What is the media?

Publicity and marketing are very important in mobilising people behind your cause and influencing public opinion. Once you have done your research and analysis, you have to develop a clear communications strategy.

Communication is at the centre of any campaign strategy. People must know your organisation, who you are, what you stand for and why they should support you and your campaign.

A successful organisation and campaign needs to build a profile to which people can relate. A good communications strategy will ensure that the right information reaches your target audiences (supporters, decision-makers, opponents, public) both inside and outside the campaign.

Media is the most common tool supporting any communication strategy. If you use the media effectively, your organisation can become well known and respected. Also, using the media will make you more transparent and accountable to the public and will help to build your reputation and influence. There are various media forms you can target to carry your message.

How to develop a campaign and communication strategy
Your communication strategy should include the following elements:

• Identify the key message themes that you want to communicate to your target audience.
• Develop a communications strategy to get your message across to the audience.
• Develop a slogan and a media design identity like a logo.
• Draw up a media plan with budgets and time-frames.
• Develop a public relations plan.
• Develop a campaign and training strategy that focuses on :
  • Reaching and mobilising your target audience
  • Training and developing capacity among the key players in your organisation who have to implement the campaign.

Some of these elements are outlined in more detail below.

• Clear message themes and slogans

The message is the key item that you want people to know and agree with. A message is not the same as a slogan. A slogan is usually a few words that sum up the message. For example, the message “We can eradicate polio by 2005” could be summed up in the slogan “Wipe out polio!” Message themes can be a few sentences that explain your main ideas. These themes should be the basis of all communications such as posters, pamphlets, speeches, interviews, submissions and petitions.

Everyone involved in the campaign should understand the message and stay on it - one spokesperson contradicting your message on TV or radio can ruin a campaign.

• A campaign identity

People must know that the campaign is happening. You use your slogans and logos on all media and at all events to make sure people identify these as part of your campaign. You can also use logos to popularise your campaign - a good example is the red HIV/AIDS ribbon which people wear to show that they support the campaign. You can also use famous personalities to speak in support of your campaign, appear on posters or endorse your campaign in some public way.

It often helps to have one well-known person who acts as the public face of the campaign.

• A media plan with budgets and time-frames

A media plan should be developed according to the phases of your campaign – work out when you will need most publicity and how you will get it.

Media can be very costly if you rely on advertising, posters and pamphlets. Remember to strategise about how to get free publicity through coverage in the press, on radio and TV. Activities could include building good relationships with the media, holding briefing sessions, issuing press statements, organising and publicising newsworthy events and photo opportunities.

Your budget will determine how much media you can produce yourself. The media plan should have clear time-frames and deadlines. You must work out the cost and make sure you have the money to pay for each part of the plan.

• A public relations plan

A public relations and outreach plan is one that helps you communicate with key sectors and individuals to win their support for your campaign.

Identify the opinion-makers who might support you, explore how to make contact with them and try to get them to pledge support publicly to the campaign. Explore which sectors or organisations you can persuade to support you and how you might reach them.

Public relations guidelines
Most organisations have a policy for dealing with the media. This might include:

• Who acts as spokesperson on specific issues
• Who issues and approves press statements
• Who may be interviewed on behalf of the organisation
• Most organisations have three types of people who speak to the press:
  • A spokesperson who stays in regular contact with reporters, briefs them, issues press statements, deals with questions and queries and organises interviews
  • The Leadership who is interviewed or asked questions, or who is quoted when speaking at other forums such as at public meetings
  • Spokespeople who have specific knowledge and experience on specific topics.

