© 2000 Benton Foundation
Of Special Interest: Model Campaigns Chapter 1: Chapter 2: Television Race Initiative Chapter 4: Positive: Life with HIV Perspectives Strategic and Chapter 9: On Media
Contents
POV's High Impact TV
from Partners
Practical Advice
by Geoffrey Knox
The media have proven to be ready, although sometimes reluctant, partners in extending the reach and maximizing the impact of a national television broadcast: ready because reporters are always looking for a good story, and the media love to cover the media; reluctant because the broadcast of an independent film on television is not a news story. Reporters first want to know what makes the film newsworthy–how it will relate to or affect their audience.
The challenge for producers, activists, nonprofit organizations and public television staff is to discover why a film might be newsworthy, build media interest early on, and then use the film’s broadcast to focus attention on an important local issue. Four key steps in meeting this challenge are:
- Find out what makes the film relevant to your community.
- Craft messages about exciting elements in the film.
- Reach out to reporters who are interested in the film’s issue.
- Help reporters shape a story that conveys your message.
I worked with P.O.V. as a communications consultant on two campaigns designed to maximize the impact of a broadcast. The first assignment, in 1993, was to use radio talk shows across the United States to stimulate interest in Peter Friedman and Tom Joslin’s Silverlake Life: The View from Here and give viewers a forum to talk about AIDS. Silverlake Life: The View from Here is an autobiographical film about a gay couple‘s battle with AIDS. The second assignment, in 1994, centered on The Heart of the Matter and involved helping regional coordinators in key U.S. cities develop local media contacts to place stories on the problems facing women living with AIDS. I will try to convey here how a media strategy can be crafted, what is needed to implement that strategy and how to make the media your partner.
1. KNOW WHAT THE MEDIA WANT
The key to any effective partnership is finding out what each party needs and wants. Media coverage of a broadcast benefits filmmakers, television stations and advocates by generating awareness of the broadcast date and time and by creating an opportunity for viewers to share responses to the film and expand the discussion of difficult issues. But what do the news media get from the partnership?
The media are always in search of a great story. But, before they commit time and resources to cover a broadcast, reporters and producers demand that your story has:
- a first, most or best element
- conflict or controversy
- human interest
Your first job is to figure out what it is about the film that has at least one, if not all, of these ingredients. Watch the film with these questions in mind.
A FIRST, MOST OR BEST
Is this film the first time the topic has been covered?
What is it about this film that makes it new?
Is it the most honest, sympathetic and intelligent film about the subject?
How is the film the best of its kind?
Has it won awards? Has a famous person or authority said the film is the best?
CONFLICT OR CONTROVERSY
What conflict does the film highlight?
Does the film itself cause controversy?
Who are the sworn enemies of the film’s point of view?
Who are its loyal friends?
What strong emotions does it conjure up?
HUMAN INTEREST
What is the film’s most poignant human interest aspect?
Who will care about the people in the film and why?
What personal stories might it inspire?
Who is in or connected to the film who can talk to the media and show the human face of the film?
The best way to find these elements is to trust your instincts. When I sat down to look at Silverlake Life: The View from Here, I was convinced no one could show me anything new about the epidemic or people living with HIV/AIDS. Within 10 minutes, I knew I was seeing a new kind of honesty and humor in dealing with AIDS, death and love. When I began to cry, I realized the power of Silverlake Life was in how it evoked strong emotional reactions. My own response to the film showed me it could offer the media a first of its kind–controversial statements about love and death and intense personal stories. The next step was to lure the media into the net of the film’s power.
2. CREATE A MEDIA HOOK FOR A STORY
Once you find the elements that appeal to the media, you have to craft messages to sell the story. Staff at P.O.V. shared my response to the film, as had viewers at their "brain trust" screenings. We decided to use the strong emotional reaction as the basis of our pitch to radio talk shows. Four of us sat down and talked together about why the film was so powerful and what words we could use to describe it. We drafted letters and revised them several times. Two of us made a few initial phone calls to media contacts and reported back to the group on what messages worked best to engage people’s interest. We then put together some phrases to use in telephone calls and follow-up letters to radio talk show producers:
"Crafted from 40 hours of home video by a filmmaker intent on documenting his own death, Silverlake Life is guaranteed to provoke impassioned discussion."
"This is human drama at its most intimate–real love and death without sensationalism."
When strong reviews came out on Silverlake Life, they added another dimension to our pitch. We quoted the reviews in letters and sent copies of the articles to the radio producers and hosts to show how the media were responding to the film: Time Magazine: "Television doesn’t get any grimmer."; U.S. News & World Report : "Harrowing!"
