If you want the news media to pay attention, you must learn to think like a journalist. Study the newspaper, watch the television news, listen to your local news radio. Why are some stories given prominent play while others are buried or ignored altogether? In other words, what’s newsworthy? Here are a few keys.
1. Conflict and controversy
Conflict equals struggle, sparks, juicy quotes. Conflict implies good guys and bad guys – though good and bad are relative, depending on your point of view. Conflict is about competition for power. Much of our daily news fare – events in Washington, local and national elections, foreign affairs, business news, sports – is selected on the principle that most people are drawn to a good fight.
The better you are at defining the conflicts and controversies inherent in your work, the more media attention you will attract.
2. Timeliness
Issues rise and fall on the public agenda, with the news media covering and to some degree shaping that agenda. If your work is perceived to be out of date – old news, or maybe ahead of its time – journalists won’t be interested. On the other hand, if you can “piggyback” on, or react to, a breaking news event, you create a compelling “handle” for the media.
I once worked with a community group in Oregon that organized neighborhoods near hazardous waste sites. In the wake of repeated national stories about dioxin contamination in Times Beach, Missouri, we rushed to finish and release a report on local dioxin threats – which received prominent coverage. In this case, national news set the context for local news.
In a similar way, journalists across the country are now focusing on how a national initiative – welfare “reform” or devolution – will affect local communities. For better or worse, this story is likely to be old news within a year. Welfare rights advocates would be wise to implement their media strategies immediately.
3. Human interest
An alternate approach is the human interest story: woman conquers disease, man travels overseas to find his long-lost relatives, artist paints murals of junk yards to protest garbage, etc. Some human interest pieces focus on people overcoming adversity; others highlight quirks of human behavior. A third variety is the “local citizen makes good, gets national recognition” story, which appeals to community pride.
For activist groups, playing the human interest angle means highlighting the people who participate in your work. Take a hard look around at your next meeting; do you see any interesting “media handles?” If you can identify unusual, touching, compelling individuals – anyone with a unique story that relates to the work of the group – try to incorporate them into your media outreach.
4. News you can use
Over the past years, mainstream journalism has broadened its scope to include features on consumer issues, health, family life, and personal finance. “Lifestyle” sections now appear in most major newspapers, while television news includes regular consumer and health features.
For grassroots groups, the implications are clear. If you generate information or provide services that people can use in their daily lives – promoting better health, combating domestic violence, exposing consumer fraud, and so on – you should pursue a “news you can use” feature about your organization.
In short, your job is to create handles for the news media to grab. If you design your programs to include several media handles, you are more likely to get coverage.