Working with the Media

One of the best ways to reach out to your campus community is by getting coverage in your campus and local newspapers. The more articles about your green living program (GLP), the more well known you will become, the happier your funders will be and the cooler your student employees will feel. Overall, media coverage will give you the feeling of successfully creating awareness on your campus.

The first step to tapping into this outreach channel is to make a list of all publications on your campus. Then you need to figure out how they cover stories:

  • How do they get their leads?
  • Do they have an email or phone number to report stories?
  • What is their publishing schedule?
  • What type of events do they tend to cover?

You may run the best panel session ever, but it may be that your campus newspaper tends not to cover panel discussions as a rule of thumb. Try to get a feel for what types of stories your campus newspapers do cover. You should not feel confined to have activities that only fit into the mold of your campus newspapers’ image, but be practical about recognizing what they do and do not like to cover. And, most likely, the events that they do like to cover will be the ones that are student-friendly, exciting and flashy—all characteristics that will most likely mean the event itself was quite popular!

This section includes:

Press Releases and Press Packets

Create a press release to email to the campus newspaper. You will want to follow up with the press release by calling and emailing the newspaper or media target to make sure they saw it. Most likely they are on a very busy schedule and the extra reminder will not hurt at all.

Developing a press packet for reporters can be very helpful, especially to help avoid simple errors such as name misspellings. Especially with a new program, it is important to give the reporter additional or background information, so that they do not misreport on the program.

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Tips for Talking to Reporters

If a reporter speaks with you:

Stay on message!

Do not confuse the reporter by giving them too much information. They will often choose odd things to highlight in their coverage, so only give them the information you want to get across. It is good to have a short message you can repeat constantly. Practice your sound bites with other GLP staff before talking with the reporter. How will you respond when asked what you are doing? For example, if you are working on a water conservation campaign, your primary message could be:

Water is the lifeblood of the planet. Its uses extend far beyond simple washing and bathing. Literally every product we use in our daily lives requires water and usually large amounts of it at some point before its arrival on the store shelf. Growing crops, raising livestock, generating energy at power plants, manufacturing plastics and metals, making paper, shipping raw materials and finished products—all of these activities require water.

Since water does so much work behind the scenes, we often forget that water conservation involves more than just taking shorter showers and turning the faucet off while shaving or brushing your teeth. Although these are great habits to form, using water wisely also means changing some other wasteful practices that use water in less obvious ways.

At the study break, we will be talking about energy conservation, eating lower on the food chain, recycling and eating organically to protect water quality. Other practices include reducing consumption in general and particularly of high-impact items like mined metal materials.

There is NO "Off the Record"

Remember, the reporter is not your friend. They are out to get a story and attract attention. If you tell them something "off the record" it will still end up in the story—it just will not have your name attached to it.

Before talking to a reporter, see if what you are planning to say passes the "cousin" test. In other words, run it by your cousin or someone who does not have any knowledge of your issues to make sure that you are sending the right message and that it is clear.

If you are talking to a reporter and feel like things are not coming out right, just stop, say "let me start again," and do so.

Directing Reporters to Additional Sources

Make sure you know whom to direct reporters to for further information after you have given your sound bite. You could send them to GLP captains or a fellow student in the dorm who attended your event and can say something positive.

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Following Up with Reporters and Corrections

Do not hesitate to confirm quotes and other facts, like the correct spelling of names or events. You can follow up by email or phone, if possible.

Likewise, do not hesitate to send a correction to the newspaper if there is an inaccuracy in an article. It is important to follow up on mistakes. Be sensitive to student reporters, but make sure you set the record straight.

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Recording Your Media Hits

It is almost just as important to record your media hits as it is to get media coverage in the first place! Be sure to follow up and check to see whether you were covered in the media and, second, develop a good strategy to document those media hits. Share the media hits with your funders, steering group members and reps. Keeping track of media coverage will help institutionalize records of the events you ran and it will be a nice addition to your program website. It could also help you secure future funding.

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