How to Get the Message Through to the Media
Using public relations skills and resources is another way to influence local elected and other officials, influential organizations and the general public. The Lobbying Committee can take simple but necessary steps — through direct contact with reporters, press releases, letters to the editor, radio talk shows — to make its views known through the mass media: TV, radio and newspapers. This involves initiating contacts with the news media, not just reacting to their coverage.
Reporters look for and rely upon people who give them accurate information. The primary focus for any union representative with responsibility for press matters is credibility. You must convince reporters that they may rely fully on the accuracy of your information. You want the reporter to consider you a trusted source of reliable information about the community interests and people involved in the issues you have chosen to lobby.
How to get ready to work with the media
Study newspapers, listen to TV/radio news and public affairs programs to identify reporters who are most likely to cover your issue. Or, simply call every newspaper and TV and radio station in your area. Ask for the name of the right "contact" person covering your issue (editor or reporter), get the address, and ask about story deadlines and the best time of day to contact that person. Don't neglect community newsweeklies. (The telephone numbers are listed in the yellow pages of your telephone book.)
Media contacts may also be accessed through AFSCME's Legislative Action webpage. Simply by putting your zipcode into the "ZipCode Search" box, you can find every media outlet and newspaper in your area, as well as a contact name at the TV station or newspaper. This feature will also allow you to conduct an online media campaign.
What initial steps can you take to reach specific editors and reporters?
Once you have identified specific editors and reporters, begin a dialogue. Try to do this when your issue is not current news. You want the press to know and trust you, to come to you for your side of the story when the union or something it cares about is in the news.
- Make introductory telephone calls and visits to individual reporters. Reporters want to know who has the official responsibility to speak for the organization.
- Let reporters and assignment editors know how to reach a chosen spokesperson at home, at work and at the union office.
- Ask reporters/producers about the best way to get information to them; try to make their Job easier.
- If a reporter has covered a related story well, compliment him/her.
- It is essential that you establish from the first that your information is accurate, well-researched and well thought out. Never "shoot from the hip."
- There is no such thing as "off the record" or "background." Assume that whatever you say will be quoted. The most important thing to a reporter is "breaking the story."
What about approaching the media when the story is "hot"?
When your issue is current, determine whether you are trying to influence opinion or create a news item. Reporters look for stories, for news items. Editorial page editors are interested in opinions and the facts that support them. Learn to:
- Articulate a "local angle" to your story.
- Package the item — many stories do not sell themselves; build stories about issues affecting the community.
- Frame the issue — if you don't understand it, neither will the reporter or the public. The more technical the information, the greater the challenge. Translate dollar losses into service losses.
Press releases and advisories
Once you have made contact with your local media, press releases and advisories, as well as personal contact, may be used to alert them to story opportunities.
Press releases are used to generate interest among the media about the contents of the release. A good, newsworthy release may provide the basis of a story. It should be brief, well-written, and, most importantly, the release should be a "hook;" it should generate curiosity and inspire further questions by reporters.
Press advisories, which are sent like press releases to the media, are used to convince the media to mention a future meeting in a news story to help spread the word and increase turnout at the meeting. Another purpose is to announce that meeting to the news media so that a reporter will be assigned to cover it for a story following the meeting. They are also used to announce press conferences.
Radio or TV talk shows/letters to the editor/op-ed pieces
Your most articulate and well-prepared spokespersons should consider appearing on radio and TV talk or interview programs. Union leaders and non-union supporters can be encouraged to write letters to the editor. Getting others to write helps keep the media from turning all issues into public debates about public employee wages or job security.
Another way of writing a letter to the editor is to draft and submit an "op-ed" article for publication expressing your opinion on community issues. Those are the columns opposite the editorial page that some newspapers print beside the regular, syndicated columnists. Get members of your coalition to sign them as well.
Postscript
An ongoing lobbying program, supported by coalition building and media relations, opens up lines of communication between AFSCME and other important segments of the community.
It takes time for these relationships to fully develop, but the activities are basic: phone calls, letters, and meetings, whether they involve city council members, state legislators, reporters, publishers of community newspapers, local ministers' associations, or even corporate health care coalitions. Through these contacts, members and leaders learn how to teach others that AFSCME, as an organization of public sector and private sector service providers, shares the concerns of the community and its citizens and has resources that can help meet those concerns.
Effective lobbying consists of the continuing search for opportunities to move AFSCME's agenda forward.
