Chapter Sections
1. Introduction
2. Campaigning
3. Civil Disobedience
4. Direct Action
5. Action Planning
6. Lobbying
7. Picketing
8. Starting a Group
9. Publicity
10. Leafleting
11. News Media
12. Internet
How to Do Animal Rights - and Win the War on Animals
"Don't hate the media, become the media." Attributed to Jello Biafra, alias Eric Reed Boucher, rock band singer and political activist.
Make use of the news media - press, magazines, radio and television - for broadcasting your activities and developing your group's credibility and reputation. Many local newspapers have a free What's On section; advertise your meetings and events in it. But you can go a lot further. Newspapers largely depend on the public to supply them with a constant stream of news, reporters would be unemployed without a public to give them news - they need you as much as you need them - so do not be timid approaching them.
Whether you are a solo campaigner or a group, engaging with the news media can range from writing letters to the editor, providing information, giving interviews to dressing up and doing stunts for a photo opportunity. Media publicity reaches a wide audience and can make your campaigning issue a public topic for discussion. The more frequently you figure in the news (try not to make it a one-off), the more impression you will make with the public. Publicity for your group will raise group member moral ("...we are in the news again - must be getting somewhere!) and could bring in more members.
Your news story must compete with umpteen other stories to get into the new, so you should make it newsworthy. A newsworthy story tends to be something original or with a new twist, something exciting with a human interest - that is it concerns people, is happening now or soon, and is controversial or dramatic. The media thrive on disputes and a reporter will contact opposing parties to sound out their opinions; so help the reporter by having to hand the phone numbers of a few people who oppose you – you need a few names because they may not all be available for comment when the reporter calls them.
Media Tips
Here are some tips to help you when reporters come round to interview you about your activities.
- Draw up a checklist of the main points you wish to cover before the reporter come round so that you do not leave out anything important.
- Emphasise only one or two main points that you want to get across, they are the purpose of your campaign, and state them clearly to the reporter. Reporters and readers cannot remember more than a couple of arguments, so no point spinning off a whole list of them.
- Be clear that your group's name, and if possible some contact address or your web site, are mentioned in the article the reporter will write.
- Although reports may seem supportive and interested in your cause what they are really after is a story. So concentrate on giving them that, your story.
- Be careful when speaking to reporters because they may report anything you tell them. Nothing is ever 'off the record' (to be withheld from the public) so do not even use this expression (it is a Hollywood contrivance) and never say anything you do not want reported.
- Always get the reporter's name and thank them by letter for their piece when it is published (even if it is awful). Reporters are only human and being polite will help your media relations.
When your campaign really gets going and you have something substantial to report, a newspaper may want to run a feature article, a detailed story, on what you are doing. Be willing to talk about your experiences, to give a human face to the issue or you could offer a profile of someone who is involved with running your campaign. Photos are important when trying to attract the public’s attention. Have some unique, relevant, quality pictures the newspaper can publish with the story or make an impressive photo opportunity for one of their photographers. This is a ‘publicity stunt’ that could help your campaign; the newspaper is paying for it so make the best of it.
The Letters Page
Write to the 'letters to the editor' page of a newspaper. A newspaper's letter page is one of the most well read pages. Write as an individual or on behalf of your group. Make your letter stand out and memorable:
- Be brief and to the point.
- Write in plain English, without exaggeration, jargon or clichés.
- Grab the attention of readers with a good heading (if the newspaper prints headings) and/or with your first sentence.
- Make one or at most two points well; not many points diffusely.
Check for readers’ responses to your letter and reply with a second letter to the editor. Tell members of your group to write their own independent responses to keep the discussion going and spin it out. As a bonus, send a copy of your published letter to newspaper reporters at other newspapers suggesting they write a feature article, and include the latest information about your campaign.
Write letters regularly, get other group members to do so. See Chapter 4. Media Watcher.
