Message and CommunicationsDigital Strategies 101October 18, 2011

This Lecture1. Theory on Messaging (Building Blocks)

2. Exercise on Putting a Message Together

3. Online

4. PR—Talking to the Media

You talking to me?Who is your audience?

Other ActivistsSupportersContributorsOpinion ElitesLeadersConstituenciesThe Press

Everybody Has A Context Language

History

Religion

Family

Education

Class

Race

Income

More…

Your Task: Change the Constellation

Building Blocks of A MessageSymbols

Emotions and Unconscious

Framing and Naming

Clear, Concise, Contrast, Convince

Breaking Through—Sticky Repetition

Context, Motivation and Competing Motivations

Stay in Control—Choose your battlespace

SymbolsSymbols come from our culture, our media, our

history and our life experiences.

Every symbol has a set of values and feelings associated with it that you can borrow.

"That will unleash the Barack Obama as Abe Lincoln narrative. Lincoln delivered his "House divided" speech at that historic spot and the announcement is on Lincoln's birthday weekend. Obama is expected to vault over to Iowa, home to the first-in-the-nation 2008 caucus, after the announcement. ”Lynn Sweet, Chicago Sun Times

Emotions and UnconsciousPeople respond primarily to feelings. Feelings are usually not

conscious right away.

Most feelings are about people.

Framing and NamingWhen news happens, people look for

meaning…

…we tell them what the news means.

Example GOP: Tax Cuts Grow the Economy

Example Progressive: Tax Cuts Take Food From the Mouths of Poor Children in Order to give Millionaires a Tax Break

Four CsClear: You aren’t Shakespeare—you write for

USA Today.

Concise: I stop listening after a minute at most.

Contrast: Why should I care if it is the same?

Convince: Why is this important to my life?

“Less is more.” Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Breaking Through is HardSticky = Memorable

Find an Emotion and Drive it Home

Surprise Us

Confusion Flunks

Structure the Story

Repeat

Context: We All Have It

Stay in ControlA key goal of your work is to maintain as much

control of the conversation as possible. You decide what you’re talking about. Don’t allow your opponent to control the conversation

Example

Option 1: Debate How to Cut the Debt

Option 2: Debate How to Create Jobs

Exercise: The Message Box

What We Say About Ourselves

What Opposition Says about Themselves

What We Say About Opposition

What Opposition Says about Us

OnlineWhat’s different? Less personal. Less

persistent.

Most people are over consuming online.

Polling: What is it good for?A measurement tool.

But polls aren’t fate IF you have a messaging theory for how to change them. Study history to learn about what shifts polls.

PR: Talking to the MediaBroadcast and Print

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DIFFERENT MEDIA, DIFFERENT NEEDS

Different parts of a story are appealing to different media.

Print needs are different from TV needs are different from radio needs.

Modify your pitch accordingly.

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PRINTPrint reporters are

looking for a compelling narrative arc for a story.

Specific local interest.

Highlight the “man bites dog” newsworthyness – why is this different from the everyday?

DEADLINESCall a newsroom between

10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.Reporters most likely not

in planning meetings or working against a 5:00 p.m. deadline.

Try to pitch at least a day before the event, though two is fine with a reminder email the day-of.

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TELEVISION Visuals are always the lead

concern for television reporters.

Duh.

But seriously, visuals are always the lead concern for television reporters.

Your pitch should lay out in its first sentence the visuals you have to tell your story.

Ideally, the visuals will also encapsulate local involvement.

DEADLINES Doesn’t have time to focus on

anything beyond the day-of. The person at a television station

to talk to prior to an event is the Assignment Editor.

Call the assignment desk early (even if you get the night editor), between 6 and 8:30 in the morning, just to confirm that they received your advisory prior to their morning meeting.

If you do want to try pitching earlier than the day of, you can call the assignment desk or the beat reporter after the morning meeting, between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m., but not in the hour or so before a noon newscast.

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RADIO News radio pitching is mostly similar to print

pitching.

Maybe you can mention if there will be interesting ambient sounds, (i.e. chanting, etc.) but it’s less important.

Talk radio is all about relationships – esp. the compelling back and forth between host and guest.

There’s no substitute for building talk radio relationships.

DEADLINES Best time to call is early—around 7:30 - 8:30 a.m.,

and then again after 10:00 a.m. News directors, reporters and producers are often

gone by the afternoon. If a reporter is not able to attend the event, offer

to have one of your speakers or interviewees do a taped interview.

Attribution RulesJournalistic Ethics and You

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ATTRIBUTION RULES FOR PRINTThe single most important rule: never say ANYTHING to a

reporter that you wouldn’t want on the front page of the paper.

However, protecting sources is a key journalistic ethic.

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ATTRIBUTION RULES FOR PRINTThat said, under journalistic ethics you can request to have

something you say be: “not for attribution” “off the record” “on background”

For any of these to go into effect: You must tell the reporter BEFORE you say whatever you wish to

be under these conditions, AND You must get verbal agreement from the reporter before

journalistic ethics are binding.

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ATTRIBUTION RULES FOR PRINT“Not for Attribution”

Relatively straightforward. Means that the reporter can use the information you give them,

but you cannot be sourced as a specific individual. The reporter may ask to clear with you a descriptive phrase, such

as “One representative of a community-based organization said…”

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ATTRIBUTION RULES FOR PRINT“Off the Record”

Means what you’re saying shouldn’t be written down by a reporter.

Information should not be attributed to you in any form.

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ATTRIBUTION RULES FOR PRINT“On Background”

Useful for giving a reporter “a tip.” Useful for relatively long technical explanations, which can be

helpful to a reporter but where you don’t want to worry that every word is perfect.

In general, best used for directing reporters to sources of information (people, reports, websites, etc.) where you don’t want to be seen as involved.

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ATTRIBUTION RULES FOR PRINTREMEMBER:

These are just ethical rules, and journalists can and do break them all the time!

Journalists MUCH prefer that you talk on the record wherever possible, especially post-scandals.

If you don’t give notice BEFORE you talk, Journalistic ethics don’t bind the reporter, no matter what they say.

If you don’t get verbal confirmation from the reporter BEFORE you talk, Journalistic ethics don’t bind the reporter, no matter what they say.

THE KICKERNo two reporters agree on the definition of any of these terms!

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ATTRIBUTION RULES FOR BROADCASTThe mic is always live.

Live radio or TV is live.

If you are being taped for later use, they can use whatever you say, but it is sometimes possible to let them give you another shot. Television and radio producers want good tv and

radio. If you tell them that you can do it better with one

more try, they may just let you.

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HELPFUL TIPS Never make anything up.

Never use jargon or acronyms.

Support your messages with anecdotes, statistics and soundbites.

Speak in short sentences with pauses between them.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Repetition is good, improvising off-message is bad.