Making Your Point to the MediaJuly 17, 2013

2:00 – 3:00 pm EST

*This call will be recorded and slides/video will be sentto all registrants via email.

Using GoToWebinar• During presentations, please type any questions into the box in your

dashboard, we’ll address them at the end of each presentation.

• This seminar will be recorded; a link will be sent to all registrants after the call.

• Register for upcoming webinars and see archived recordings at www.foodday.org/webinars. For questions, please contact foodday@cspinet.org.

Food Day Overview• Food Day is a nationwide initiative to promote healthy,

affordable, sustainable food and better food policies. It builds year-round and culminates on October 24. It was launched in 2011 by the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, publisher of the Nutrition Action Healthletter.

We want your input!http://www.foodday.org/food_literacy

Comment between July 19 – August 17 and help us create a food literacy rubric that will guide our

food education campaign.

Call Agenda1. Catherine Kastleman, Food Day2. Professor George Lakoff3. Q&A (5-10 minutes)4. Ingrid Daffner Krasnow and Lezak Shallat, Berkeley Media

Studies Group5. Q&A (5-10 minutes)

What You Need to Know about Moral and Political Framing For Food Day

George Lakoff

Goldman Distinguished Professor Of Cognitive Science and Linguistics

University of California, Berkeley

What You Need to Know About the Mind and Language

• 98% of thought is unconscious.

• Conscious thought is structured by unconscious frames.

• Frames are neural structures used in thinking

• Frames define how you see the world

• All words are defined in terms of frames

What You Need to KnowAbout the Frames and and Politics

• Frames form a hierarchy: Higher frames dominate lower frames

• Moral frames are at the top of the hierarchy

• All politics is moral

• Conservatives and Progressives have opposite moral frames

• Many people have both, applied to different issues

Metaphorical Thought Governs Politics

• Political frames arise from family-based frames plus the conceptual metaphor: Governing Institutions Are Families

• Nurturant Parent Family maps to Progressive Morality

• Strict Father Family maps to Conservative Morality

• This is the basic political division in the country

• This division gives rise to opposite views of democracy: Public Provisions vs. Liberty (only individual responsibility)

Things to Remember

• Frames Trump Facts! The facts alone won’t set you free.

• The reason: In your brain, your frames are neural circuits.

• Your neural circuits determine what you can understand and what makes sense to you.

• If the facts don’t fit the frames, the frames will stay and the facts will be ignored or ridiculed

Things to Remember

• Facts are important. If your facts are to matter, they must be framed in terms of your values.

• Using the other sides frames strengthens the other side’s values

• • Avoid the other side’s frames

• Language evokes frames

• Avoid the other side’s language - use your own moral language

Things to Remember

• Repetition is crucial

• Negating a frame activates the frame:

Don’t think of an elephant!

• Food Day is an attempt to create new frames in the public.

• Experiences are crucial to frame creation.

• Experience makes framing believable.

• You need narratives with Good Guys and Bad Guys

The Strict Father Family

• Father is the ultimate authority. None higher.

• Authority must be maintained above all.

• Father knows right from wrong.

• Children learn morality by being punished fordisobedience. Punishment is morally required.

• Morality requires discipline. If you are undisciplined,you cannot be moral.

The Strict Father Family

• Father protects and supports financially.

• All responsibility is personal responsibility:

you are responsible for yourself and not for others.

• Adults are responsible for their children; not for other people’s.

• Communication is one-way: No back-talk.

The Nurturant Parent Family

• Parents have equal responsibility.

• Parents use and teach empathy and responsibility for oneself and for others.

• Well-being and fulfillment are major goals.

The Nurturant Parent Family

• Parents gain authority by earning respect and respecting their children.

• Open two-way communication

• It takes a village ….

These family models,

when mapped onto politics,

lead to opposite views of Democracy

and to opposite views of Real Food

Progressive Democracy

• Democracy in America is based on a moral principle:

Citizens care about one another and act responsibly on that care.

• Citizens have both individual and social responsibility.

• The role of the government is to promote the Public Good:

to empower and protect all citizens equally.

