Aspies For Freedom

Hi guys,

As I've mentioned round here before, I work in the media.  I've done various things, from working in traditional newsrooms, to PR, to my current gig in online news.  So, I figured while there's so much enthusiasm round AFF for doing, well, something to further various Autism-related issues, I'd finally type out a list that's been circulating in my mind for some time, of how to get press coverage.  It's by no means exhaustive and a lot will depend on precisely what you're wanting to do, but it's a start.  

1.  Pick your topic.  Mainstream media has limited time and space, and many issues to fit into it.  So, if you want to highlight a specific case of abuse or discrimination, don't talk about the vaccine theory.  If you're talking about the vaccine theory, don't get sidelined discussing how crap it is to be Aspie in a mainstream school.  Push one barrow at a time.  The more specific you can be, the better.  

2.  State your case clearly.  In a press release, put the story at the top.  The story is not that some person the journalist has never heard of is angry about some obscure thing.  The story is that you're planning a one-person sit-in tomorrow morning at six, and will be available for interview. If a newsroom receives a press release that doesn't clearly tell them what's going on, they generally won't do the detective work to decipher your clues - it'll end up in the bin.

3.  Have a CREDIBLE person available as a spokesman.  If you're discussing a case of discrimination or abuse, that means the victim, or their carer/mother/brother etc.  If it IS just you staging a one-man protest, have a good reason WHY this is so important to you and be prepared to explain it, articulately and rationally, to someone with no clue and little interest.  Probably several times.

4.  Timing.  Different times of day are best for different media - if you're planning something colourful/noisy that will work well for TV/radio for instance, morning is usually best,   If you're protest is on Tuesday, maybe send out a press release a week before with an additional alert the day before.  (This varies greatly depending on what the event is and if you're targeting a specific medium.)

5.  Respect the journalist.  You need their help to push your barrow. Be polite, respect their deadlines and do your best to give them what they need - for instance, a written statement's not much good for radio.  And don't ask for a copy of the finished piece before it goes to air/press.  Journalists generally don't have the time or resources to do that, it's usually against company policy, and the implication that you don't trust them won't make you very popular at all.

6.  Don't use jargon like "Aspie", "stimming" or "meltdown", unless you explain clearly what it means.  Avoid the term "NT" if at all possible.  Avoid ANY talk of 'master race' or 'next step in evolution' if you want to be taken seriously.

7.  Tie your story to something else, and you're more likely to get interest from the press.  A one-man sit in to protest discrimination towards an Aspie by a school, for instance, is more likely to get publicity on Autism Pride Day, National Students Day, or the first/last day of the school year.  This is because the media is probably planning a generic story on the overall day/event, and they can use your specific protest as an "add", or smaller story which goes after or beside the main one.

8.  When possible get GOOD publicity.  An Aspie who's released a CD/written a book/painted a mural at the local kindy/raised $600 for charity by baking scones is positive publicity, and it makes Aspies look like a healthy, productive, contributing part of society.  THEN you can use the attention to further your personal crusade.  An Aspie who's in the news because they've burnt something down/cyber-harassed someone/been arrested for going armed in public, makes us look like a pack of nutters.

9.  If at first you get ignored, try, try again.  You might have just happened to pick the day there was a big road accident, or a celebrity in town, or the day after the combined press Christmas party (hic). Remain passionate, remain calm, remain rational.

This opens at least my eyes on how stuff works.

Thank you, Erklos.  Most of it's stuff I'd said before, but it seemed time to compile it into one place, rather than just leaving bits scattered around various random threads where it'll be impossible to find again if anyone needs it.

One point I forgot to mention... if you're faxing press releases, keep them to one page.  Every newsroom I've worked in has been a godawful mess of paper, with a dozen new bits coming in every hour.  It's not uncommon for pages to get separated and important bits (like your contact details) can get lost in the confusion.

I'd even recommend that any admins that might be reading along make this thread sticky - After all, anything we attempt to do on any wide scale is going to involve the media, and so this list is going to be of ongoing use.

Thanks for that - it's not often that you get an insiders perspective as to how these things work...

Another idea's just come to me.  I've talked about 'sending out press releases' - but who to?  How?

Think big.  Don't limit yourself to the local free weekly paper.  Send them a copy by all means, but also all the other newspapers, TV stations, radio stations that cover the region where your event (or issue) is taking place.  

In Australia, there's a thing called the Margaret Gees Media Guide.  I'm not sure what it's equivalent is in other countries.  It's an up to date (annually revised) list of every media outlet in the nation, with contact details and who's who.  It's not the sort of thing you'd buy, but if your local library doesn't have a copy, the nearest University library should have one you can photocopy a few relevant pages from.

Familiarise yourself with the outlet before you include them - look up their website, listen to them for a while.  If they're 100% music and ads, probably not a lot of point trying to court news coverage from them.  If their programming is all beamed in from a hub studio 500 miles away (more common than you'd think) your chances are less good than if they actually have warm bodies in town.

I'd ring the newsroom and ask if they prefer press releases by fax or email.  You'd think email would be easiest these days, but in the office where I am at the moment, for instance, unless you're absolutely 100% sure which individual staff member to send it to, there's a good chance it'll get lost.  So, fax is better for us.

If you do send an email... try to put the press release in the body of the email.  I hate getting curt messages from total strangers saying "please see attached release".  Yeah right, buddy - who are you, and why should I open your virus-laden mystery package?  Plus, lots of newsrooms use industry-specific software that combines word processing, email/messaging, and fancy things like autocue scripts in one program.  So you can't assume the other person's got Word/Reader etc to open your file.  They probably do, but some won't.  People WILL keep sending me Publisher files.  Why?  Who the heck has Publisher?

If you MUST send an attachment... for goodness sake turn off Microsoft Word's 'show recent edit' thing before you save the final version.  I get releases where it's still switched on.  It looks REALLY bad.

Sending word attachments is generally a bad idea anyway - personally I tend to reply to such mails with a link to richard stallman's article on the subject.

As to the rest of the post - on point 6 in particular I do not think we should avoid the term NT at all, though it should only be introduced when needed (i.e don't bring up "as opposed to NTs blabla" unless there's a point).

Definitely. Avoid Word attachments like the plague. Use an open format instead.

I would say that it would be better to say "non-autistics" instead of "NTs", especially in stuff intended for the general public. It is more accurate (NTs are a subset of non-autistics) and easier to understand.

Yep... If you have a three-minute radio spot, I reckon don't waste forty seconds explaining what a "neurotypical" is unless it's really necessary for the message you're pushing.  There are times it WILL be essential - for instance if you're specifically talking about neurological diversity - but there will be times when it'll be easier to just avoid the jargon.