News Release
Send news releases to your national or local news media. Sending news releases is one of the main ways of communicating with the media and increases your chance of getting publicity. Tell them something newsworthy about you/your campaign, what you are doing, such as a coming event, like a demonstration, picket or other direct action.
Your news release will compete with hundreds of other news releases from other people so you must write it in the approved style if it is to stand a chance of being acting on. It may only be scanned briefly for content then binned by a harassed member of a newspaper's staff, so you must write it in a professional manner. There are many books and web articles about the do's and don'ts of news releases but the gist is simple.
Most news releases follow this format. Type your news release on your letterhead paper. At the top print News Release and the date. Below it write an attention-grabbing headline in the style of newspapers. The first sentence of your story is the most important, stating what your news release is about. Put the who, where, when and why of your story in the first paragraph. Work a quote into the text; the newspaper may print it and it imparts authority and a personal touch. You can quote yourself or find a celebrity or authoritative figure and ask them for a comment. Throw in some brief evidence to back up your message. As when writing letters to the editor, be matter of fact, do not exaggerate or use jargon or clichés. At the bottom put 'For more information' followed by your name and phone number. Fit everything on one page. Use regular size type. There is no need for more than one page and, anyway, two pages might separate and lose each other at the newspaper office.
Send your news release a few days before the event and no more than a week. Some newspapers accept email or fax news releases but many still insist on receiving them by letter only. When sending news releases by email do not put them in an attachment in case they are deleted (to avoid virus infection). It is usual to send news release to the news desk but check first. Newspaper details are published in various documents, which you can find at main libraries.
Keep close to the phone in the next couple of days and if you do not hear from the news paper you have flunked it. Try again another time.
Example of a news release:
1 April 2020
Grimstown Citizens Protest For Chickens
Grimstown citizens will gather outside the Town Hall at 12 noon this Saturday 5 April calling for Grimstown supermarkets to stop selling eggs from caged chickens. Members of Tails Up! - the Grimstown Animal Rights Group - dressed in chicken suits will stage an 'egg lay-in' confined in mock cages. A petition of over 1,000 signatures of Grimstown shoppers will be handed to the Mayor.
"Eating eggs from battery chickens is morally indefensible," says E.G. Smash, chair of the group. "No one is so poor they cannot afford eggs from free-ranging chickens with access to organic feed and to woodland. Organic eggs are a kinder and healthier option for chickens and people."
Tails Up! is calling on Grimstown supermarkets for an early phase-out of eggs from caged chickens. Members of the public are invited to attend an open air public meeting at Town Hall Square from 12.30 pm, with a speaker from the Chicken Liberation Network.
Global Respect for Farm Animals says there are five billion egg-laying chickens in the top five egg producing countries, the US alone has 280,000,000 egg-laying hens, almost all living in horrifying conditions crammed into tiny bare cages all their lives.
Photo opportunity of protesters with placards and chicken suites: 12 noon at the Town Hall.
For further information:
E.G. Smash,
Secretary Tails Up!,
Tel 01234 567890
The Radio
Try for radio coverage. Local radio stations are often keen on discussions and phone-ins and want local people to talk about their local issues. Send your local radio stations suitably adapted copies of the news releases you send to newspapers.
If you get on the news you well probably be broadcast live. Actual interviews may only be a few minutes long so stay focused to deliver your two or three key points. But should an interview with you be recorded, news editors will mercilessly cut down any long message to a few seconds; therefore make sure you have a few snappy phrases that go straight to the heart of your issue, and just in case, be ready to come up with more. Make your sound bits simple and memorable so that they stick in people's heads. Humour can sometimes help:
Question:
'Do you really think everyone should be a vegetarian?'Answer (rhyming):
'Yes. For man and woman;A veggie diet is healthiest,From the poorest to the wealthiest!'Radio Tips
| How to Do Animal Rights - and Win the War on Animals. © Roger (Ben) Panaman, April 2008. All rights reserved. |