[NLA] Discussion: Working effectively with the media

[Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council]

Don and NLA colleagues:
    Don, the message you brought to the NLA is a very good one, that we all
benefit in hearing.  I am not located in as large a city as Pittsburgh where
your Literacy Council is located, but I wanted to affirm what you said about
our task being to hold the interest of our newspaper, television and radio
media by informing them about the inner workings and benefits of our
educational opportunity.

I think our Sioux Falls' Council level of exposure improved the most
drastically as our Council began gaining volunteers who are our media
outlets' employees.  For example, I'm eager to provide tutor training to a
radio talk show host who has done 2 interviews and now wants to teach an
adult.  One of the editorial staff of our daily newspaper also is a tutor
who went on to become a member of our Marketing Committee via her membership
on our Board.  The sales staff at another radio outlet is on our Marketing
Committee as well.

When they know us, they will support us with news stories is the way I look
at it.  When they have information that tells them their reading or viewing
public's will be interested and that it will hold that audience's attention,
they will help us to get that story out to the public.  We need to have "a
story that is worthy of telling" is my challenge and everyone else's I
believe.  Because, just as you said is true in Pittsburgh, there are a lot
of non-profit agencies in every community who want their stories validated.
Literacy isn't alone in the seeking of media coverage.

Thanks for bringing your message to the NLA, Dan.  You truly *do* have a
perspective we needed to hear.

Nancy Hansen
sfliteracy at mcleodusa.net
Sioux Falls, SD
.... from a Literacy Council Executive Director whose "beat" as a weekly
newspaper reporter in a former life was the Girl Scouts.  She was a parent
of 3 Scouts and eventually a troop leader.  A lot of stories were done "on
deadline" because that news reporter *knew* what she was talking about and
less research was required to stump that article out when a few precious
"inches" were available.

----- Original Message -----
From: <DBlockGPLC at aol.com>
To: <nla at lists.literacytent.org>
Sent: Friday, January 11, 2002 4:21 PM
Subject: Re: [NLA] Discussion: Working effectively with the media


> Dear colleagues:
>     Up to now I have stayed on the sidelines during this NLA discussion of
> how to work with the media. However, the discussion touches very close to
> home for me.  My family owns a media company which includes two large
> newspapers among other properties.  I grew up in a family that lived and
> breathed the newspaper business every day.  Yet I have never worked there,
> except for a brief internship.  Instead, I have spent the last 21 years in
> the field of adult literacy.  So I have what might be a unique perspective
on
> how literacy programs can work effectively with the media.
>     Perhaps the biggest challenge for our field in working with newspapers
is
> that adult literacy is not a "beat" for any reporter.  Public schools have
a
> beat, higher education has a beat, and social services have a beat.  This
> means that, at larger newspapers, a full-time reporter is assigned to
those
> areas and gets to have, over a period of years, a deep knowledge of the
> subject matter and who the experts are.  Adult education is not a large
> enough field to merit its own beat reporter.  What happens in many cases
is
> that a different reporter is assigned to do an adult literacy story each
time
> that such a story is written.  With no background in the topic, that
reporter
> is bound to produce a very superficial, even unfairly biased story, given
the
> tight deadlines of most metropolitan papers.  Example:  I once had a
reporter
> call me at 1:30 p.m. for a story which had a 5:00 p.m. deadline.  He had
> never written a story about adult literacy in his journalism career.  He
had
> three and a half hours to learn everything there was to know about adult
> literacy, write the story, and submit it for the next day's paper.  And if
I
> wanted the story to be done at all, I needed to go along with these
> limitations.  It wasn't the reporter's fault.  The time limit and the
topic
> were assigned by his editor.
>     It is very important that we in adult literacy learn how the media
> operate in assigning and allocating stories to reporters.  That is why we
> need public relations expertise in our organizations.  My agency has a
> full-time public relations director.  If your agency can't afford that, at
> least one of your staff can take a course in public relations and how it
> works.
>     Right now we at GPLC have gotten out of the trap of having a different
> reporter every time a story is assigned.  After many years, we have a
single
> reporter at the largest daily in Pittsburgh who has become almost a beat
> reporter on adult literacy.  She has been following one literacy student
from
> enrollment through her studies with us and has been collecting information
> for over a year.  This close relationship with a reporter is unusual in
the
> field of adult literacy, but I can wager that all the colleges and
> universities in your area have this type of relationship with their local
> media.
>     So one key to working with the media is to build close relationships
with
> media professionals, including reporters.  They become your advocates
inside
> the media, and when you need their help in a pinch, they will be
> knowledgeable enough to help in the right way.
>     I have to constantly remind myself that there are 2,000 nonprofit
> organizations in my city, all clamoring for media attention.  In order to
> stand out from the crowd, literacy programs must make sure that there are
> editors and reporters in the media who are knowledgeable about our issues.
> It is our job to educate them about our topic.
>     I hope that this is useful for some of you on the NLA list.
>
> Don Block
> Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council
> dblockgplc at aol.com
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