RAISE EVERY VOICEStrategic Communications & Progressive Change Making

A P R O G R E S S I V E C O M M U N I C A T O R S N E T W O R K B R I E F I N G P A P E R

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Easthampton, MA 01027(413) 527-3835

www.progressivecommunicators.net

RAISE EVERY VOICEStrategic Communications & Progressive Change Making

2007

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This paper is the result of collaboration among many members of the Progressive Communications Network (PCN), including:

Briefing paper working group: Ludovic Blain, Thom Clark, Alice do Valle, Denise Moorehead, Linda Stout, and Tracy Van Slyke.

Writer: Charles Winfrey

Editing and coordination: Carolyn A. Cushing, PCN Managing Director

Case study contributions: Laura Jones, PCN’s Criminal Justice Working Group; Gordon Mayer, CommunityMedia Workshop; Sangita Nayak, Katrina Information Network; Jen Soriano, Youth Media Council; Jane Wholey, Esopus Creek Communications; and the SPIN Project.

Paper review, feedback, and support: Robert Bray; Allison Conyers; Lark Corbeil, Public News Service; Karen Jeffreys; Scherazade King, Project: Think Different; and Barbara Osborn, Liberty Hill Foundation.

Photos and artwork contributed by: Thom Clark, Community Media Workshop (pp. 15, 16, 22, and 23); Mimi Pickering, Appalshop (p. 9); KatrinaAction.org Photo Gallery (p. 24); Rhode Island Coalition AgainstDomestic Violence (p. 2); and Youth Media Council (p. 13)

Production: Sirius Design

Paper production and distribution funded by: Solidago Foundation

The work of the Progressive Communicators Network and its projects has been made possible through the yearsby Ford Foundation, Needmor Foundation, Open Society Institute, Solidago Foundation, Unitarian UniversalistService Committee, and the Wellspring Fund of Peace Development Fund as well as many generous individualdonors who give through the Network’s parent organization, Spirit in Action. Finally, we thank the members of the Network who give both their money and their time to make the Network a success.

Progressive Communicators Network1 Cottage StreetBox 25, Suite 3-21Easthampton, MA 01027(413) 527-3835www.progressivecommunicators.net

We would love to hear your comments and questions. Please be in touch with Carolyn Cushing—carolyn@progressivecommunciators.net

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CONTENTS

Section IIntroduction .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 1

Case Study: Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 2

Section IIThe Field of Progressive Communications .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 3

Case Study: Combating Opposition Tactics in California’s Living Wage Battles .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 6

Case Study: Critical Resistance South .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 8

Section IIIStrategic Communications and Strengthening Grassroots Organizations .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 11

Case Study: Bay Area Youth Block the “Superjail”.Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 13

Case Study: SOCM’s “Message in a Bottle” Campaign .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 14

Section IVStrategic Communications and Growing Broad-based Movements for Change .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 15

Case Study: Criminal Justice Working Groupof the Progressive Communicators Network .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 16

Section VThe Media Landscape Today: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same .Ê .Ê 18

Section VIEquipping Grassroots Organizations to Work in the Current Media Landscape .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 20

Case Study: Jane Addams Senior Caucus .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 22

Section VIIBuilding Progressive Communications Infrastructure at the Grassroots .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 23

Case Study: Katrina Information Network .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê .Ê 24

In late summer 2005, Americans watched theirtelevision sets in shock as the victims of HurricaneKatrina huddled on rooftops with makeshift signsbegging for help. But after the initial crisis of thehurricane abated, the American public came face toface with the reality that many of the people livingin the poor and working class neighborhoods ofNew Orleans had been crying out for help andorganizing to improve their lives for a long time.

We supposedly live in a communicationsworld, yet it took a catastrophic hurricane to openour eyes and hearts to the unfairness of excludingwhole communities from the benefits, services, andeven the respect of their own government. Why?

As a society we knew about myths such as“New Orleans: The Big Easy,” or “Atlanta: TheCity Too Busy to Hate.” These images have beencarefully crafted and even better funded. Promotersof corporations use their vast resources to fundconservative think tanks to justify those mythsand hire the messengers to spread the myths andinsure that they become part of the collective“conventional wisdom.”

Meanwhile, organizations that seek todebunk these myths, especially grassroots, single-issue organizations that represent the majority of America’s poor and working classes, people of color, and other oppressed segments of oursociety, often have too few resources to get theirmessage out.

These groups are effective and creative at doingwhat they do best—organizing people to worktogether to better their lives and communities—butthey don’t have the money to buy advertising spaceor utilize high-dollar public relations specialists.Nor do they have the resources and people powerto engage with the media in consistent and effectiveways. The media in turn writes them off as unpro-fessional, too dependent on emotions instead offacts, or as fringe groups not representative of the majority.

Many journalists—some driven by the tradi-tions and institutions of their profession, others bypersonal experiences and beliefs—are unable tohighlight the systemic causes of disenfranchisement.Even when they take notice of and report on theshortcomings of our society, they are coached tofocus on individuals, whose stories are presentedin a “victim/hero vs. villain” manner, rather thanon organizationsworking to createchange withintheir communi-ties. Progressiveorganizationshave noted thisbias and view themedia, at best, asa double-edgedsword capable of doing as much harm as good.As a result, grassroots movements are unable totake advantage of the media as an effective toolfor organizing the people they serve.

While grassroots movements as a whole havenot captured the attention of the media, there are agrowing number of organizations that recognize theimportance of getting out their message. Theyhave developed the internal expertise needed tocreate strong communications strategies. Otherorganizations work with the numerous specialistsincluding writers, consultants, trainers, and artistsaround the country who are dedicated to helpingcreate change through a diverse set of communi-cation practices. The Progressive CommunicatorsNetwork (PCN), which has prepared this briefingpaper, was founded to connect and to strengthenthose organizations and individuals who can pro-vide progressives and grassroots organizations witheffective and creative models of communicationsand media work. These models, which are high-lighted in case studies throughout this briefingpaper, are crucial to giving the progressive move-ment a strong voice and well-defined messages.

INTRODUCTION

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“…organizations thatseek to debunk thesemyths…often have toofew resources to gettheir message out.”

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The lack of public attention given to pre-Katrina conditions in New Orleans’ poorneighborhoods is in marked contrast to publicvisibility of another group—victims of domesticviolence in Rhode Island.

Such was not always the case. In 1997, the Rhode Island Coalition Against DomesticViolence (RICADV) conducted a survey ofpublic knowledge and attitudes towarddomestic violence, with sobering results. In thesurvey, 43% of Rhode Islanders agreed withthe statement that “some wives provoke theirhusbands into hurting them,” while respondentsin general exhibited little knowledge aboutthe extent of the problem.

In 2005, the coalition conducted a follow-up poll that showed different results: 83% of RhodeIslanders now disagree with the statement that“if someone is being abused they have donesomething to cause it.” The vast majority ofthose polled also do not believe that they shouldmind their own business if they are aware ofa family member, friend, co-worker, or neighborwho is a victim of domestic violence.

“For eight years we have been urging Rhode Islanders, through our public awarenesscampaigns, to make domestic violence theirbusiness, and we are very excited to see theresults of this survey, which indicate that thismessage is starting to resonate with people,”stated RICADV executive director DeborahDeBare. “This survey also highlights theimportance of publicawareness campaignssuch as this year’sDomestic ViolenceAwareness Month campaign.”

The coalition is made up of six agencies with the goalof providing a statewidesafety net of comprehensiveservices including emergencyshelters, 24-hour hotlines,

support groups, children’s programs, and courtadvocacy. After the earlier survey revealed thelack of public awareness of the problem, thecoalition began to emphasize community out-reach and prevention through education andpublic awareness, and used the media in inno-vative and strategic ways to support the work.