Progressive Democracy

• The Public Good requires a government that provides the conditions for freedom:

infrastructure, education, health protections, safety nets, physical protection, a system of justice, government research,

market oversight, economic stability, environmental protection, etc.

• You are not free without them.

• A vibrant Private requires a robust Public. Nobody makes it on their own.

• Private enterprise requires robust public provisions.

Conservative Democracy

• Democracy is based on a moral principle: Liberty — Citizens should be free to seek their own interests regardless of the interests of others.

• Responsibility is personal responsibility alone: you are not responsible for others and others are not responsible for you.

• Those who succeed deserve to, and those who don’t succeed don’t deserve to.

• This principle imposes a moral hierarchy, which should be reflected in political and economic power

Conservative Democracy

The Moral Order: Power should reflect moral authority.

God Above ManMan above NatureAdults above childrenSuccesses above FailuresWestern Culture above other CulturesAmerica above Foreign Nations

Americans above ForeignersMen above WomenWhites above NonwhitesStraights above GaysChristians above Nonchristians

A Governing Institution Is A Family

Governing Institutions include: Schools, Churches, Teams, Businesses, The Market, Governments

Example: The Market

“Let the Market decide.” The Market as Decider – the Strict Father.

The Laissez-faire Market is Natural : Self-interest above all is natural

The Laissez-faire Market is Moral: If everyone seeks their self-interest, the interests of all will be maximized. (Greed is good)

The Market rewards financial discipline and punishes the lack of it.

The Laissez-faire Market, like the strict father, is the ultimate authority – no higher authority (e.g. government and science)

Therefore,No regulations, No taxation,No unions or worker rights, No tort cases, Science is subordinate to the market.

How does our political divide

apply to

Food Day?

Food Day is an Inherently Nurturant Enterprise

Real food connects you to the natural world and to others

Fulfillment:

• Enough food.

• Taste matters. Find Real Food that you enjoy.

• Health matters. Real food is healthy. Being sick sucks.

The Bad Guys

Avoid Poisons: • Fructose and sucrose (which is half fructose), • Pesticides (poisonous chemicals that kill bugs), • Transfat and high fat foods, • Chemicals that replace real foods in processed foods.• Processed foods contains pesticides, unless they say organic or

pesticide-free. • Anti-biotiocs in food.

Experiences

• Read labels out loud.• Learn to cook: At least oatmeal, rice (brown, red, or

black), corn (or cornmeal / polenta ). • Go online and find a recipe for a real food you like.

• Make a map of your supermarket and mark where the real food is.• Get the Good Guide App free on your cell phone. It reads the bar

codes on labels and tells you what is in the food.• Find Plants you like to eat: Fruit, Vegetables, Nuts and seeds, whole

grains

Why Food is a Political Issue

Progressive Values Are Nurturant and Lead to:Caring about Sufficient, Enjoyable, Healthy Food For

All Governmental Responsibility for Real Food Values

Conservative Values are Strict and Lead to:Maximizing Profit in the Market Over Real FoodPersonal Responsibility Alone“Liberty” — Individuals and Corporations Ungoverned

The Farm Bill Is At the Heart of Food Politics

Why Food is an Educational Issue

• Education is, or should be, a nurturant enterprise• You can’t learn if you are hungry, sick, or malnourished• Food is at the heart of human existence• Food is social: it connects you to others• Food is environmental: it connects you to the natural

world• Real food is a human, social, economic, and environmental

issue

Every parent and every school should be teaching real food.

What to Prepare For

Attacks: You will be attacked as the “liberal elite” — an idea created by conservatives to recruit low-income working people who have some strict father values. Expect to be called “foodies.”

Attack can also come from minority group liberals and not affordable to low income people, or as not in the given culture.

Attempts to Co-opt: The processed food industry will try to use Food Day as a marketing ploy — we serve salads, egg-white sandwiches, high-protein burgers, etc.

Both: See Atlantic Monthly (July/August 2013): :How Science is Engineering Healthy Junk Food. Attack on “Pollanites”

Do not negate! Stick to your frames. Repeat them. Repeat them again. Avoid such “debates” framed by adversaries!

