Introduction
In the interest of being aware of the public image of our organization, it is important that Nyaya Health closely monitors press relations, and any publicity regarding our organization. In addition to actively soliciting press attention, we must also be aware of passive press that is written about us without our direct involvement.
This page documents methods related to monitoring and soliciting press / publicity, and PublicityAndPress will serve to document any URLs of Nyaya-related press (as copyrights etc permit). General information about Nyaya Health Communications.
Protocol for Press Interactions
PRESS(AT)NYAYA MUST BE COPIED ON ALL INTERACTIONS WITH THE PRESS. This is true for local press, nepali press, national press. Press(AT) is the Nyaya Health press team. You can introduce them simply by stating something to the effect of (depending on context) “I have cc’d the Nyaya Health press team, who per routine works with journalists to ensure the appropriateness and accuracy of our public statements.”
Guidelines for talking to the press
(1) keep things positive
--we are youthful and have done little so far. that's great to think about in our private meetings, but never in front of a reporter. Turn youth into energy, and lack of experience into innovativeness. for example, instead of "we haven't even started clinical services yet," one might say "we are excited to have already renovated a building and gotten equipment, supplies, and key staff together in just one year. we're already ready to start providing services as early as this quarter."
--also, instead of "we haven't even gotten our community board together yet," one might say "we have a unique plan in mind. we have a group of technical advisors together here in the US, who have guided our clinical protocols and design. and we're working in the community to get regular feedback to ensure that we're keeping our services aligned with key patient needs."...self-flaggelation or self-doubt is important for our private meetings, but never in front of a journalist, who will undoubtedly make that the centerpoint of the piece and compromise potential funding.
--if you're asked what major obstacles were/are, do not say 'funding'. focus back on the problem, and don't critique individuals or institutions; critique situations and end positively: "It's always an
obstacle getting people in remote places adequate healthcare. The logistics of delivering supplies and pharmaceuticals, the challenge of reaching patients in distant regions, and the burden of treating so many different pathologies is always a challenge. But it looks like one we can meet."
--if the journalist persists about your obstacles, say "We really haven't faced anything we haven't been able to overcome. We have a vital and energized staff, and we're just moving as quickly and
efficiently as possible."
-- if the journalist points out a problem, like "how do you plan on sustaining this? are you going to rely on donors forever", always sound prepared and be supportive to the journalist. "Yes, that's a good point and we've developed an extensive plan to respond to it. In particular, we've discussed at length with the government how this clinic can become part of the larger public health system that's been expanding since the new government came into place. And we've developed sustainable funding sources, such as our program that raises funds from students who devote just a few hours each month to editing papers."
(2) stay simple
--no name-dropping, and no acronyms. for example, instead of "We're going to create a user board, a technical advisor board, and a community advisory board strung together with CDMA satellite systems for a complete PLWHA approach of CHWs involved in AMD's openarchitecture initiative for PET scanning rabbits to detect MRSA with quality control provided through QWLWQ,"
one might say "Our work is something we take very seriously. We've created a number of mechanisms to check how we're doing. How is the community's health being affected? How do community member's feel about it? Where are the gaps in our knowledge and in our services? And
through our team of experts, we'll continuously revise our approach to meet the health needs of rural Nepal."
--also, it's never good to come off as elitist. instead of "Yeah, it helps to be at Yale. We totally trying to cash this cow," (minimize attempts at humor, most of us are really not that funny, and it doesn't come off well in a passionate piece about poverty and health), try "We have the privilege of being at Yale. The advice and support we get from the Yale community has been vital to
moving this initiative forward."
--don't mention specific board members' names or specific donor's names/corporations unless you have prior permission. no one likes surprises in the newspaper.
(3) be ***formal*** and serious, talk slowly and with commitment
--think about your eloquence and "the message" rather than details. minimize "well" and "um" and "sort of".
--in other words, don't speak to a reporter as you speak to a friend. pretend you're on camera, and talk like obama. use key phrases that emphasize passion and a goal. use redundant phrases that make for good quotes. every sentence should have a point, and sound committed. for example, instead of "well, we sort of just came up with things as we went along and, uh, kind of strung it together. the bureacracy was kind of a mess, and it was all random, but we kind of made half of it
work," one might stop and think about what you need to say, and respond: "we had a goal in mind. this area had one doctor for 100,000 people. the major hospital buildings were abandoned and falling apart. we knew that we had to build infrastructure, build capacity.
--common phrases are better than complex details. also, decisive language is better than language that seems non-commital. instead of "yeah, it'll probably take a while to get this done," use "primary health care requires a long-term commitment. we're in this for the long haul."
--if you get nervous, or the journalist is trying to misdirect you, always head back to the problem. use a phrase like "the bottom line is...", for example "the bottom line is that people in this region have inadequate care, and we're committed to the long process of repairing that." remember that you never have to answer a question you don't want to. just say "i'm not really able to answer that," and direct them to a board member or other team member who may be better suited to answer.
(4) don't offend anyone
--no making fun of or criticizing the government, other organizations, donors, doctors, anyone... Instead of "God, the government bureaucracy was ridiculous," try "Well, in any country it's a challenge to set up new services, and Nepal is no different. We're glad that we were able to meet with the government and set concrete goals that we'll be pursuing together in order to improve the health of the region." Instead of "Everyone is so focused on HIV. That's such a mistake," try "In addition to providing HIV services, we recognized that HIV is a symptom of a much larger social problem, and we're trying to address that in all of its forms."