The coalition prepared a comprehensive analysisof the extent and causes of domestic violenceand published Domestic Violence: A Handbookfor Journalists in 2001. It has followed upwith an active public awareness campaignthat includes the annual Domestic ViolenceAwareness Month in October. RICADV kicksoff the month-long campaign with volunteersdistributing literature throughout the statewhile faith communities toll their bells at noon in memory of victims.

At mid-month, members of SOAR, the coalition’stask force for survivors of domestic violence,hold a vigil. Other activities include a “Cut ItOut” campaign, in partnership with the attorneygeneral’s office, which educates hair stylists inhow to help regular customers who may alsobe victims. Near the month’s end, Project SAVEgets high school students involved in raisingfunds for local domestic violence agencies.

Through an independent contractor the coalitionconducted the 2005 statewide poll that shows attitudes and awareness of domestic violencehave shifted considerably in the past eight years.

“Compared to a survey we did in 1997 (prior toany of our public awarenesscampaigns), attitudes havegreatly improved,” KarenJeffreys, the communica-tions director who led thework, wrote. “Publicawareness works!”

Rhode Island Coalition Against Domestic Violence

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THE FIELD OF PROGRESSIVE COMMUNICATIONS

Before the U.S. media can shift its attitudes asa whole, a network of progressive media organi-zations and their multiple strategies must bestrengthened and interconnected. Effective use of the media involves a complex web of intercon-necting disciplines and approaches. A workinggroup of the Progressive Communicators Networkrecently began the task of mapping this emergingprogressive network. They identified five broadareas of work that are all part of the progressiveand grassroots media landscape:

Strategic Communications, which includesmedia and public relations practitioners associatedwith progressive organizations and causes engagingin issue campaigns, framing and messaging,researching, building the media capacityof organizations, and workingacross organizational boundariesto build movements for change.Counted among its practitionersare the many communicationdirectors, media trainers, andconsultants working across thecountry. Strategic communica-tions practitioners reach a wideaudience by incorporating bothindependent and mainstream media into their work.

Media Policy and Reform, which includesindividuals and organizations involved in corporateand government accountability, research, andmodel legislation.

Media Production, which includes independent media news outlets, books, arts in a variety of mediums, grassroots media producers, and research.

Media Distribution of progressive media,from newsstands and by movie distributors, andby other methods, which are often done by contentproducers themselves. Media distribution alsoincludes relatively new techniques such as organizing house parties to screen films.

Media Literacy includes the curriculums,workshops, trainings, and materials offered toboth students and adults tohelp them access, analyze, and evaluate media and advertising.

Each area is critical to reach the vision of areformed, democratic, andaccountable media. Theyrepresent individual disci-plines, but as both techno-logical and political shiftsoccur, many organizations have had to incorporate

multiple areas to continue to be effective.To take the issue of media policy and

reform as an example, activists andstaff members working on this

issue engage in strategic commu-nications to reach and activatetheir audiences. Strategic communicators help them toreach their natural constituency

of progressives through pitchingand placing stories in independent

media outlets as well as reachingout to new constituencies through

accessing mainstream media in local,regional, and sometimes even national outlets.

Of the five areas of media discipline, strategiccommunications involves the greatest degree ofdirect involvement with communities by developingthe ability of grassroots organizations to effectivelyuse the media. But it may also be the area that isleast understood. A primary goal of this briefingpaper is to begin to increase awareness throughoutthe progressive movement about the critical rolethat media plays in both community organizingand the growth and development of organizations.

“Effective use of themedia involves acomplex web ofinterconnectingdisciplines andapproaches.”

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Organizations that effectively use strategiccommunications as a tool are not only more successful at winning on their issues, but aremore likely to define the public debate and set theagenda. That can only be accomplished, however,when organizations first craft a strategic plan thatincludes communications as an integral part of thestrategy. Communications and media strategiesmust be proactive and designed to work hand-in-hand with organizing strategies, leadershipdevelopment, and the acquisition of funding and other resources.

Strategic communicators create or guide the news that influences public opinion—andtherefore public policy—by developing campaignsthat meet both organizing and political goals.They may work within an organization, either as a communication director or, particularly forsmaller organizations, as a staff member combiningcommunications work with organizing, policydevelopment, or fundraising. Some strategic communicators serve organizations for a periodof time as a consultant or a trainer, demystifyingthe media and what is needed to use it effectively.Whether serving as an outside consultant or as astaff person, communicators work to identify target audiences, develop and frame effectiveframes and messages, and then create a campaign to move that message forward.

Framing, a first critical task for communicatorsand their organizations, is a popular, if not fullyunderstood, topic of discussion for change makers.William A. Gamson and Charlotte Ryan, co-direc-tors of the Media/Movement Research andAction Program, explained framing this way inthe Fall 2005 The Public Eye: “Facts never speakfor themselves. They take on their meaning bybeing embedded in frames, which render themrelevant and significantor irrelevant and trivial.Framing matters, andthe contest is lost at theoutset if one allows one’sadversaries to define theterms of the debate. To

be self-conscious about framing strategy is notbeing manipulative. A frame is a thought organizer.… It provides coherence to an array of symbols,images, and arguments, linking them through an underlying organizing idea that suggests what is essential—what consequences and values are at stake.” Once a frame such asFairness or Opportunity for All is established,messages are crafted that support the frame.These messages, which connect to the work of the organization, can be picked up andused by the media.

In moving their messages forward, communi-cators both work with journalists and train organ-izers and organizational leaders to work withjournalists. One of the most critical roles of theprogressive communicator is to serve as a conduitbetween social activists who assume that they havea right to be heard because their cause is just, andjournalists who are trained to give equal treatmentto all “institutions,” whether they are grassroots,partisan, or corporate.

An excellent example of bridging that divide is the work of the Community Media Workshop(CMW). CMW hosts an annual academy for progressive organizations in the Chicago area thatbrings activists and journalists together to shareideas and attitudes. Prominent area televisionand newspaper journalists are recruited to serveon panels, co-lead workshops, and generally sharetheir ideas of how progressive groups can effec-tively gain the attention of the press.

This approach leads to a buy-in from keypersonnel in Chicago’s mainstream media, whocan now better understand the grassroots groupsthat approach them and their issues, while givingcommunity participants at the workshops the

“Strategic communicators create or guide the news

that influences public opinion—and therefore public

policy—by developing campaigns that meet both

organizing and political goals.”

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opportunity to develop more personal relationshipswith key members of the media. This approach alsoenables community groups to better understandwhat motivates editors and reporters from aninside perspective.

Another role of progressive communicators,whether working within their own organization oras outside consultants/trainers, is to consistentlyconnect communications work to organizing goals.One of the primary values of media coverage of anissue or campaign is that it can help organizationsexpand their base by informing the public andattracting new supporters.

A consistent strategy of outreach needs to be in place before the first press release goes inthe mail slot or fax machine. Communicators dothis by insuring that media messages include acall to action and that a system is in place to trackresponse and recruit new individuals and groupsat every stage of a campaign.

In addition to developing strategies forrecruiting new support to expand the base for an organization or campaign, communicators alsoplay a crucial role in building capacity throughdeveloping good spokespeople. The most effectivespokespersons in any grassroots campaign are thecommunity people who are most deeply impacted.They often lack the simple skills and, mostimportantly, the confidence to stand up and make their voices heard.

Through workshops and individual coaching,communicators pass on the skills and confidence to “plain ordinary folks” that enable them tobecome effective spokespeople. Simple skills such as planning and staying on message orspeaking in sound bytes are combined with

the most powerful lesson of all—that people who tell their own stories in their own way often have the greatest impact.