3. HELP THE MEDIA MAKE THE STORY
Getting the media’s interest is the first and often the hardest step. Once you have their interest you have to help them make the story happen. Most reporters and producers rely on experts to give them a focus for a story and connect them to the right people. You need to let the media know that you are prepared, articulate and available to help them make their stories interesting and compelling for their readers or viewers.
For Silverlake Life, we laid out a clear role for talk show producers, in case they couldn’t see that role for themselves. Our letter to them said: "We are asking selected talk radio shows in major cities to provide a forum for viewers to call in and talk about their experience of the film. You would also be providing a service for your regular listeners by educating them about AIDS and informing them of how they can join in the fight against AIDS."
We also let producers know we were ready, willing and able to help: "P.O.V., working with AIDS organizations in [your city], could supply you with local AIDS experts to focus the discussion–AIDS care-givers, people with AIDS or policy-makers involved in HIV/AIDS."
When a producer was interested, we worked the phones to make sure the radio show was connected to the appropriate local AIDS organization, which I previously had contacted to gain its cooperation. Having served as director of communications at Gay Men’s Health Crisis and the American Foundation for AIDS Research, I knew communications directors at most AIDS organizations were always looking for opportunities to be on radio talk shows, but had little time to spend for a project coming from outside of their own organization. We made it as easy for them as possible: we told them who the producers were looking for as guests; we followed up to make sure logistics of the interview were confirmed; and we provided them with information on the film and the people in it.
This effort paid off in Los Angeles, when the biggest talk radio show in town interviewed an AIDS Project Los Angeles spokesperson about prevention education efforts in that city and also mentioned the broadcast of the film. In New York City, a talk show host was able to answer questions about AIDS from listeners calling in the morning after the broadcast because we arranged for a person living with AIDS and the executive director of Broadway Cares to be on the show with him.
For smaller AIDS service providers, the broadcast created an opportunity for media exposure that had never existed before. In Wisconsin, one executive director of a group had been trying to get on a statewide talk show for two years, and was finally scheduled for an interview to discuss the film. In Blue Hill Falls, Maine, the Down East AIDS Network was able to provide guests for an hour-long call-in show on AIDS that was a first for that region. The Silverlake Life campaign did more than provide publicity for the broadcast–it created a bridge between the media and AIDS groups that I am sure still stands today.
When the press finds an organization that is willing to help it tell a good story, it will go back to that organization again and again. But, you must make sure they keep hearing from you after you have established contact. The press is very fickle and forgets about good organizations and spokespeople very quickly. Do not be afraid to call reporters and tell them what new issue you are dealing with. Ask them what they are covering. Find out if there is a connection with anything you are doing. Reporters like to have attention paid to them even when you do not need them to do a story.
4. REMEMBER ALL PRESS IS PERSONAL
We were successful with talk show radio and Silverlake Life because we stressed the personal aspect of the film and provided people who told their personal stories. Reporters and their producers or editors need the human interest side of any issue. They know it tugs the heart strings of the reader/viewer and sells the story. Advocates and policy-makers often forget that the media and the public do not know the everyday stories related to their issue.
Films such as Silverlake Life and The Heart of the Matter , with their outreach campaigns, are critical to public education efforts because they allow personal stories to surface and capture media attention. Caution must be exercised, however, so that organizers of the campaigns use the media to tell a person’s story and not allow the media to use a person to sell a story. Also, when dealing with controversial subjects, such as HIV/AIDS, confidentiality must be respected at all times.
Interviewees should be prepared for interviews beforehand. Remember that you control the interview. The media need you for the story. Tell them in advance what you want to talk about and what you will not talk about. You determine what details to reveal about your story and how you want to be portrayed.
Anyone involved in the campaign must respect the rights of the interviewees and work with the media to protect those rights. More importantly, we need to understand that the power of the story comes from the individual and his or her particular experiences. People need delicate coaching to focus on the important aspects of their story, but should never be told exactly what to say and how to say it, or the story will lose its unique, spontaneous power.
5. WORK WITH AND LISTEN TO THE LOCAL COMMUNITIES
Never assume that people creating a media campaign (usually based in New York City or Washington, D.C.) know more about the media than local community organizers. While national "experts" may know how the media work in general, they do not necessarily know the local media and what issues and stories can best engage them. In the Getting to The Heart of the Matter campaign, we worked with 30 regional coordinators in 11 cities across the country. One of the challenges was to provide them with materials that could help them work with their local media but not to impose a blanket media strategy on any one community.