Critical success factors

• Working effectively with the media is critical to most successful campaigns. Some general rules follow to help you work effectively with the media:
• Understanding media bias to create stories and hold events that are tailored to specific media interests. The media is always biased and most media outlets have a point of view that is necessary to gain the loyalty of their readers. That perspective skews how stories are written, edited and published.
• Follow up all stories and interviews. All media is under-funded and almost no media outlet has the time and resources to investigate all the news it needs or wants to cover. Reporters rely on trusted sources to give them stories and information. Even the best reporters sometimes get their facts wrong.
• Build personal relationships with as many media outlets as possible. Trust and relationships are crucial to working with the media. Give them reliable and good information, help them do their job and avoid limiting your relationships to those who share your views; people with different views can be helpful too.
• Provide clear simple information to minimise the risk of your message being diluted. Most media forms require simple, clear messages. In the process of translating what you provide, journalists often dilute your message as they are often unable to carry your message in its entirety.
• Tell stories. Be sure to translate your information into something that is understandable to the general public.

Hunger and starvation hit Malawi Last year thousands died, and this year it will be worse. They talk of a famine of biblical proportions, but numbers have little meaning for those caught up in this catastrophe. Fifty is the number of kilogrammes of grain a family needs to eat for a month. Eight is the number of grandchildren Phikani Balayi, the oldest man in the village, has seen die in the last ten years as the harvests began to fail and the subsidies for fertiliser and grain seed were stopped. One is the number of weeks that Folosi Samalani is expected to live unless she eats something today. She has reached the stage where even food will not save her. She can still flick at the flies settling on her, but that won’t last. Within days she will be silent, her legs scarred with sores, her stomach bloated, her hair turning paler through copper deficiency. Then she will die. Levison Samalani, her father, caught a mouse today, but there are nine other children and two wives to feed apart from himself, so he must share the mouse. It is not a big mouse, maybe 2in or 3in long. FIVE of Levison Samalani’s children are going to die. Folosi will be the first. And soon, maybe this week. Already she is hopelessly weak, her eyes unfocussed, sitting in the dirt pawing at the flies that torment her constantly. Three years old, and Folosi has had her last birthday. Emily, eight, will be next. Her fragility masked by her tattered dress and bright eyes, but betrayed by her discoloured hair, as sure a sign of malnutrition as any. Look closely. Emily, too, is swollen with worms, her feet scabbed. Regina, nine months old, Lifo, three and Chipiriro, eight, are little better. None of them has eaten for a month. Unless there is a miracle, they will not make it beyond February. In Malawi, there is another word for hunger - February. It is the month when all the grain from the last harvest will be gone. When they talk of February, they mean starvation, a slow death, the will to live sapped by months without food, the old and the young fading away, their families powerless to help.

A human story about tuberculosis Fact: 11 million children under five die each year of preventable illnesses. Story: Virgilio lives in East Timor. He is two and has tuberculosis. Tuberculosis is one of the major public health problems faced by people in East Timor. Around 500 people in every 100 000 are infected, with 4 000 new cases per year. In England, Wales and Ireland there are only 12 cases per 100 000. (Source: CAFOD MDG information fact file)

• Provide a story that has drama. The media often considers dramatic and controversial issues to be more newsworthy than other items of news and is often on the look-out for stories involving conflict. While the media will report on success stories, it is constantly seeking hard-hitting stories that can compete with the day’s latest accident. A good drama incorporates and resolves conflict by the end of the story.
• As far as possible, try to plan media events to occur when there is no other major event likely to dominate the news. In this situation there is less competition and more space for your story.
• Always be responsive to the media. There is no such thing as ‘no comment’. The reporter’s deadline will dictate how quickly you must respond. This does not, however, mean that you have to comment immediately. Common practice is to collect information, enquire about the deadline and inform the media that someone will respond to the reporter within the required time. This gives you time to strategise your response and to provide the correct message. It also gives you time to select the right spokesperson, either from your organisation or from a coalition partner.
• Follow up on media coverage. If reporting is inaccurate, respectfully call the reporter and correct the information. If you receive favourable coverage, thank the reporters and keep in touch with them. Supply them with updates and ideas for further stories.
• Be creative. The media likes something interesting. Think about how you want to present your message. Media ‘stunts’, like the example below, help to secure coverage.

Vietnamese volunteer pedals for MDGs A young bike enthusiast cycled from Ha Noi to Ho Chi Minh to raise awareness about the MDGs in Vietnam. In each village he visited he distributed the UN’s message about poverty reduction to young people.