The San Francisco-based SPIN (StrategicPress Information Network) Project and the previously mentioned Community MediaWorkshop in Chicago are examples of organiza-tions that emphasize training as a key to helping grassroots organizations develop media and communications skills.

SPIN hosts an annual academy that has beenattended by hundreds of activists, organizationmedia specialists, and other staff since its inception.The academy involves an intense weeklong trainingregimen where participants learn everything fromplanning and framing a major media campaign tothe ABCs of holding a press conference to pitchinga story line to a reporter.

In addition, SPIN trainers have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles to work in thefield with organizations, conducting media trainingsand helping community groups plan strategiccommunications outreach.

“The most effective spokespersons

in any grassroots campaign are

the community people who are

most deeply impacted.”

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Issues and the nature of people and organi-zations may vary, but the ingredients of a successful media and public education campaignremain constant. An outline for a media planfor a living wage campaign, prepared by LosAngeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE)with guidance from the SPIN Project, presentsa blueprint that is followed, with only minor variation, by other groups and trainers, acrossissue lines and geographic regions.

The blueprint begins by establishing anoverview of major goals and components:

a

The media plan is designed to convey a simple, compelling message to the targetaudience through media actions, feature stories, op-eds, and editorials.

a

The message must be reasonable in order to achieve maximum appeal.

a

To sustain coverage, the group mustemploy a variety of actions, escalate theintensity of those actions, and call on high-profile public figures for selected events.

a

Dynamic, articulate spokespeople, representing a range of interests, economic levels, and communities, will be crucial to the campaign.

a

Fact sheets supporting the case andendorsements from a range of public figuresstrengthen credibility. Detailed informationand statistics, along with written versions of individual stories, should be available for reporters.

This blueprint then goes into greater detail,establishing a campaign timeline and craftingand framing a message that successfully presentsthe problem, solution, and call for action.Spokespeople are identified and trained,along with staff and other volunteers in one or more workshops.

The busywork then commences with preparationof materials and media deliverables, preparationof spokespeople, and the staging of one ormore media events. A successful plan willthen move to creating and pitching other story“hooks” to maintain a constant flow of news

coverage. Following events, feature storyideas are pitched to print, broadcast, andonline media.

The blueprint lists print media to target foreditorials, supportive columns, op-eds, andletters to the editor, as well as interview oppor-tunities on radio and TV talk shows. Finally, thepossibility of using paid advertisements isexplored along with possible e-mail campaigns,newsletters, flyers, and other alternative orsupplemental methods to get out the message.

Creation of a comprehensive media plan was atthe top of LAANE’s “top ten list” for a successfulcampaign. Strategic planning in anticipation ofworst-case scenarios and/or to answer oppo-sition claims was also on that list—perhapslargely as an afterthought, since the living wageinitiative in Santa Monica was doomed by whatLAANE defined as an opposition “dirty trickscampaign.” These “dirty tricks” included pro-posing an alternate “red herring” ordinancethat would grant a partial victory but preventthe city council from future votes on living wage.The issue was finally pushed into a public referendum where high-dollar advertisingcampaigns narrowly defeated it.

Opposition forces also counter attacked whenthe San Francisco Living Wage Coalition beganto make progress on a local ordinance to coverpublic and city contract workers. The oppositiontried to shift the message and public debate tothe fiscal cost to taxpayers, producing wildlyinflated numbers before any unbiased studieson fiscal costs could be completed.

The coalition had decided early on to framethe issue around the value of basic fairnessand push to the forefront the individual storiesof families trying to survive. Organizers wentto work sites to talk with workers, looking notjust for leaders but anyone with a strong mediastory. Two public hearings were set up andworkshops were held ahead of the hearings tohelp train workers on how to tell their stories.

The group then pitched reporters on featurestories about individual workers until the campaign was no longer about an abstractright to earn a living wage versus increased

Combating Opposition Tactics in California’s Living Wage Battles

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costs to the city. It was about a mother whoworks seven days a week to make ends meetand has no time to spend with her daughter,or about a couple who both work full-time butlive with two children in a homeless shelter.The coalition succeeded in putting a livingface on “living wage.”

At the outset, the coalition employed the trainingand consulting expertise of We Interrupt ThisMessage, a group that at the time was availableto provide media training and technical assis-tance. “Working with a progressive mediaorganization was vital to us. We Interrupt This Message not only helped us develop the message—they kept us on it,” wrote Ken Jacobs,a UC Berkeley labor policy specialist whowas involved in the campaign.

The coalition was also successful at targeting audiences and localizing the news story

whenever possible. The Asian press receiveda study on the preponderance of Asian workerswho would benefit, as well as interviews withFilipino and Chinese workers. A gay communitynewspaper received an op-ed about a gayhome-care worker, and similar stories ran inthe African American and Latino press.

The San Francisco coalition also employedanother powerful tool, especially in campaignswhere the media message has successfullyfocused on basic fairness. A poll was conductedthat showed the campaign had been effectivewith the public. The strong support demon-strated in the poll for a living wage was thefinal push in negotiations with the mayor’soffice and business community that led to aliving wage ordinance for San Francisco.Credit: Prepared for and first published in the SPIN Project’s Winning Wages: A Media Kit for Successful Living Wage Strategies.

In addition to using the standard tools ofpublic relations and organizing, strategic commu-nicators also develop new, innovative ways to get out the message. A number of ProgressiveCommunicators Network participants and theirorganizations use the arts and cultural expressionin vibrant ways. Appalshop, a multidisciplinaryarts and educational organization serving ruralAppalachia, has been producing film, radio, theater,and community media since 1969. They have pro-duced dozens of award-winning documentaries,established JuneAppal Records to preserve manytraditional forms of mountain music, and operateEastern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia’sonly progressive licensed radio station. TheirCommunity Media Initiative works directly with grassroots groups and public interest organizations to develop and implement communications strategies.

In contrast, New England’s Project: ThinkDifferent serves a variety of disenfranchised popu-lations including urban youth, working to engagethem in actively creating the change they wish tosee in the world by using the tools of culture andartistic media for priorities and perspectives thatare not reflected in mainstream media. They haveused socially conscious yet entertaining music andvideo contests for the best song or visual art insupport of a theme for change that mobilizes peopleto take action. This approach to social change is mirrored in New Orleans, where YAYA, Inc. has partnered with consultants at Esopus CreekCommunications, Critical Resistance, and othersto teach youth how to use the visual arts as a toolfor social change.

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Esopus Creek Communications encourages a unique model for working with grassrootsorganizations that was developed jointly byEsopus Creek partner Jane Wholey and LindaStout, then executive director of PeaceDevelopment Fund.

This model involves two full-day training sessionsfor an organization’s members and staff. In thefirst session, basic media skills are shared in ahighly interactive workshop featuring role-plays,filmed interviews, and problem-solving games.The second session focuses in part on advancedskills training in such topics as messaging andframing, and in part on the creation of astrategic communications plan for the organi-zation including mapping out an intensivefour-month media campaign.

An Esopus Creek consultant then works withthe organization’s volunteers and staff to carryout the campaign, providing on-the-job trainingthat will carry over into the group’s future work.

In December 2002, Critical Resistance South(CR) and Esopus Creek kicked off such a campaign with an intensive two-day mediaworkshop for about 15 CR volunteers fromaround the region. The workshop ended witha set of goals that included defining CriticalResistance South as grassroots Southerners withsolutions to the prison crisis and both saturatingNew Orleans media markets and generatingmedia attention across the South. The campaignconcluded on April 5 with a highly successfulconference called Critical Resistance South:Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex.

