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Never underestimate the power of the press! Telling your school's story is essential to building strong support for your public schools.
Sometimes educating our political leaders isn’t enough. When others are putting out misinformation (stuff that's just plain wrong), it becomes necessary to stem the tide of anti-public school sentiment by contacting the media.
Media coverage is also a great way to get the attention of your elected officials. Policymakers are often influenced by local media reports.
People tend to think of "media spokespersons" as well-trained, experts on the issues. What they forget is the importance of local stories.
You can help the public be informed by telling the stories about how the issues are impacting your children and your schools. A big piece of this story is about how little local control your schools and community now have over the decisions being made that impact your schools.
Times have changed, and many people don't know it. Many think school budgets are still set by local school boards and paid for through local property taxes. They don't know that school curriculum is being legislated. They don't know how much time our children spend preparing for and taking tests. And they may not even realize we abolished the State Board of Education so we have no place but the Legislature and the Governor's office—or the press—to take our concerns.
What is “The Media”?
The media includes many different channels of communication—radio, television, newspapers, magazines and the Internet. Each provides different opportunities to reach particular audiences with a specific message.
What is “Media Relations”?
Media Relations is a planned, proactive effort to build relationships with media contacts and a visible presence in local media outlets to raise community awareness.
What is "Media Advocacy"?
Media Advocacy has a tight focus on the issues, proposed solutions and legislative process. Media Advocacy is a subset of a larger Media Relations effort.
Where to Start
Step 1. Put together a media contact list
A good starting point is to put together a list of newspapers, television and radio stations that cover your community. Call to find the appropriate contact person, address, phone and fax numbers, and E-mail addresses. Ask for contacts who cover school issues and public policy. Your list could include reporters, producers, editorial writers, news editors, assignment editors, and so on. Be sure to ask for submission guidelines.
Decide whether or not to include statewide and regional center media outlets (e.g., Duluth, St. Cloud, Rochester).
Step 2. Monitor the media
Recruit volunteers to read the newspapers and clip related articles, and to watch and prepare brief summaries of local news broadcasts (check the Internet to see if your television station has a Web site that posts news reports). Add the reporters who are covering your issues to your list. Ask your school district if they provide a clipping service to school board members and ask to be put on the distribution list. Over time, you will begin to see how much effort each media outlet puts into researching the issues and how willing they are to support our schools.
Step 3. Put Together a Media Relations/Communications Plan
The scope of your communications plan will be determined by the core purposes of your organization or coalition. The key is to keep communications focused and timely. Concentrate on just one or two key issues, define your target audiences, the media channels to reach them, and the pivotal moments when your key messages will be most relevant. A good starting point is to "take the pulse" of your local community's support for public education.
Step 4. Put together a press kit
A press kit is a natural extension of the organizing work you do. It generally includes a fact sheet about your organization or coalition that states who you are (description of membership/list of member organizations), what you do (purposes/activities), where you're located (geographic focus), and when and why you got together (brief history and mission statement). Include "Impact Statements" (a bullet list of issues and their impacts) or "Issues Briefs" (longer summaries of the issues and their local impacts). It can also include local parent/school stories illustrating the impacts, and always includes contacts for more information.
Step 5. Communicate with the Media
Whenever decisions are made that will have local impacts, let the public know! There are several different ways to do this:
- Contact a reporter
- Write a letter to the editor
- Submit an OpEd piece
- Meet with an editorial board
- Issue a press release
- Give an interview
- Organize a media event
Step 6. Keep Track of Your Efforts
Make a log of your contacts with the media and archive your results. This is essential to paving the way for volunteers who follow you.
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