Media Advocacy

What is Media Advocacy?

Community organizing combined with strategic engagement of the media to promote the adoption of public policies. Example: A community coalition calling for the removal of alcohol advertising billboards near schools organizes a protest and press conference that gets widespread local news coverage. (Source: The Marin Institute)

The strategic use of mass media to support community organizing to advance a social or public policy initiative. (Source: Berkeley Media Studies Group)

 Top Tips (Adapted from the Berkeley Media Studies Group)

• You cannot have a media strategy if you don’t have an overall strategy.
• The issues we address are too important not to be framed correctly in the news.
• A reporter is not your friend or enemy, just a professional trying to do a good job.
• An interview is not a conversation.
• It is not enough to know your arguments, you must know the opposition’s arguments.
• The evil of media bites is that we have to use them.
• Never compromise your credibility.
• When developing a media advocacy strategy identify the issues, possible solutions, and who has the power to make it happen.
• Controversy, conflict, injustice, irony, uniqueness, popular interest, breakthroughs, milestones and great pictures are all newsworthy.

Online Tools, How-to Guides and Practical Resources

Media Advocacy Questions
www.marininstitute.org/action_packs/media_advocacy_q.htm
The Marin Institute developed a series of questions that advocates should ask themselves to determine if media advocacy is the right strategy to reach their goals.  Questions include: Do you have a policy goal? Who has the power to make the desired policy change? And Do you have community support for your policy goal?

Media Advocacy Tips
www.consumersunion.org/conv/community_involvement/using_the_media/Media%20Advocacy%20Tips.pdf
From Consumers Union, follow these steps to ensure that you use a media strategy to advance your policy goals, rather than the other way around.

Community Tool Box
www.ctb.ku.edu/en/tablecontents/chapter_1034.htm
The Community Tool Box is a global resource for free information on essential skills for building healthy communities. It offers more than 7,000 pages of practical guidance in creating change and improvement, including media advocacy.  Topics under the media advocacy section include working with the media, using paid advertising and changing the media’s perspective on community issues. 

Media Advocacy Action Pack
www.marininstitute.org/action_packs/media_advocacy.htm
This resource from The Marin Institute gives very practical information on various aspects of media advocacy including speaking to the media, writing letters-to-the-editor, holding a press conference and putting out a press release.

APHA Media Advocacy Manual
www.apha.org/NR/rdonlyres/A5A9C4ED-1C0C-4D0C-A56C-C33DEC7F5A49/0/Media_Advocacy_Manual.pdf
The American Public Health Association (APHA) media advocacy manual is designed to help public health and other advocatres achieve their desired policy goals. The manual discusses how to plan a message, how to contact the media and various ways to work with the media.

Learn More About Media Advocacy

News for a Change: An Advocate’s Guide to Working with the Media; by Lawrence
Wallack, Iris Diaz, Lori Dorfman, and Katie Woodruff; Sage Publications, Inc., 1999.

Media Advocacy and Public Health: Power for Prevention; by Lawrence Wallack,
Lori Dorfman and Makani Themba, Sage Publications, Inc., 1993.

Media Advocacy: A Strategy for Advancing Policy and Promoting Health
Wallack and Dorfman Health Education and Behavior.1996; 23: 293-317
www.heb.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/23/3/293

The Fight for Public Health: Principles and Practice of Media Advocacy, by Simon Chapman and Deborah
Lupton. London: BMJ Publishing Group, 1994.

Media Advocacy: Reframing Public Debate, by Michael Pertschuk and Phillip Wilbur, with “A Case for PaidMedia,” by Anne Marie O’Keefe. Benton Foundation Strategic Communications for Nonprofits, edited by Larry Kirkman and Karen Menichelli, Washington DC, 1991.

Prime Time Activism: Media strategies for grassroots organizing, by Charlotte Ryan. Boston: South End
Press, 1991.

Altman, D.G., Balcazar, F.E., Fawcett, S. B., Seekins, T., & Young, J.Q. 1994. Public Health Advocacy: Creating Community Change to Improve Health. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention.

Goldman, K.D. & Zasloff, K.D. 1994. "Tools of the Trade: Media Do’s and Don’ts". SOPHE News and Views, 6-7.

Olien C.N., Tichenor P.J., Donahue G.A. "Media Coverage in Social Movements." In Information Campaigns: Balancing Social Values and Social Change. Salmon C. (ed.). Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1990; pp. 139-163.

Perschuk, M. & Wilbur, P. 1991. Media Advocacy: Reframing Public Debate. Washington D.C.: The Benton Foundation.

Wallack, L. 1993. "Media Advocacy: A Strategy for Empowering People and Communities," Journal of Public Health Policy, Newbury Park: Sage publications.

Organizations and Consultants

The Center for Civic Partnerships does not endorse any of the organizations or consultants listed below.
These names are provided for informational purposes only.

Berkeley Media Studies Group
www.bmsg.org
The Berkeley Media Studies Group (BMSG) works with, community groups, journalists and public health professionals to use the power of the media to advance healthy public policy." BMSG provides training and consultation on media advocacy and strategic communication planning, and provides strategic consultation and trainings to numerous organizations.

Fischer Communications
www.fischercommunications.com
Fischer Communications specializes in "media relations, media training and coaching, issues management and strategic communications planning for health care and nonprofit organizations." Fischer Communications provides videotaped media trainings, strategic planning workshops, media relations seminars and has worked on several large scale media relations activities and health policy communication projects.

Davis & Associates
www.davis-pr.com
Davis & Associates is a full-service communications agency specializing in public interest issues. We are an experienced team of communications professionals dedicated to helping our clients inform and engage public officials, opinion leaders and the public on issues that impact communities. Our full spectrum of capabilities bridges the gap between projects and the public by bringing forth compelling messages, effective outreach and community support.

Media Alliance
www.media-alliance.org
Media Alliance is a media resource and advocacy center for media workers, non-profit organizations, and social justice activists. Our mission is excellence, ethics, diversity, and accountability in all aspects of the media in the interests of peace, justice, and social responsibility. 

© Public Health Institute, Center for Civic Partnerships 2010

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