During the campaign, a team consisting ofconsultant Jane Wholey and seven CR volunteersdevised a series of campaign messages andset up a variety of radio and television talk showinterviews leading up to the conference. Theyarranged for preparation of a nationally signif-icant report on Southern prisons by the JusticePolicy Institute and created a booklet of storiesprofiling 16 of the most newsworthy organiza-tions and individuals attending the conference.

The media committee planned an outdoor newsevent to kick off the conference that included astudent art project using an elementary schoolas a backdrop for the news event. YAYA, Inc.,a group of young graphic artists in NewOrleans, worked with students at CraigElementary School to create 100 full-size window banners on the front façade of theschool representing family members who are incarcerated.

Using the backdrop and the release of the reportas “hooks” to attract media attention to theconference, Critical Resistance South was ableto generate widespread media coverage of theevent and in-depth coverage of the problem andpossible solutions. The day of the conference,an AP national wire story with pictures of thebanners appeared in about 130 newspapersnationwide, far exceeding expectations.

This was followed the next day with a two-pagelead story in the Times-Picayune followed bystories in New Orleans African American news-papers and a three-part series n the NationalCatholic Reporter. In all, the event resulted inabout 150 newspaper articles in addition toTV and radio stories, two newspaper editorials,three columns, and a syndicated op-ed piece.

As a result, Critical Resistance South not onlydrew attention to the problem but defined theissue. The Times Picayune spoke for the firsttime about “the prison industrial complex” and“prison abolition,” while the name “CriticalResistance South” was launched all over theregion and is now firmly on the media radar screen.

Most importantly, CR South became sold on thevalue of utilizing media as a tool to advancetheir goals and build their organization. Even asthey embarked on the New Orleans campaign,most members of the local media committeewere skeptical about mainstream press andhad doubts about the sanity of the mediaproject—until the results were in.

Critical Resistance South

A consciousness shift took place within CRSouth. “They had unleashed a whole new kindof power and, despite all the hard work, hadenjoyed themselves along the way,” Wholeywrites. “Now, some of the best and brightest

young activists in the South understand the valueof the media as an organizing tool. I believethey will find a way to fold media strategyinto most everything they do henceforth.”

“Through using these new media tools, youth came to understand

that they have something of value to say about themselves and

their community and that their voices can make a difference.

Many gained a better sense of their own leadership potential, “—Appalshop staffer Mimi Pickering

after her digital storytelling workshop with youth from Monroe, Louisiana

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Another approach is to adapt progressive messaging to an established model—corporatemedia. Public News Service (PNS) has built a network of state-based progressive news servicesthat distribute stories for mainstream as well asindependent media use, primarily radio withInternet use growing. Currently, they have publicinterest news bureaus in 16 states, with four moreexpected to launch in late 2006.

Started in 1996 in Idaho, one of the toughestenvironments for progressive speech, PNS continuesto expand as it helps to amplify progressive andpublic interest voices. It is supported by grants,gifts, and memberships from more than 300 publicinterest, nonprofit organizations. These memberorganizations understand that they cannot exercisecontrol over PNS journalists. PNS’s combination ofindependence and commitment creates a level oftrust with both the progressive organizations thatsupport the service and the mainstream media.

Progressive leaders have reported on howPNS’s news bureaus in their states have contributedto impressive policy wins:

In Montana, Scott Crichton of the ACLUreports that “a ten-year redistricting battle inMontana created districts that maximize Indianrepresentation and reshaped others in a way thathelped turn this red state blue in the 2004 election.PNS’s Big Sky Connection has no doubt played afactor in Montanans being better educated on thisand other issues of importance to us all.”

In a vote watched across the nation,Coloradans rejected TABOR (Taxpayer Bill ofRights) and voted to support public services ratherthan receive individual cash disbursements frompreviously collected taxes. Bill Vandenberg, co-director of Colorado Progressive Coalition/Colorado Progressive Action, described the roleof PNS’s Colorado bureau: “The Colorado NewsConnection helps us build our organization in threeways: first, the CNC helps us more effectivelypromote the organizing and advocacy work thatwe’re already doing; second, through in-state pro-duction it gives us the ability to get our positionson breaking issues out much more rapidly thanwe could do on our own; and third, it expandsour reach statewide by reaching dozens of radiostations outside of our Denver home.”

The ultra-conservative Idaho legislature nar-rowly rejected an anti-gay marriage constitutionalamendment in January 2005. Regular coveragearound GBLT issues over eight years by PNS’sNorthern Rockies News Service (NRNS) had asignificant role in breaking through early mediaresistance and helped secure radio coverage onGLBT issues equal to the other issue areas. “Weare up against a serious obstacle to progressivethought all over the U.S.… the Northern RockiesNews Service has worked to provide stories aboutus in our own voices. Nothing matters more thanputting a face on a community that feels prejudiceand discrimination. To tell stories in our own voicesis powerful,” said Idaho state representativeNicole LeFavour.

Even with limited resources, strategic communicators are launching successful campaigns,creating new and creative models, developing leadership at the grassroots level, andhaving an impact on the media and public policy. We know there are other examplesaddressing a wide variety of issues that are not included in this briefing paper. TheNetwork invites communicators to let us know about their successes and innovations,and to submit new case studies. Through on-going updates to our website, we willdevelop a library of case studies to be shared with the public.

Contact Carolyn Cushing—call (413) 527-3835 or email carolyn@progressivecommunicators.net for more information.

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STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS ANDSTRENGTHENING GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS

A progressive movement seeking institutionalchange in America must be built from the groundup. Only in that way will the people who areaffected by public policy have a hand in creatingthose public policies. Strategic communications forsocial and economic justice likewise must be builtfrom the ground up, working hand-in-hand withthe grassroots, community-based organizationsthat are setting the agenda.

For grassroots organizations, strategic commu-nications extend far beyond simple public relations.The acquisition of media skills and an under-standing of the importance of communications canbuild an organization’s power base in a number ofways, such as developing leaders and spokesper-sons, aiding in fundraising efforts, and creatinglocal and national policy change.

Learning how to successfully represent theirgroup’s position on issues before TV cameras or ininterviews builds an individual’s speaking abilityand confidence. People affected by an issue arebetter at telling their own stories than any profes-sional. Gaining speaking skills often transformsindividuals in organizations into leaders, as theyrealize that what they have to say is importantand can make a difference.

“…strategic communications

extend far beyond simple

public relations. The

acquisition of media skills

and an understanding

of the importance of

communications can

build an organization’s

power base…”

12

Once they have developed strong strategiccommunications, organizations find they havemuch greater success in raising funds from both thepublic and foundations. Nothing attracts moneylike a successful track record and nothing docu-ments success like positive media exposure. Forexample, in 2000, the Peace Development Fundsolicited comments about the importance of mediacoverage from various foundation staff. Here is what Vic DeLucca of the Jesse Smith NoyesFoundation had to say about the importance ofmedia coverage when his board reviews proposals:

“When we see media coverage about a group ittells us they are getting their message out. It alsoallows us to read what others are saying about theorganization—their opponents and observers, too.It is useful to see how reporters write about com-munity organizations. We recognize that manygroups don’t have access to the media, and that themedia is biased in favor of corporations and thewhite privileged classes. But we still believe thatif you are doing something it should be covered—not necessarily on page one.”

“In a proposal, a group tells its story anddefines its success. We look to see how the mediacoverage matches up. When we have an oppor-tunity to see an organization’s work through itsown eyes and other people’s eyes as well, we can draw our own conclusions.”

The increased credibility that often resultsfrom the right kind of media exposure also helpsorganizations working for social and economicjustice to forge alliances with other communitygroups, such as local churches, unions, or teach-ers, that might have previously assumed theyhad little common ground.

