| What do I do when people aren’t paying attention to my issue? | If you want to inspire people to action, you need to get their attention. And if you need public attention, you need help from the media. This strategy is known as "agenda-setting". |
Media may not be successful much of the time in telling people what to think,
but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.
—Bernard Cohen, The Press and Foreign Policy, 1963
When you are trying to create social impact, your success depends in part on the media.
From the evening newscast to online outlets, news media tell stories that shape people’s understanding of the world around them. This understanding, in turn, affects what people do in their personal and professional lives.
When you run a typical media campaign, you decide what news you want to share, send a press release or pitch reporters informally, hold press events and photo ops, do interviews, and contribute to stories. Then you watch as the ensuing coverage inspires action. Ideally, you can draw a straight line from the media coverage to reaction and impact.
Not all campaigns succeed, of course. Sometimes the stories don’t spark a reaction. Sometimes the media ignores you. Other times, you fail to convince people to see an issue the same way you do. It happens.
On the other hand, sometimes you fail to have the impact you want because you expected too much from a single campaign. When reporters or the public don’t understand why your issue matters or how it involves them, one round of press releases or pitches rarely leads to change. If this has been your experience, you need to try a different approach.
The more attention an issue receives, the more the public believes it is important. This notion is known as agenda-setting theory, popularized in the 1960s and 1970s. It also reflects what the Stoics knew 2000 years ago and what neuroscientists will tell you today: what you pay attention to becomes what matters. It’s true for you, and it’s true for the public.
When it comes to what’s “important” and news, the seriousness of a topic rarely matters.
The Globe and Mail talks about Connor McDavid’s future with the Edmonton Oilers because professional sports are watched widely and discussed daily in print, TV, radio, podcasts, and social media. By the only metric that matters — attention — McDavid’s contract is important.
Social issues do not generally receive the same level of sustained interest. There isn’t a housing section in the local paper that explores renters’ issues or the low-income housing market. Nor are their slots on the evening news dedicated to health, education, or families. Those issues are important in real life — just not when it comes to news and infotainment. Not yet.
It may seem counterintuitive, but the lack of impact you’re seeing from your media campaigns means you have more communication work to do, not less. You have to resist the temptation to say, “We tried it and media doesn’t really work for us.”
If your issue depends on getting other people’s attention and motivating them to act, you will lose if you are not heard.
So when the media isn’t holding space for your story, when they don’t have dedicated sections for your issue, your job is to find a way to make your issue part of everyday media conversations.
And here is that way.
Start by listening. Don’t worry about whether your organization is being quoted or your projects are being named specifically; just look to see who is saying what, if anything, about your issue. That’s your baseline.
Once you know your baseline, your agenda-setting strategy is going to focus on shifting three metrics: frequency, density, and support.
How often do stories about your issue appear in news outlets relevant to your target audience? The frequency of stories might be daily, weekly, monthly, annually, or once in a lifetime. You don’t need precise numbers, just a general sense of how often your issue is being talked about.
If stories aren’t appearing often enough to keep your audience informed, you’ll want to increase the frequency. You don’t need to be mentioned, and stories don’t need to be about your organization; your goal is to increase the amount of coverage so that people get more familiar with the topic. Your tactics could include passing along story ideas to media, creating reports or briefings to attract more attention, commenting on related news, or promoting peers and partners with compelling stories to share.
How many different outlets and reporters are talking about your issue? Density matters for three reasons: first, the more places people hear about your issue, the more important it seems (which is the whole point of your strategy!); second, the more likely they are to remember it later; third, in an age of polarized and partisan media, coverage in one outlet or from one pundit may not reach all the people you need to reach.
If stories are only appearing in one place, try engaging more outlets. Look at both the diversity of media organizations and the different types of channels (e.g., radio, online, print).
Are other people and organizations championing the same issue? If you want your issue to gain credibility, show the media that other people and organizations care too.
This is also where density helps. As silly as it sounds, media often covers what other media is covering.
Yours may be the only voice in the beginning, but over time, more will join. You don’t have to leave it to chance, either; encourage your members, allies, and partners to share their stories and perspectives.
After a while, momentum kicks in. Coverage and interest start to take on a life of their own. People see others talking about an issue every day, so they develop an opinion themselves. The stronger their interest, the more likely they are to say something and/or seek out more stories. Their interest and knowledge intensify. Momentum builds.
When you try to shift frequency, density, and support, the big question you must answer is always this: why should your audience pay attention?
People need to believe that your issue affects them. This usually happens when your issue has a direct impact on their well-being or affects their identity, values, or community. If they don’t see a connection, they’ll save their attention for issues that feel more relevant, popular, and amusing.
You can help people connect with an issue by linking it to something larger and universal that they already care about. If you can connect your issue to a principle people already care about, you are more likely to get their attention. Those are often things like freedom, equality, happiness, opportunity, and family. Try not to emphasize complexity, long-off futures, or other things distanced from our day-to-day lives.
There is no guarantee that your stories will resonate with people right away. Your issue may not stand out in the face of other urgent issues. Keep listening and keep updating your baseline — see what messages and channels resonate with people and generate momentum. Repeat what works (within the bounds of what is true, ethical, and constructive!) And keep at it.
Agenda-setting media strategies take time, often years. You can use traditional campaigns to increase frequency, density, and support of your issue’s coverage, but they should tie back to your bigger strategy as much as possible.
If you want people to act on your issue, you need them to be thinking about it. This means you need people to pay attention. And for that, the media can be powerful.
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