This week my class and I had a discussion about the media setting the agenda. What is really newsworthy and who decides what stories are important, what are the issues that people care about. One of the main goals of public relations practitioners is to get media coverage! The field is largely about attention seeking. How can you get into the media if you are working for an organization with a limited budget? How can you get coverage on a story that seems to have been told a million times before? Let’s say you are working for a not-for-profit group and want to get the issue of poverty covered in mainstream media in a first world country.
How can you as a PR person get people to pay attention to an issue “over there’ in another country. I think humans often choose to ignore problems they don't think they have control over or an ability to change. It is much easier to turn a blind eye than to subject yourself to painful issues and then feel helpless in ending conflicts. As PR people we can empower and unite our audience by giving them the tools to solve these problems, or at least begin to make an impact. The issue must affect your audience directly. By holding an event (30 hour famine, earth hour) PR practitioners have successfully created awareness, got media coverage, and mobilized their publics to act.
I came across an organization I really like last year, Kiva. (http://www.kiva.org/) The mission statement or goal of the group is “lend to a specific entrepreneur, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty.”
The website is a perfect example of social media connecting a public to a groups cause. I can go online, search stories and look for someone I want to lend money to (via online banking). There are many people looking for loans to open a business. In the past, I have tended to lend to women on the site that are looking for funds to open clothing stores or markets. The problem for the people on the site is there is nowhere to apply for loans, which is where overseas contributors come in. The best part iof Kiva is once you donate to someone and they open a business and are successful, you get your money back from them! Along the way Kiva users take pictures and update (blog) about their business status.
The website was mentioned on Oprah Winfrey and as a result donations increased significantly. Why did the producers at Oprah cover this story? Oprah is interested in world issues, poverty is a topic which she covers often on the show in order to create awareness. I think Kiva was covered because it was able to turnthe larger issue of poverty into a relatable problem which the audience felt they could actually do something about. This was done through the use of social media. "Kiva is the world's first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe. “ (http://www.kiva.org/) PR is about moving audiences to act, and that is exactly what happened with the sucess story of Kiva.
What other issues could gain media coverage through similar methods?
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That's actually pretty interesting, I had never heard of Kiva before. I have however seen other sites that are quite similar and I think they're a great idea. People who need help can place thier stories on sites and can ask people looking to help directly for help.
ReplyDeleteThe one that comes to mind for me I saw on The Colbert Report a little while ago where teachers who need help for supplies or anything else for their classes ask everyday people to help out by donating. The site is called "Donors Choose" and can be found at http://www.donorschoose.org
Thats interesting that Sheldon mentioned the website "Donors Choose", I came across it when I was working at the public school Board in Toronto. A journalist called me to ask if our schools would support this kind of website and our Fundraising department said no - that we didnt want schools that were "higher needs" to be drawing attention and marginalizing themselves. Instead, most of the fundraising dollars were collected centrally and then distributed to specific programs to support schools. Although, I don't know if that would work in this case.
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeletethis is really interesting. well, i'd have thought that PR practitioners can use web 2.0 to deliver their message to the publics and change their thoughts to the issue faced. Have you heard about the genocide of Darfur (Sudan)? i think that would be a proper example. You can click on http://www.savedarfur.org/
not just that. to set the agenda (well i dont do Setting the Agenda class) so public will aware of one particular issue, a not-for-profit organisation dealing with Darfur conflict have establish a game (www.darfurisdying.com). with this, people are encourage to be actively engage in that game so they can experience how terrible conflict in Darfur is.
What do you reckon?