Finally, a successful proactive media strategy can help win victories, as well as enable organizations to define the public debate on anissue. On a large-scale level, strategic communi-cations influences how messages and issues areframed to a larger public and is an integral toolfor any movement building efforts. Effective useof media alone cannot win a battle. But victoriescan be won with a communications strategy thatis carefully integrated into a campaign plan thatorganizes people, forges alliances, conductsresearch, and builds leadership.

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In April 2001, Alameda County, California,supervisors unveiled plans to expand andrelocate the county’s juvenile hall, using stateand federal funds to build the largest per capitayouth prison in the nation. Young people wereready to organize to stop it.

Joining forces with Books Not Bars, an adult-ledcoalition, the Youth Force Coalition launchedthe “Stop the Superjail Campaign” to fight theproposal. Their goals were to reduce the sizeof the facility, shift its location to one moreaccessible to families, and transfer fundingtoward alternatives and prevention programsinstead of incarceration.

Books Not Bars was able to frame the issue bydefining the project as a “Superjail,” a messagethat the youth groups successfully ran with.

As one youth activist pointed out, “Very fewpeople would say ‘I’m in support of a Superjailfor kids.’ Having the media savvy to frame thecampaign, naming the fight in a way that gaveus a lot of leverage and a lot of power… itplaced our opposition in a bad position.”

The Youth Media Council worked with theYouth Force Coalition to assess their mediawork and craft an aggressive communicationsand leadership development plan. The primarygoal was to project youth voice into the publicdebate by training youth spokespeople, creatingstrategic messages, and using their youth event“Not Down with the Lockdown” as a hook forfeature stories.

The result was a change in the public face of the campaign. The adult spokespeople thatdominated at the outset of the campaign werereplaced at the end by youth spokespeople inall of the media coverage. The youth coalition’sability to control the debate and sound bite amessage was clearly seen in the news coverage.

The campaign was particularly effective in usingwell-planned actions, messages, and the mediato put pressure on key targets, including public

officials. Organizers realized that even if theirtargets avoided their protests, TV and printnews coverage would deliver their messageand their demands for them.

As the campaign grew, so did the coalition’sinfluence. The issue rapidly expanded from alocal story to a state and then national story,thanks in large measure to the involvementand leadership of youth. Through the mediacoverage working arm in arm with strategicorganizing, Youth Force Coalition and BooksNot Bars won their demands. Public opinionagainst a “Superjail for kids” put their targets onthe defensive and as a result, the State Boardof Corrections withdrew preapproved statefunding for the project. The Board of Supervisorsagreed to cut the size and capacity of the jailin half and move it to Oakland, an accessiblelocation for families.

At the campaign’s conclusion, a San FranciscoChronicle editorial credited the Youth ForceCoalition for changing the terms of debate,swaying the opinions of key Alameda Countysupervisors, and ensuring that the largest youthprison in the nation would not be built in theircounty under their watch.

“We learned that not only is media access achievable for youth organizers, but that whenyouth organizers speak for themselves, they cancounter stereotypes, build youth power, and wincampaigns that have vital impacts on youngpeople’s lives,” Youth Media Council programdirector Jen Soriano explained.

Bay Area Youth Block the “Superjail”

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In 2004, Save Our Cumberland Mountains(SOCM), a grassroots organization inTennessee, challenged the growth of mountain-top strip mining for coal in the state’s easterncoalfields. With federal regulators encouragingthe practice, SOCM realized that the only hopefor curtailing mountaintop mining in the mountains of East Tennessee was throughstate officials in distant Nashville.

The organization had already learned several years earlier the value of using the media asa tool to publicize its work and had in placea media committee and a communicationsspecialist on staff. Early in the year, around 30active members of the organization gatheredfor a daylong planning session to map out acampaign to involve the public and influencethe governor.

Through a series of brainstorming sessions arough plan was devised to create a media eventthat would focus on the threat to water quality.SOCM would carry a jug of water polluted bymining run-off from East Tennessee to Nashvilleand present it to the governor. They wouldgenerate public attention by carrying the waterby river, nearly 400 miles from the mountains ofEast Tennessee down the Big South Fork andCumberland Rivers to the governor’s back door.

Seven separate teams paddling canoes and kayaks or traveling by small motorboats,would spend two weeks relaying SOCM’s“message in a bottle” with a large flotilla ofcanoes, motorboats, sailboats, and rowingshells gathering for the final two miles on waterto a press conference in the shadow of TitanStadium on the Nashville waterfront.

The event in July, 2004 went off as planned.Media coverage began in East Tennessee asthe first team of volunteers pushed their craftinto the swift waters of the Big South Fork. Localnewspapers reported on the teams’ progressas the relay proceeded down river throughTennessee and Kentucky. Television camerasrecorded the scene as a large crowd of supporters and reporters gathered in Nashvillefor the final press conference. The event led to

magazine articles for months afterward, APcoverage in several states, as well as mention in USA Today.

The event also resulted to a series of meetingswith state officials and a public announcementfrom Governor Phil Bredesen, holding out thepromise that if federal officials failed to protectTennessee’s land and water, his administrationwould step in to do the job.

The media event had a positive impact on the campaign against mountaintop mining, butfrom SOCM’s perspective it had an even moreimportant impact on the organization’s future.The complex logistics of the 400-mile, two-weekevent involved over 200 individual SOCMmembers, volunteers who joined the relay teams,and others who drove shuttle vehicles to pick upor drop off teams, boats, and supplies. Scoresof other members remained on dry land to setup the press conferences or speak to the media.

In addition to the press conferences at both thestart and finish, one SOCM chapter locatednear the mid-point in the trip hosted a mediareception and barbecue dinner. Media coveragewas almost continuous for the entire two-weekperiod. Other volunteers helped handle anddrop a gigantic banner along the Nashvillewaterfront while supporters who lived alongthe waterways opened up their farms andback yards as overnight campsites.

In the end, SOCM members and leadersunanimously agreed that even if the eventfailed to win the desired support of Tennessee’sgovernor, it had been a tremendous successbecause of the involvement and enthusiasmthat the event kindled within the organization.The spirit within the organization rose to newheights, new members flocked to the banner,and old members were revitalized.

“That last week, wherever we stopped, peoplewould come up to us, complete strangers, andsay, ‘I read about you in the paper yesterday.It’s great what you’re doing.’ That made us feellike we were really accomplishing somethingspecial,” team member Bobby Clark said at the end.

“Message in a Bottle” Campaign

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STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS AND GROWINGBROAD-BASED MOVEMENTS FOR CHANGE

The role that strategic communications playin movement building cannot be understated butlike “the movement” itself, that role can be difficultto define. There are, at least within the popularmedia, numerous so-called movements—such as the civil rights movement, the environmentalmovement, women’s movement, gay rights, labor,peace/anti-war, immigrant rights and so on.

The mainstream news media in America hastoo frequently defined these various causes andtheir supporters as “special interests,” the samedefinition that the media often reserves for representatives of corporate America.

But in essence there is only one movement,and that is empowerment of America’s powerless.The mainstream media, by narrowing everythingdown to a question of partisan politics or competingspecial interests, has lost sight of the one factor thatunites the poor and working class, minorities ofevery kind, and those who are oppressed by ournation’s “profits-first” approach to the environment,health care, justice, and every other aspect ofeveryday life.

That common thread is lack of power overtheir lives and communities, and the common goalof gaining that power. Empowerment is the onegoal that organizations have in common, whetherthey are working for environmental justice, healthcare reform, reform of the justice system, a livingwage, or equal rights for minorities.

Lack of power is the great unifying factorthat unites most Americans. Sadly, it is commonground that most Americans do not realize theyshare. The system and the media instead often pit “special interests” against one another—laborversus the environment, gay rights versusChristian values, white versus black.

