|
Grabbing the
Brass Ring: Directing the Press
by Shari Krishnan, Our Children Left Behind, October 20,
2003
For more articles like this
visit
https://www.bridges4kids.org.
We are all being
constantly reminded by our favorite advocacy organizations and
other parent groups to write to our Senators and Representatives
during IDEA reauthorization. It is the direct response that is
always in order and essentially the proper first-line thing to
do, and parents do it very well. Keep up the good work!
But there is more to this IDEA reauthorization carnival. We have
written about it before* and right now it is critical that we
know how to grab this brass ring of opportunity. The opportunity
lies in your ability to help direct your local and favorite
press outlets in their approach to IDEA reauthorization stories.
The press has major input into molding the public’s opinion
regarding people with disabilities and determining what the
public will be willing to support. Knowing that the economy is
suffering in many states at the same time that our national
education system is spinning with uncertainty in the name of
reform, it is our duty to assure the public, our senators, and
representatives that hard-earned taxpayer dollars are well spent
on our children. If we don’t tell them why the investment is
wise, very few will do it for us.
Just as we have encouraged our Web site visitors over and over
again to call and build relationships with their elected
officials, the same goes for your local papers, TV and radio
stations, public cable access, and the like. Unless the people
who work in these areas have children with disabilities, they
honestly will not understand things the way that we do. We need
to help them learn more about our children and what is needed
for them to be successful in school. We also need to help our
newspapers’ editors and newsroom producers learn the important
questions to ask when they (or their crews) are sent out to
conduct interviews pertaining to IDEA reauthorization.
The press will always look for the biggest hooks. They will
videotape the worst examples of student behavior. They will
print numbers demonstrating the biggest wastes of money. They
will do anything to get the attention of the viewers and
readers. After all sizzle sells and stories need to be told
quickly.
You can be sure that many newspapers will spin their IDEA
stories to place some type of educational blame on students and
parents. Rarely will we see newspapers talk about what good
teaching, promising practices, effective behavior support, and
respectful home-school relationships can do to benefit students
– most of which cost our taxpayers nothing. It is up to us to
help newspapers and newsrooms understand the newsworthiness of
IDEA success stories and the plights that we are facing.
Defining the “wow” behind our stories for the news teams is our
job.
There is another reason it is important that we help shape the
news versus constantly reacting to it, and that is to shape the
opinions of our legislators. It is not a coincidence that after
the legislators’ breaks more stories pertaining to special
education and students with disabilities are in the press. Most
of these are calculated moves with calculated timings.
Parents have it a bit harder winning a game at this press
carnival since we don’t know the timings (when bills will be
released) and many of us don’t have the writing skills to play
the press game. Sure, there are little press games that we will
win at. Kind of like those carnival games where people guess
your age or weight. You will win most of the time, but the
payoffs don’t seem big. They take $2.00 and give you a 50-cent
prize to keep you happy and coming back. But, try using the
broken water gun with not enough pressure to aim at the target.
It isn’t fun at all. We feel defeated. However, tomorrow is a
new day, the pressure could be stronger, our friends are
playing, and we are energized to play again.
Fortunately, there are times when we are good or gradually
improve at some press games. We need to play those. The big
payoff will be to make our legislators who vote(d) against our
kids a bit concerned about how the press is portraying them. And
the best long-term payoff will be a public who better
understands what we want it to learn about our children and the
investments we ask it to support.
There are going to be many of us who contact our local papers,
radio, and TV stations and do not even get anyone to take our
calls. That is OK. Since there will be others of us who will
have calls returned and stories will come from our efforts. We
can’t win if we don’t play. And, the risk is a few phone calls,
so why not? There is more at stake if we don’t do this, our
children’s futures.
Thank you to the many of you brave parents who have participated
with the press; who have written your own press releases; who
have trusted us enough to use our releases and turn them into
your own; and who are doing everything that you possibly can for
our kids.
This is hard stuff and hard times for us. Thank goodness that we
have each other. There are few brass rings out there, but as
each of us grabs one, we can pass them around for all of us to
enjoy.
Let us know how you do. We’ll all celebrate.
Warmly,
Shari Krishnan, today’s
parentvolunteer@ourchildrenleftbehind.com
*To see our previous story about writing to the press, go to:
http://pub60.ezboard.com/fourchildrenleftbehindfrm17.showMessage?topicID=4.topic
Here are some links that may help you learn how to write a
press release (there are also excellent books on the topic
at many local bookstores):
CanadaOne’s Free Interactive Press Release Builder
http://www.canadaone.com/promote/pressrelease.html
(Note: This is a great Press Release Builder. Just keep in
mind that it is Canadian.)
Press Release Writing Tips
http://www.press-release-writing.com/content-basics.htm
back to the top ~
back to Breaking News
~ back to
What's New
|
