Chapter 3.9
Newspapers and Radio
Do not neglect newspapers and radio. Develop your credibility and reputation with them. Write to the editor, write a news release, give interviews. Dress up and do stunts for photo opportunities. Make your stories newsworthy.
"Don't hate the media, become the media." Attributed to Jello Biafra, alias Eric Reed Boucher, rock band singer and political activist.
Media publicity reaches a wide audience and can make your activism a public topic for discussion. Publicity will raise your morale and could bring in more members if you run an animals rights group. The more frequently you figure in the news the more impression you will make on everyone.
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. So you are needed by the ‘old fashioned’ media and you have no need to be nervous when approaching them.
Stay close to the media. |
Make it Newsworthy
Your news story must compete with umpteen other stories to get into the media, so make it newsworthy. A newsworthy story tends to be something original or with a new twist, something exciting, with a human interest; 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 for their opinions. Help the reporter by having to hand the phone numbers of a few people who oppose you. Give the reporter a few names because not everyone may 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.
- Before the reporter arrives, draw up a checklist of the main points you wish to cover 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 activism, and state them clearly to the reporter. Reporters and readers cannot remember more than a couple of arguments, so there is 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/blog, are mentioned in the article the reporter will write. This is your payoff for your story.
- Although reporters may seem supportive, friendly and interested in your cause, what they are really after is a story, so concentrate on giving them that. Do not get too pally and say something you may regret later.
- 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 never say anything you do not want reported; do not even use this expression (it is a Hollywood contrivance!).
- Always get the reporter's name and thank them by letter or email for their piece (even if it is awful!) when it is published. Reporters are only human and being polite will help your media relations.
A Feature Article?
When your project really gets going, a newspaper might want to run a feature article, a detailed story, on what you are doing. Be willing to talk about your experiences or offer a profile of someone who is involved with running your project. It gives a human face to the issue. Photos are important when trying to attract the public’s attention. Have some good pictures, unique and relevant, that the newspaper can publish with the story, and that includes your mug shot. Alternatively, make an impressive photo opportunity - a publicity stunt - for one of their photographers.
The Letters Page
A newspaper's
Letter to the Editor page is one of the most well read pages of any newspaper. Write to the page as an individual or on behalf of your group. Make your letters 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 with your first sentence.
- Make one or at most two points well, and not too many points diffusely.
Keep your letter short, about the average length of other letters on the page and no longer than the longest letter. Sign off with your group's name and contact details, either email or web site address, depending on the newspaper's custom, so that readers can contact you.
Check the page for responses to your letter from readers. Follow-up with a second letter to the editor in reply to them. 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 the published letters to newspaper reporters at other newspapers, suggest they write a feature article, and include the latest information about your activism.
Write letters regularly and get other group members to do so.
News Release
Sending news releases to your national or local media is a traditional way of communicating with them. Tell them something newsworthy about your activities, such as organising 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 write it in the approved style and in a professional manner for it to stand a chance of being acted on. If you do not, it may only be scanned briefly for content then chucked out by a harassed employee. There are many articles about the do’s and don’ts of news releases but the gist is simple. Most news releases follow this ten step format.
- Type your news release on your letterhead paper.
- Type News Release and the date at the top.
- Then 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 conveys authority and a personal touch. You can quote yourself or find a celebrity or authoritative figure and ask them for a comment to quote.
- Throw in some brief evidence to back up your message.
- Be matter of fact, do not exaggerate, use jargon or clichés.
- At the bottom put For more information followed by your name and phone number.
- Fit everything on one side of one sheet of paper - two sheets might separate and lose each other at the hectic media office. Use regular size type. (This is an exercise in being concise!)
Send your news release to the media a few days before the event and no more than a week. Some media accept news releases by email but some still insist on receiving them by letter only. It is usual to send news release to the News Desk, but check first. Media details are published in various documents, which you can find on the Web or at main libraries.
Keep your phone handy after you have sent your news release. If the media do not phone you in a couple of days, then no dice. Try again another time with a different news release.
Example of a news release:
NEWS RELEASE
1 April 2099
Grimstown Citizens Protest For Chickens
The Grimstown Animal Rights Group - Tails Up! - is gathering outside the Grimstown Town Hall at 12 noon Saturday 5 April, calling on Grimstown supermarkets to guarantee an early phase-out of eggs from caged chickens.
Photo opportunity of Tails Up! members dressed in chicken suits and confined in mock cages staging an 'egg lay-in'. We will hand a petition of over 1,000 signatures of Grimstown shoppers to the Grimstown mayor. We invite the public to attend the follow up meeting in the Town Hall Square from 1pm, when a member of the Chicken Lib Network will speak.
"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."
Global Respect for Farm Animals states, "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."
Further information:
E.G. Smash, Secretary Tails Up!
Phone 01234 567890
Email [email protected]
|
The Radio
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 will 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 your interview be recorded, news editors will cut down mercilessly any long message to a few seconds; therefore make sure you deliver a few sound-bites that go straight to the heart of your issue, and be ready to come up with more snappy phrases just in case. Make them simple and memorable so that they stick in people's heads. Good humour often helps.
Radio Tips
- Speak well and be yourself.
- Speak slowly, calmly, clearly and let your natural good-natured humour show through.
- Give short but full answers and make your point as soon as possible.
- Say something if you do not know how to answer a question and then go straight on to make a related point.
- Briefly answer a question that seems irrelevant and then pass on to something that you really want to say.
- Keep strictly to your reply; do not wander away into other matters.
- Stop at once and listen to the interviewer if they interject with a new question.
- Convince the listeners. Get their sympathy. Do not try to beat the interviewer should he seem hostile.
- Remember there is no such thing as 'off the record', even if the interviewer prompts you for such a remark!
-
›› To Entries & Home