Generally, the staff and leadership withinprogressive organizations are aware of the commonground that their groups share, regardless of whichissues they address or which constituencies theyrepresent. This is not always true of the generalpublic or even the majority of a group’s members.For this reason, strategic communications can uniteand empower citizens, by identifying commonmessages and creating a unified front that cutsacross lines of race, religion, economics, lifestyle,and language.

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Efforts to curtail and eliminate the gross over-use of prisons and incarceration in the UnitedStates face especially difficult communicationschallenges in the form of public fear, misinfor-mation, and deep-rooted prejudices againstpoor people and people of color whose communities are disproportionately shattered by the nation’s prison addiction.

During the 2004 annual PCN gathering, asmall group of criminal justice communicatorssought each other’s company to share experi-ences and setbacks in their work to decarceratethe nation’s prisons. Most people in the grouphad never had the opportunity to criticallyengage with other people whose primaryresponsibilities involve messaging and mediaoutreach on prison issues. After just one meeting,and thirsty for more, the group recognizedthe critical importance ofdeveloping an ongoingnetwork of anti-prisoncommunicators, andcommitted to continuemeeting after the PCN gathering.

Volunteering countlesshours on top of alreadydemanding full-timejobs, the group met by conference calls for several months todiscuss existing work andplan ways to expand their network. In additionto obvious needs for professional communi-cations networking and anti-prison messaging,the group also saw an opportunity to findcommon messages that could be shared despitethe political and strategic differences betweenthose working to reform elements of the criminal

justice system, and those fighting the veryexistence of prisons and mass incarceration. At the very least, organizations could agreeto avoid messages that undermine the work of the differing strategies.

Recognizing that shared messaging and commu-nications strategy would only serve to strengtheneveryone’s work on prison issues, and that therewere many more people who shared bothcommon roles and concerns in diverse organi-zations working on prison reform and abolition,the group decided to gather communicationsleaders to find creative and effective ways tomessage prison reform and abolition.

“Looking back, I’m not quite sure how wemanaged to make it all happen in the middleof our other work,” said Gopal Dayaneni, thenprogram director for Silicon Valley ToxicsCoalition, working on prison labor. “But there

was such enthusiasmand a real need forthe gathering thatwe managed to pulloff what felt like theimpossible. Spendingan entire weekendjust messaging andstrategizing with suchan inspiring group ofpeople working forchange was worth all the effort.”

Each individual in the group undertook crucial tasks to make agathering happen. The all-volunteer team wrotefunding proposals and solicited money fromfoundations, donated homes and spaces forthe gathering, coordinated travel and logistics,

Criminal Justice Working Group of the Progressive Communicators Network

17

and planned the agenda and activities for theweekend. On April 1–3, 2005, in Poplarville,Mississippi, the hard work finally paid off when16 people attended a first-ever communicationsstrategy gathering for those fighting to reformor abolish the nation’s prison system.

The gathering was designed to address some ofthe “tough issues” facing anti-prison communi-cations and develop core messages that wouldsimultaneously advance efforts for strategicreforms in policies and practices within thecriminal justice system and abolition of prisonsand mass incarceration. Participants identifiedchallenges common to all the work, includingsensationalized media coverage of isolatedcrimes exaggerated as “trends”; tendenciestowards sound-bite anti-crime politics rather thanthoughtful public health and safety policies; anda general apathy about the mass incarcerationof people of color, the poor, the mentally ill, andthe drug addicted. Though many reforms havebeen made to move away from the tough-on-crime policies of the past, incarceration ratescontinue to grow.

The gathering also took on challenges andtensions between different change-makingstrategies and political visions within the anti-prison movement, in the spirit of developingbetter understanding as a way to find somecommon ground on communications.

Participants focused on a shared vision of creating core strategic messages that wouldadvance many different types of anti-prisonwork, whether reducing the suffering of peoplein prison and people in communities targetedby imprisonment; reforming the policies and

practices that fill prisons; or challenging prisonsand punishment altogether.

Without oversimplifying the differencesbetween work to reform or abolish prisons,participants were able to identify commonmessages. Overwhelmingly, all the participantsagreed on the importance of putting forward amessage that reinforces the idea that “prisonsdon’t make us safer.”

Participants also identified messages used inthe criminal justice movement that sometimesharm other anti-prison efforts. While progresshas been made in moving the public and policymakers on the ineffectiveness of incarceratingnonviolent drug offenders, for example, theexclusive focus on “nonviolent” underminesmore comprehensive depopulation strategiesthat must challenge legal definitions of violenceand encompass broader prison populations. Inaddition, efforts to reform the juvenile justicesystem through messages that leverage “kids”against “the real criminals” can frustrate thework of advocates fighting for changes foradults in prison.

“In the six years that I’ve been working as an anti-prison communicator, this gathering was thefirst time I had the opportunity to brainstormwith people who are trying to use media andmessaging to fight the prison system,” saidLaura Jones, communications director of theJustice Policy Institute. “Because of that weekend,I’ve changed the way our organization commu-nicates about prisons. Our executive directorwas even quoted in a national Associate Pressarticle saying that “prisons don’t make us safer.”

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THE MEDIA LANDSCAPE TODAY: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

To successfully create change, communicationsstrategies must also constantly adapt to new tech-nologies as well as changing trends in how thepublic seeks information. The revolution in commu-nications through the Internet has made it necessaryfor progressive communicators and their conser-vative public relations counterparts to reinventthe way they strategize.

More Americans than ever are turning totheir home computers to obtain their news, andthat includes a growing number of minorities.According to the most recent report by the Pew Research Center, Media Consumption andBelievability Study, the percentage of Americanswho obtain their news from a variety of onlinesources has shown a steady increase from 23% in 2000 to nearly three in ten (29%) in 2004. In the mid-1990s that figure stood at only 2%.

The percentage of African Americans whoregularly go online for news has grown by abouthalf over the past four years, from 16% to 25%. Theshift in news habits of Hispanics has been evenmore pronounced. The percentage of Hispanicswho turn to online sources for news has risenfrom 22% in 2002 to 32% in 2004.

As more people turn to the Internet for theirnews, both the attraction and credibility of networkand cable television continues to decline while thecirculation and credibility of most print mediaremains at low levels. Conservatives in the Pewpoll distrust the media as a source of information inmuch higher numbers than those who identifiedthemselves as progressives or Democrats.

This underscores the effectiveness over thepast decade of the conservative misinformationcampaign to paint the media as having a liberalbias. According to some polls, only about onequarter of Americans who keep up with the newsactually trust what they hear or read. A recentGallup poll was a little kinder—it found thatcredibility of the mainstream news media roseslightly in the past year and that in 2005, 50 percentof Americans polled trusted entirely or for the mostpart trusted what they read or heard in the news.

This shift in the viewing and reading habits ofAmericans requires communicators on both sidesof the political spectrum to rethink priorities. Thetraditional press conference in front of televisioncameras and reporters’ notebooks must give wayto multidimensional communications strategies.

“The traditional press conference in front of television

cameras and reporters’ notebooks must give way to

multidimensional communications strategies.”

19

These new strategies must incorporate everythingfrom talk radio, long the domain of conservativevoices, to online news sources and the blogosphere.

The new strategies must also take intoaccount the changing demographics of America.What are the most effective ways to reach thegrowing Latino/Chicano/Hispanic population?African Americans? Native Americans? OlderAmericans are turning to online news sources ingreater numbers than their younger counterparts.To help build a progressive movement, strategiccommunications must effectively address differ-ences in language and bridge the generations.

