 How Your Nonprofit Can Talk Back to the Media Tsk, tsk, tsk. That's the essence of Katherine Q. Seelye's recent New York Times' article on how use of websites and blogs enables news subjects to balance traditional journalism. Most of Seelye's article details complaints about the way in which subjects of news articles and broadcasts are responding to media coverage of them. She writes that this practice "has led to a very uncivil discourse in which it seems to be O.K. to shout down, discredit, delegitimize and denigrate the people who are reporting stories and to pick at their methodology and ascribe motives to them that are often unfair." Hm. In the past errors or misrepresentation on the part of traditional journalists have been all too easy to pass off. Subjects had no means other than Letters to the Editor to set the record straight. Sounds like Seelye forgets that all writers, editors and producers (including herself) have a slant which shapes every story they produce. After all, everybody has a perspective. That's what moves us up the food chain. And that slant or perspective, can, if let loose, evolve into incorrect, or unfair and biased reporting. News Subjects Fight Fire With Fire to Counter Inaccurate Coverage In the article, Seelye introduces the artillery of subjects who are talking back. Armed with audio tapes of interviews, email exchanges and notes on conversations, they publish these proofs on their websites and blogs, and do their best to make sure that content is picked up by Google and other search engines. This practice, cautions Seelye, bears dangerous implications for the future of journalism. Example: Author Dave Eggers published a 10,000-word response (on his website) to what he considered to be the inappropriate tone of an article on his memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. Eggers used his site to detail what was wrong with the article, backing up his response with email exchanges with article author David Kirkpatrick (who had requested that the emails remain private). Bloggers Pinpointed as Major Threat Despite the reach of website responses to media coverage, talking back via blogs has the potential for even greater impact. Seelye warns that the "power of blogs in exponential" as blog posts are available in perpetuity, at no cost, whereas newspaper articles are likely to be subsumed into pay-per-view article archives (like that of the Times). In addition, bloggers make it a practice to link to one another, further extending the reach of any post. She points to blogger and former CNN anchor Rebecca MacKinnon who asserts, "If you're one of a growing number of people with a blog, you now have a place where you can set the record straight." But MacKinnon moderates her words with the reminder that audiences don't have the time or desire to read source material on a regular basis, and will continue to seek knowledgeable summaries of the news. As I see it, that's just where journalists come in. To distill the enormous amount of source material into cogent, accurate reporting with as little slant as possible. And source content falls into place as useful backup when controversy arises, enabling audiences to shape their own perspectives on the issue at hand. Nonprofits, take heed and be prepared to add this strategy to your communications quiver. Audiences and Subjects Shifting Power Away From Old Line Media What's interesting here is that The Times acknowledges that these strategies "have forced journalists to respond in a variety of ways, including becoming more open about their methods and techniques, and perhaps more conscious of how they filter information." In effect, having the opportunity to talk back shifts the balance of power in message framing. And as it shifts the flow of information, it also shifts traditional definitions of audience and media. Goodbye to message control. You know that the way your nonprofit is presented by the media is of vital importance to your success. I urge you to read Seelye's analysis of the fight against media message control carefully, and to arm yourself with some of the talk-back tactics detailed above, if necessary. You'll find the article here: Take That Mr. Newsman: Answering Back to the News Media, Using the Internet © 2002-2008 Nancy E. Schwartz. All rights reserved. About the Author Nancy E. Schwartz helps nonprofits succeed through effective marketing and communications. As President of Nancy Schwartz & Company (www.nancyschwartz.com), Nancy and her team provide marketing planning and implementation services to organizations as varied as the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Center for Asian American Media, and Wake County (NC) Health Services. Subscribe to her free e-newsletter "Getting Attention", (http://www.nancyschwartz.com/getting_attention.html) and read her blog at http://www.gettingattention.org for more insights, ideas and great tips on attracting the attention your organization deserves. NOTE: You're welcome to "reprint" this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the copyright and "about the author" info at the end), and you send a copy of your reprint. Print this article Back to article archive Contact us today. © 2002-2008, Nancy Schwartz & Company Revised April 12, 2008 |
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