleader. Then it really seems like a popular movement. You can have
everyone in your group memorize the same bulletized list of your gripes or demands, if you
want.
Once you have used a direct action tactic, not only will it not work
again on the same target, but it will not get coverage a second time. Change your angle of
attack, or take your action on the road and repeat it in different cities. The events that
garner the most attention from the media are the dramatic, highly visual, highly symbolic
ones. SEAC groups have used everything from getting a protester dressed as Santa Claus
arrested at a Christmas time action to dressing up as tree stumps to blockade logging
roads. The Rainforest Action Network brings a twenty foot inflatable chainsaw to all their
protests. As we discovered at the Contract protest day this spring, burning things almost
guarantees pictures. Be creative.
It is extremely
useful to
build connections with
individual staff members at
your local papers and TV
stations
Speaking
of creativity, why not bring your own video camera? You can create clips to be given to TV
stations later if you couldn't get them to come themselves. Not only that, you can be sure
your own coverage will be more accurate and more sympathetic to your cause than anyone
else's. The video that student activists made themselves of the rally against the Contract
was given to the local public access cable channel to be shown on the local Democratic
Partys weekly program. My final suggestion
is about your long-term relationship with the local media. It is extremely useful to build
connections with individual staff members at your local papers and TV stations. Often, a
single reporter may be the only one on the staff interested in "progressive
issues" and every one else just sends stuff her or his way when it sounds
"socially conscious." Or, a single reporter did a story on an issue once, and
now is assigned to all other related stories because he or she already knows something
about the issue. Some papers actually have a designated "environmental" reporter
or a "race issues" reporter, who you can ask for by position tide. Get to know
who these reporters are. Find out who is most likely to cover your story. Call people who
have covered your group before. In high school, my environmental action group was covered
once by a reporter on the town paper. He thought we were a great story, though I don't
remember what the issue or the action was. Anyway, any time we had an event after that, I
would call up the paper and ask f or him by name, and ask him to cover us. Because he
remembered my name, he usually did. Reporters like to be treated courteously and
remembered (they are more used to being a resented presence behind a camera or
microphone), so they will often respond more positively to you in the future if you are
polite.
I hope these suggestions help you get more effective coverage of your
activism; the media is a vital part of struggling to make your voice heard. Use them well,
and fight on.
May 1995 HERMES