While poll results reveal the ongoing changesin how Americans get their news, they also revealthat not all that much has changed. According tothe Pew report, 57 percent of people still watchlocal TV news “regularly.” Of the respondents, 41 percent also read a daily newspaper or listenedto radio news “yesterday,” while 29 percent regularly read a weekly newsmagazine.

The continuing dependence on traditionalnews sources by a large segment of the public—while at the same time growing numbers turn to online sources and other alternatives for infor-mation—would seem to pose both a paradox and a tremendous communications challenge to progressive organizations. Fortunately, it is only the technology that is changing.

Online news services must still rely on traditional sources—press releases, press confer-ences, investigative journalism—for the informationthat they share with the public. The vehicles thatdeliver that information may change but the

sources do not, and the strategies that grassrootsgroups must use to get their stories across remainthe same. Whether the goal is to reach the editori-al page of a daily newspaper, land an interviewwith a television talk show, or become the topicof a popular blog, the message must still be deemed as “newsworthy.”

Trends in Regular News Consumption

May, 1993 April, 1998 April, 2002

Local TV news 77% 64% 57%Cable TV news — — 33%Nightly network news 60% 38% 32%Network TV magazines 52% 37% 24%Network morning news — 23% 22%

Radio1 47%2 49% 41%Call-in radio shows 23%3 13% 17%National Public Radio 15% 15% 16%

Newspaper1 58%2 48% 41%Online news4 — 13% 25%

1 Newspaper and radio figures based on use “yesterday”2 from 2/19943 from 4/19934 Online news at least 3 days per week

Credit: Public’s News Habits Little Changes by September 11The Pew Research Center’s Biennial News Consumption Survey (June, 2002)

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EQUIPPING GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONSTO WORK IN THE CURRENT MEDIA LANDSCAPE

A major goal of strategic communications mustbe the development of an organization’s internalcapabilities for engaging with the ever-changingtools, technologies, and approaches of the mediafield. Where communications professionals are apart of an organization’s staff, they need to includetraining of leaders and members in communicationsskills as a primary objective. Where outside profes-sionals are employed, their priorities should includeeffectively sharing their knowledge, in essenceworking themselves out of a job.

Through strategic training, new leaders can beidentified and brought into positions of leadershipby the use of media and communications as one ofmany tools in a campaign. A successful commu-nications strategy should also impact the thinking ofexisting community leaders, drawing them into a campaign as allies or into the organization as new leadership.

The case studies and success storiesdescribed in this report make it clear that social change organizations need both acommunications plan and the capacity to utilize communications as an integral part of their work. Unfortunately, notenough organizations have either.

In some cases the problem is one ofmutually reinforcing negative attitudes onthe part of both grassroots groups and the

media. As an example, African American groupsin the Deep South often point to the racism thatexists within the white-controlled media as aroadblock to good press coverage. Althoughoften grounded in truth, this lack of confidence inthe mainstream media can become a self-fulfillingprophecy.

Some African American organizations turninstead to “reliable” methods of communicationsuch as fliers or word-of-mouth and, when dealingwith the media, focus their attention solely onAfrican American publications and radio stations.Without developing the strategies, media relation-ships, and confidence to break through and asserttheir right to be covered in a wide range of media,these groups are unable to reach beyond their owncommunity and engage allies (sometimes willingand sometimes reluctant) who could help themachieve their goals. Through workshops andhands-on experience, progressive communicationprofessionals must first help such organizationsovercome their own fears and distrust.

“…social change organizations need

both a communications plan and the

capacity to utilize communications

as an integral part of their work.

Unfortunately, not enough

organizations have either.”

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Many groups have seen what advanced planning and a proactive communications strategycan accomplish, both in moving their issues andstrengthening their organizations. But resources formost social change-oriented groups are stretchedthin. It is too often the case that organizers or staffmembers have to take on multiple roles withingrassroots organizations including their owncampaign development, leadership development,internal operations, fundraising, and usually, laston the list, media and communications.

If an organization is lucky enough to have a “communications director,” that staff person is generally responsible for puttingtogether the monthly newsletter and annualreport. When budgets tighten for groups thatfocus on community organizing, the position of communications specialist too often becomesexpendable, along with any resources budgeted for outside consultants or technical assistance.

The skills that are learned by leaders and volunteers in an organization, such as how to be an effective spokesperson, often remain for the long term. Paid staff may come and go with

more frequency, and their experience and learnedcommunication skills will be lost. Thus an ongoingprocess of training that involves people in all partsof the organization is critical. Without it, groups areall too often left with gaps in their organizationalcapacity or are forced to spend resources reinventing the wheel.

The solution comes from both sides of theequation. Social change organizations need to beaware that their success with the media and publiceducation campaigns is no accident and resourcesmust be committed to communications work in thelong term. Funders must also be aware of this factand actively promote resources for communicationsas a key component of their financial support.

In addition to pushing grantee organizationsto place a higher priority on media and commu-nications work, more foundations need to recognizethe crucial role that this work must play in movinga national social change agenda. Nonprofit groupsthat provide technical assistance and consultingon communications need more financial support,and more such nonprofit organizations need to beestablished to serve regions of the country wherethey do not presently exist.

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we had put energy into a meeting and we’dget all the elected officials there and little orno press,” says Pat Drennen, 73, outgoingchair of Jane Addams Senior Caucus.

The caucus is fighting to ease income restrictionsand increase eligibility for state-funded homecare, allowing seniors to stay at home onChicago’s North Side instead of moving tonursing homes. Until 2005, the caucus hadexperienced difficulties in getting the media’sattention and, through the media, publicattention for their efforts.

That changed in October. Drennen adds,“Yesterday we had a big senior health fair inthe ward, and when I was going around thecrowd hustling to get postcards signed to supportour campaign people were easy to persuade.As soon as I started to explain they’d say,‘Oh yeah, I read about you in the paper.’ ”

The improved media coverage was anythingbut accidental. The group’s executive director,Lori Clark, sought help from the Chicago-basedCommunity Media Workshop, with fundingsupport from the Chicago Community-basedCapacity Initiative, a partnership of Chicago-area and national foundations.

“Our role is to provide technical assistance toincrease organizations’ effectiveness in creatingpositive change,” says Leslie Ramyk, directorof the Capacity Initiative. “By partnering withthe Workshop we leveraged our funds with theirexpertise. You can’t hire a consultant at marketrate to deliver this work. Plus at the Workshopthey understand community organizing.”

The Community Media Workshop respondedto Clark’s request by conducting a training atthe Senior Caucus annual leadership retreat inJuly. Workshop staff met with Clark ahead oftime to determine specific needs. They followedup this training by helping the caucus to developa communications plan and, in September,reviewed news releases and helped Clarkmap out the group’s pitch to specific reporters.

“Understanding who would be the right people to pitch this story to was critical forme, especially being new to Chicago media,”Clark points out.

The caucus secured interest from the ChicagoTribune and Sun-Times, along with local andKorean and Russian-language newspaperreporters, to cover the annual meeting onOctober 10. There, the caucus pushed locallegislators to contact Governor Rod Blagojevichand ask him to increase funds available toseniors who prefer to remain in their communityinstead of moving to nursing homes.

The Tribune story appeared on the day of the event, and the newspaper’s editorial boardwriter followed up with Clark about a possibleeditorial. Ten days later, Sun-Times columnistCindy Richards focused on the issues in her column.

Clark says one of the most valuable impactsof the media coverage was “the pressure itput on the governor’s office to work forreform on this issue.”

Pat Drennen agrees, and adds this advice: “I would tell other groups looking to get in thenews to take the training so they could get thehang of it and to really make seeking publicityone of the top goals of any organizing drive.When they teach us leadership training theyteach us that power, the ability to act, is built onrelationships… one of the things we need to dois build relationships with people in the media.”

