How do we move the media mountain?
Nathalie McDermott, Founder and CEO of On Road Media, a charity that improves media representation of groups that are marginalised, discusses their unique approach to putting personal stories on public platforms.
It’s something that most charities dream about doing better – getting their stories and their issues “into the media”. But what does that really mean.
If you’re lucky, you might have a good comms person in-house who is able to write a pithy press release that every now and then will get picked up by local or mainstream media. You and your service users might even get to help a documentary maker with advice, and that documentary might make it onto TV.
But assuming you’re fortunate enough to have the capacity to do this in the first place, which many small and medium charities don’t, what overall difference do these ad hoc successes make? How many media appearances does it take to change public attitudes on an issue?
It’s something of a passion of mine, as an ex-journalist, figuring out how to move the juggernaut of the media slowly in the right direction on a particular issue. And the other week our charity On Road Media won the Third Sector Award for “Small Charity, Big Achiever” for our project All About Trans, which did just that with the transgender community.
Feelings…
Veering away from traditional campaign approaches, our goal, which may at first glance appear to be peculiar, has been to help as many senior media professionals with klout (decision makers, commissioners, those in charge of spend) to experience an emotional reaction to members of the community.
We have found that it is this moment of connection, the realisation that there are real people behind the issue with diversity of experience and brilliant stories, is what encourages a journalist to take it upon themselves to champion the subject in their organisation, to go away and develop ideas off their own back, to really own the process of improving coverage, as opposed to being shamed with facts and figures into following our agenda, an approach which in our experience doesn’t really work.
Our time is spent building and nurturing a community of activists with lived experience, and facilitating connections between them and high level media contacts through what we call “the interactions” – informal meet-ups strategically organised to affect change. It’s not an overnight process but nor does it rely on expensive communications campaigns.
Understanding your target audience journalist
We understand what journalists need – great contacts, accurate information and fantastic ideas that help them with their jobs as creators of factual and fictional content. The interactions are designed to do just that, pairing journalists with community members that we think they will relate to, enabling us to build a relationship with the journalist that will sustain over time, whilst supporting the activist with lived experience to network, and grow in confidence and understanding of the media.
Since 2011, All About Trans has worked with 251 transgender people and 403 media professionals in 62 interactions across the UK, leveraging over £5.5 million in positive programming, including the first trans characters played by trans actors in Hollyoaks and EastEnders. Although there is some way to go, this work has complemented the fantastic frontline work being done by grassroots trans organisations and has transformed the way trans people are portrayed in the UK media, contributing to greater acceptance in society.
It’s personal
Central to the success of the work is the very particular kind of activist we work with – those who are talking about their own experience and putting their heads above the parapet because they want to improve the lives of people like them.
They risk more than a professional campaigner would, as they are sharing their personal stories on public platforms. And they are more vulnerable to negative emotions following their dealings with the media, which may be exploitative and which may also trigger past trauma.
But they are also the strongest advocates with the most powerful voices. With that in mind, we have developed an effective method of enabling these people to influence change strategically and sustainably, over the long-term, whilst looking after themselves and avoiding burn-out through bespoke media training, with an emphasis on self-care and access to a regular, facilitated peer support group.
Our latest project, Angles: A Different Take on Sexual and Domestic Abuse is using the same method, bringing media influencers together with people with lived experience of sexual violence and domestic abuse, and/or who work in the sector, promoting new content and a better understanding of the issues.
For more information, visit www.onroadmedia.org.uk / www.allabouttrans.org.uk / www.angles.org.uk or contact Nathalie.
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