When the press finds an organization that is willing to help it tell a good story, it will go back to that organization again and again.
We created the Getting to The Heart of the Matter Resource Kit, which could be used and adapted by community groups. It focused on the basic ingredients needed to get the media interested in any story and suggested how regional coordinators could adapt sample press releases and letters to the editor to their local circumstances. The kit gave the campaign a substance and structure, making it feel "real" for the people involved, without restricting their own initiatives.
What was also clear was that each coordinator had different levels of
experience and different problems working with the press. The coordinator
in Philadelphia used his established press contacts to work on story
ideas. The coordinator in New Haven sent out a press release based on the
kit’s sample, but had no idea about how to follow up. In San Francisco,
the coordinator was media-savvy and had women with AIDS telling their
stories to major outlets, but in St. Louis, while
screenings were
inspiring the formation of a first-of-its-kind task force, the local
reporters were undecided about what "beat" the activities fell under and
were not sure it was even a news story. Each coordinator needed different
advice, although all seemed grateful for a call from New York and the
opportunity to discuss their strategies.
Each regional coordinator could also have benefited from hearing what the other coordinators were doing in their communities. Media work is never easy, and for those who have never attempted it before, hearing about other people’s successes is inspiring, and knowing about their failures can be educational. I recommend that conference calls among participants in different regions be scheduled at the beginning, in the middle and near the end of any campaign. Again, any media consultant or expert should work to facilitate that discussion rather than control it. The stories that will truly interest the media already exist within the communities and need only be teased out by getting people to talk to each other, not fabricated to fit a preconceived notion of news.
There are many different ways to bring communications experts into your campaign. More and more nonprofit organizations have communications professionals on staff full-time who will see the benefits of working on this type of campaign. If you have the funds, you can also hire a consultant. If funds are scarce, public relations firms are often willing to work on a volunteer basis to help a worthy cause. Board members may be able to connect you to volunteer professionals. Local colleges may have alumni, faculty or students who are willing to help. There are also professional public relations associations who have members willing to do pro bono work. The only caution here is that pro bono work, even done with the best intentions, can be unreliable. When a paying client calls, the volunteer must often focus on that work first and may have to leave a campaign at a critical moment. Try to get a firm commitment from any volunteer about how much time he or she can realistically give to the campaign.
6. TIMING IS EVERYTHING
Events drive news stories. Holidays, celebrations and anniversaries all can contribute to or detract from any attempt to get hard news coverage. The trick is to foresee the relevant event and use it to your advantage. The radio talk show campaign around Silverlake Life was aided in part by Gay Pride activities around the country during the last week of June 1993. The film was about the lives and deaths of two gay men, and the natural synergy between the broadcast date of the film (June 15) and Gay Pride Week worked to our advantage.
The Heart of the Matter, however, aired in the second week of July and many regular reporters who covered women’s or health issues were on vacation. There was also no natural connection between the film and Independence Day celebrations, so timing here tended to hurt news coverage rather than help it. If broadcasts can be scheduled to coincide with national or international events that relate to the subject, media attention is more easily captured. For example, World AIDS Day (December 1) is a natural for films on AIDS, or International Women’s Day (March 8) for films about women.
Silverlake Life also was broadcast at a time when news coverage of AIDS had peaked but had not yet dropped. Only a year later, when The Heart of the Matter was broadcast, a number of AIDS reporters had been taken off that beat because AIDS was being mainstreamed into a general health story. There is no way to predict such phenomena, but with the cleverness that comes with hindsight, I would have highlighted the film’s emphasis on the role of churches in helping women with AIDS and focused more attention on religious, rather than AIDS, reporters. For better or worse, the media are fickle, and what is hot news one day is old news the next.
These guidelines are not set in stone. They are derived from lessons learned during the campaigns for Silverlake Life and The Heart of the Matter , as well as media strategies developed within other spheres and for other issues. There is still much to be learned about how to maximize the impact of a broadcast. Ever-evolving technologies open up new areas of exploration. The mutual benefits for the media, foundations, nonprofit organizations, broadcasters and public television stations are still being discovered. Each independent film brings to the partnership a new range of options: personal stories, strong emotions, controversies and different "firsts." Each new outreach campaign should be approached with a fresh eye as to the unique opportunities presented by the film and its broadcast to once again engage the media as a powerful partner.
Geoffrey Knox is president of Geoffrey Knox and Associates, a consulting firm that creates communications strategies on controversial social and political issues for nonprofit organizations at the community, national and international levels.