What to Prepare For

Both Attack and Attempt to Co-opt at once: See Atlantic Monthly (July/August 2013): “How Science is Engineering Healthy Junk Food.” Attack on “Pollanites” and casting real food as anti-science and anti-working people.

Do not negate! Stick to your frames. Repeat them. Repeat them again. Avoid such “debates” framed by adversaries!

Food Day should be as American as apples, farmers’ markets, and home-cooked dinners.

Food Day education should teach reading labels aloud, learning about chemicals, and learning about nutrition and ecology.

Ingrid Daffner Krasnow, MPH

Lezak Shallat, MA

Making Your Point to the Media:A Webinar in Preparation for Food Day 2013

Berkeley Media Studies Group

• Research on news coverage of public health issues

• Training and strategic consultation for community groups and advocates

• Professional education for journalists

Goals for Today

• Learn what framing is, and how it works in our heads and in the news media.

• Understand the importance of the “environmental” frame to promote policy change.

• Learn how to access media to get your voice heard.

• Share lessons from the field.

Layers of Strategy

• Overall strategy

• Media strategy

• Message strategy

• Access strategy

Message Strategy

• Pay attention to order, which means prompting

the environmental perspectives first.

• State your values.

• Be sure the solution gets as much attention—

or more—than the problem.

• Assign responsibility for a policy solution.

Strategic Message Development

Strategic messages answer the following questions:

• What do we need? (Environmental cue)

• Why does it matter? (Values statement)

• What should be done? (Policy Proposal)

Remember to think about both your messenger and your audience.

Prevention

ENVIRONMENTAL CUE

+

VALUE

+

Source: What Surrounds Us Shapes Us. Berkeley Media Studies Group & Strategic Alliance

When fresh produce is not available to buy with EBT cards, some families can’t afford to buy it, which means some children don’t get the food they need to be healthy.

We can prevent poor health now and in the future if we accept EBT cards at our local farmers’ markets.

POLICY PROPOSAL

Children are healthier when they eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Ingenuity or “Can-Do” Spirit

Children are healthier when they eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Fortunately, we have many local farmers’ markets that bring fresh, locally grown produce to our community.

Accepting EBT cards at farmers’ markets would allow all children to eat a healthy diet.

ENVIRONMENTAL CUE

+

VALUE

+

POLICY PROPOSAL

Source: What Surrounds Us Shapes Us. Berkeley Media Studies Group & Strategic Alliance

Fairness

ENVIRONMENTAL CUE

+

VALUE

+

It’s not fair that some children in our city have access to healthy produce while others don’t.

Source: What Surrounds Us Shapes Us. Berkeley Media Studies Group & Strategic Alliance

POLICY PROPOSAL

Children are healthier when they eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Accepting EBT cards at farmers’ markets would allow all children to eat a healthy diet.

Layers of Strategy

• Overall strategy

• Media strategy

• Message strategy

• Access strategy

Access Strategy

6-WeekCountdown

Food/Other Policy News

Advocacy Goals

News Hooks

Media Actions

Sept 19

Sept 26

Oct 3

Oct 10

Oct 17

Oct 24

Making Your Voice Heard

"It's an important step forward," says Michael Jacobson, executive director of the advocacy group Center For Science in the Public Interest, which has been a long-time critic of McDonald's. "The other fast-food chains will feel the competitive pressure to provide the same information."

All Politics is Local

Piggybacking on Breaking News

How could you link your advocacy efforts to current food and beverage issues?

What could you say to advance the larger dialogue?

Media coverage Food Day 2012: A quick review

Challenges to making your stories newsworthy: What can you do?

• Identify the problem, solution and why it matters.

• Understand how the issue is currently framed.

• Reframe an individual problem to a social issue.

• Show the solution you want to see.

• Assign responsibility for a policy solution.

Thank You!

Ingrid Daffner Krasnow, MPH & Lezak Shallat, MA

Contact us: daffnerkrasnow@bmsg.org

shallat@bmsg.org

Visit us: www.bmsg.org

Follow us: @bmsgdotorg

Find us on Facebook: Berkeley Media Studies Group