• Be prepared. Ensure that you have the connections and contacts to back up your story. For example, if you are campaigning around the right of girls to go to school, anticipate that the media will want to interview some families whose sons go to school, but whose daughters do not. Know how to contact such families. Know who would be willing to speak to the media and who would be able to tell a good personal story. Make sure the people you select are accessible to the media, so that you can respond quickly to an opportunity.
• The media may decide that many events that you arrange are not newsworthy. Don’t allow this to dissuade you. Coverage can take many forms and you may still be able to get a photograph in the local newspaper. Set up events so that they can be used as a photo opportunity as well.

(Taken from UNDP, Blue Book)

Media actions

Types of media events include:

• Press releases
• Media alerts
• Media events or conferences
• Go-and-see trips
• Photography
• Websites
• Email messaging
• Cell phone messaging
• Community meetings
• Goodwill ambassadors

Advantages and disadvantages of different media

(Adapted from UNDP, Blue Book)

SMS technology in the Philippines In January 2001, thousands of Filipinos, unhappy with their corrupt government, took to the streets to demonstrate against President Joseph Estrada, ultimately forcing him to resign. Mobile phones played a key role in stimulating and organising the protests – using not voice communications, but short text messages (SMSs) sent from one phone to another, or from one phone to many others. First they were used to send political jokes; later they spread the word on where demonstrations were being held. In relatively poor countries, where mobile phones with prepaid service are easily available “SMS” (which costs less than calling) offers a mode of communication that is within reach of almost everyone. And, like e-mail and fax, it is a technology that grows more useful as more and more people get connected.

Using email lists to work together Email is the simplest and most readily available form of online communication. And it is easy to learn. A mailing list is an automatic message-sending programme that stores a list of email addresses for all the people who need to be linked into the campaign. In order for the list to work effectively, the people on it must all have a common purpose and be committed to using email regularly, and it must have a facilitator who is responsible for updating everyone. Importantly, you also need to decide if the list information can be accessed by others or if it is confidential.

For example, a group campaigning against female genital mutilation might decided that it is best not to allow access to their information, given the political sensitivities linked to their campaign. On the other hand, a list of MDG partners sharing information on media strategies does not need to have access limited.

Working with journalists

Personal contact with journalists is very important. The best way to get publicity for meetings, events or campaign actions is to build a good relationship with journalists, especially political reporters. Get to know them, feed them information and be friendly and helpful whenever they want to do a story.

Try to develop an ongoing relationship with specific journalists, so that they also develop a deeper knowledge and understanding of your issue. This will help them to write better stories that spread your message rather than just advertise your events. If you have a professional relationship with the media and an open attitude to them, you will be much more successful than if you treat them with suspicion and hostility.

Never be rude to journalists – they will not give you good publicity unless you make a good impression on them. Never blame journalists for not getting your story in the paper – remember that they have news editors and sub-editors who can decide not to use the story or who can rewrite it so that it comes out differently. Always return calls quickly when journalists phone you and make sure that you respond fast to requests for interviews or information. Never lie or exaggerate to journalists and always be sure of your facts.

El Salvador media strategy In El Salvador the MDG Campaign group has developed a multi-pronged media strategy to reach and address all the various target audiences identified. All the messages fall under one banner – “Broken promises – no excuses”. Coverage was secured through working with a sympathetic studio for independent TV, and radio adverts for stations targeting the youth and the poor. The message from these two advertorial slots was reinforced through a partnership with various newspapers which carried stories that strengthened the message and widened the information given the TV and radio adverts. These mass media events were complemented with some folk media. The Campaign worked with the National University to prepare a choreography of the song “No excuses” to be presented at different events being organised by Social Watch, the lead NGO. This was complemented by a competition organised to encourage the youth to generate MDG “No excuses” songs. Finally the campaign reinforced all the public media with posters, information kits, stickers and brochures for those interested in finding out more. (MDG Campaign report from El Salvador, 2004)

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