Jane Addams Senior Caucus

BUILDING PROGRESSIVE COMMUNICATIONSINFRASTRUCTURE AT THE GRASSROOTS

Until recent years, many communicationsspecialists—both independent and working within organizations—labored to a certain degreein a vacuum. They most often were compelled toconcentrate on a single issue, worked for a singleorganization, or operated in one city or region. Onthe whole, there was too little communicationand exchange of ideas among grassroots strategic communicators.

Since 2000, the Progressive CommunicatorsNetwork (PCN) has worked diligently to fill that vacuum. PCN links many of those dedicated to using strategic communications as a tool for institutional change, in the process crossing geographical boundaries, issue lines, and social boundaries such as age, ethnicity, and gender.

The existence of a Progressive CommunicatorsNetwork takes this interaction a step further by providing opportunities for communications specialists among staff and leadership to learnfrom their peers in other organizations. Annualnetwork gatherings, the exchange of ideas over

the Internet, and training opportunities in differentregions addressing different issues all contributeto a sharing of ideas, strategies, and tactics thatprove their worth through shared success stories.Regional networks based on PCN’s national modelare being organized. The first official chapter hasbeen formed in Boston and organizing is movingforward on chapters in other parts of the country.

Interaction between communicators hasresulted in greater trust and understanding of the resources that can be gained through coop-eration and collaboration. The Criminal JusticeWorking Group profiled in this paper is oneexample of collaboration resulting directly fromthe PCN. Having a preexisting network is alsovital to responding quickly to unplanned-forpolitical and natural events. In the aftermath of Katrina, for example, PCN members wereinstrumental in launching the Katrina InformationNetwork to coordinate work for a just rebuildingof the Gulf Coast.

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PCN gathering June, 2005

The Progressive Communicators Network existsto strengthen and amplify the power, voices, andvision of grassroots movements that are workingfor racial, social, economic, and environmentaljustice. Our members use communication strategy,framing and messaging, and media tools to: 1)enhance the influence of social change movementson public policy and opinion, and 2) realize aworld without poverty, racism, and other forms ofoppression. The Network is a project of Spirit inAction, a movement-building support organiza-tion located in Western Massachusetts.

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In the wake of the hurricanes of 2005,Katrina Information Network (KIN) hasemerged as a model of how progressive communicators from coast to coast couldwork together to support media coverage and action. For over a year, ProgressiveCommunicators Network members havehelped staff a KIN media team to keep the spotlight on the gulf. Although much of our nation’s media has historically failed to cover struggles in the Deep South, KIN continues to drive home how structural racism, deep poverty, and disinvestment created this fatal tragedy.

KIN started in September 2005 and continues to post actions and media alerts on Web portals at www.katrinaaction.org(launched for activists and grassroots action)and www.katrinainfonet.net (launched toserve the needs of the journalists and mediamakers). PCN members and allies such asThe Praxis Project, Youth Media Council,Colectivo Flatlander, Community MediaOrganizing Project, Color of Change,McKinney and Associates, Straight WordsCommunications, and a number of media consultants across the nation from Arkansas to Wisconsin, collaborated on KIN’s mediateam and met on over 25 strategy calls.

Through calls, emails, and in-person meetings, KIN provided technical assistanceto over 20 grassroots groupsand created tools from framingstrategy memos to creation of a media Web site. In the first year, The Praxis Projectanchored KIN with financial

and staffing support while PCN hosted strate-gy calls and provided small stipends to sur-vivor organizers. The organizers helped main-tain consistent media support to groups andupdated the Web site. The KIN media teamalso benefited from several PCN members volunteering their time to provide communi-cations consultation with groups. Over theyear, many grassroots groups, generally without a communications budget, couldcount on KIN’s media team for many lastminute communications requests.

In the two months leading up to the one-year commemoration of Katrina, KINhelped distribute 40 press releases, matchedreporters to spokespeople at over ten grass-roots gulf groups, hosted a reporter call on a comprehensive report from ReconstructionWatch, circulated a list of reporters who’vebeen covering Katrina, prepared numerousfact sheets from reports like CorpWatch’s BigEasy Disaster profiteering, and hosted callsfor groups on unified messaging and racialjustice messaging.

The Web site itself serves as an archive ofwork towards a just recovery. The up-to-dateKIN site has an editorial board that overseesthe mechanics of KIN’s work. The editorialboard includes national groups such as

The Praxis Project,

Katrina Information Network

Progressive Communicators Network,National Economic Social Rights Initiative,Color of Change, Reconstruction Watch,Movement Strategy Center, Education for thePeople, and others. In addition, the editorialboard, the KIN Gulf Advisory Board, providesstrategic direction to KIN, and consists of Gulf organizations such as Save OurSelvesCoalition, Mississippi Workers Center forHuman Rights, Advocates for EnvironmentalHealth, Safe Streets, Miami Workers Center,People’s Hurricane Relief Fund, and others.KIN is proud to coordinate with other existing networks including the U.S. Human RightsNetwork and New Orleans Network.

KIN believes that communication withoutaction is not effective and has circulated over 25 actions to amplify the organizingwork of gulf groups. KIN has successfullyhelped challenge obstacles to worker rights,from hosting framing and messaging calls on challenging guest worker visas, to postingactions challenging the Davis-Bacon waiver thatsought to weaken prevailing wage regulationsfor workers and helping stretch jobless benefits.KIN has also amplified housing organizing,from helping challenge FEMA’s unjust treatmentof displaced Gulf Coast residents to challengingHUD to open public housing in New Orleans.

Through KIN, PCN and others helped fostermore innovative collaborations including theneed for comprehensive media training in NewOrleans and the Black and Brown MediaNetwork. The inception of this network startedwith a tip sheet to people of color journalistson race issues in Mississippi and New Orleans.With PCN’s support, the KIN media team led amedia capacity-building training for groups June 24–25 at the Musician Hall in NewOrleans. Thirty people from ten organizationsattended, growing the coalition of participatinggroups and introducing new people to KIN.Five seasoned PCN trainers from the KIN mediateam gave participants the opportunity to learnhow to pitch stories, learn about framing,analyze coverage, meet reporters, and meetwith media experts on individual organiza-tional needs. Participants voiced a need forongoing support and training in how to usethe media in their organizing work.

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As the cases and examples in this paper illustrate, communications is central to policy change, leadership development, shifting public consciousness, and increasing organizational capacity. These models need to be supported and replicated, and to that end the ProgressiveCommunicators Network urges progressive individuals, organizations, and funders to:

a

Promote strategic communications as integral to

organizing and critical to building strong organizations;

a

Support training programs for communications practitioners

(whether they are professional staff or volunteer spokespeople)

at all levels of experience;

a

Devote time and resources to collaborative communications

efforts that reach beyond organizational boundaries and

advance progressive movement building.

With these kinds of investments in strategic communications, the movement for positive changein this country will be strengthened and become ever more effective. Foundations and donors playa critical role in this investment process, not only with the actual funds they contribute, but also forthe signal they send that strategic communications plays a central role in all strong organizationsand change making initiatives. As a PCN member recently recounted, “I hope that within fiveyears, philanthropy will understand that communications capacity is as important as fundraisingcapacity. I remember 30 years ago being questioned about including a development person in mybudget. Today the tables have turned and foundation staff ask me if I am including enoughfundraising in my staffing and budgeting plans. I hope that soon there will be the same attitudeabout communications. This is more than just PR! Communications competency and use of mediatools is essential to a well run nonprofit. And it’s critical to moving grassroots issues into the publicdebate and to building movements that change public policy. I hope the foundation world will joinus in making these tools more widely available as we all work together to create a better world.”

RAISE EVERY VOICEStrategic Communications & Progressive Change Making

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