--don't antagonize or contradict the reporter. for example, if they say "well, don't you think we have enough problems here in America? why are you off in Nepal when you could be in New Haven." don't reply "Well the Nepalese are poorer, and the problems there are bigger." instead, try "That's a good point, and it takes a large team of dedicated people to address health problems, whether it's in New Haven or in Nepal. The reality is that we're committed to improving health everywhere, but we have personal connections to this region, which is the poorest in Asia and has so many challenges that are amongst the most severe in the world."
--if the reporter says something antagonistic in yes/no format, don't say yes/no. for example: "so basically you have done nothing and have seen no patients yet?" don't say yes or no. say "So far, we've been able to renovate a building, obtain key supplies and staff, and are no ready for our grand opening." minimizing yes/no responses is usually best, as they're looking for quotes.
(5) play the underdog
--don't sound desperate, but we're not rich. when talking about donors, thank them for their generosity but don't act like we're underfunded or overfunded.
-- if you can, always *avoid* discussing funding in any detail. Discuss the message: the problem and our solution. Instead of "Yeah, we got a ton of support from people and now we have
to spent it all," try "We really appreciate that people care enough about this region to dedicate their time and resources. As a volunteer-run group, we're able to devote every dollar to building
health infrastructure and providing care." Instead of "We're desperate to find an X-ray machine," try "There are some concrete things people can do to help us. Most of our funding still comes from individual donors--our friends and neighbors—with whom we develop personal relationships and who find it satisfying to donate to us. For example, we recently received an ultrasound machine from doctors here at Yale. Now we're pursuing an X-ray and hope to find further funding as well, to continue building healthcare infrastructure."
see, it's easy:
be positive.
be simple.
be formal and committed.
don't make fun of or antagonize anyone, especially the journalist.
don't act rich.
now that you feel dirty, go take a shower and comb your hair.
Expectations of Journalists
Journalists should be expected NOT to:
-writing about incorrect, illegal work (duh)
-focus on either the most negative or the most positive (e.g. they'll either talk about a dead baby or about how nyaya is saving everyone in achham). she could have easily mentioned that number of deliveries at the hospital has gone up since bayalpata opened and that most of them do not result in the death of an infant/mother. likewise, those who make us look like invincible saviors can easily talk about complications/mortalities like these so we can highlight the need for expansion of services.
-trying to create "heroes" at the expense of dismissing the work of staff. i think this comes from a capitalistic/neocolonialist mindset: one or two people, especially those who travel to an impoverished region from the Western world, are the heroes and everyone else is a recruit/foot soldier and is thus unimportant. The one thing i liked about this article is that she actually quotes the staff members. We keep saying the INGO's role should be in the shadows and although sometimes it's tough to get our staff to tell the stories about our work, if we have journalists visit the site, we should get them to talk to the staff members. I am sure they have translators. in this case, looks like she did but it's very unfortunate that she ignored most of her interviews.
-there are more subtle things that i don't want to keep ranting about :P but essentially the fallacy of using select stories to further disempower the people you are (hypothetically) trying to empower.
You've raised a very interesting point and one that even came up at
the ny times recently:
http://africasacountry.com/2010/07/12/the-nicholas-kristof/
The "white savior" hero as bridge character is a product of American
culture you often see in the new yorker or ny times mag.
My 2c for what it is worth is to be aggressive with visiting western
journalists. Tell then Nyaya has been burned in the past causing you
to enforce restrictions. Give clear rules: Foreign volunteers cannot
be quoted, Nyaya must see a prepub copy for factchecking, patients
real names cannot be used, etc.
It is great Nyaya gets exposure, but not at the expense of
perpetuating colonialist tropes.
I'm happy to help write up guidelines, but I imagine you folks on the
ground have a pretty clear view.
journalist's first concern is getting you to finish reading their article, because this is his/her livelihood, and if you don't finish reading, they don't have a job. one can't dismiss this reality.
they aren't anthropologists or sociologists trying to capture and portray an issue in the most accurate and balanced way. I actually think it's unfair to expect them to be that.
as i'm writing this i see that dave scales just sent the kristof link that i was about to send, when he was taking flak for highlighting the work of foreigners. His reply:
"One way of getting people to read at least a few grafs in is to have some kind of a foreign protagonist, some American who they can identify with as a bridge character. And so if this is a way I can get people to care about foreign countries, to read about them, ideally, to get a little bit more involved, then I plead guilty."
He has gone into more detail in the past on his use of social psychology in his articles (http://outsideonline.com/outside/culture/200912/nicholas-kristof-philanthropy-advice-1.html), because his main goal is raising awareness about issues, and thus the proximate goals are: getting people to finish reading and getting people to care. If people care more because he is talking about white people, or discriminating against men by only telling stories of women (as he notes), and that generates more attention, more donations, etc. is that a compromise worth making? Is it wrong to intentionally not describe the magnitude of a problem because it has been shown in social psychology experiments to 'diminish empathy'?
These are tough questions and I'm just raising the point.
On Journalistic Freedom, Integrity, Marketing
The bottom-line is that:
- we don't have control over what is finally printed, irrespective of how hard we try to work with the journalist ahead of time
- we can't expect that all, or even half, of what is written about our work will be entirely to our liking
- if we are to pursue press we have to accept that some (much) of it will ultimately perpetuate tropes and stereotypes that we don't agree with nor would write about ourselves.
nonetheless, we should aim to adhere to the tenets discussed above. but these should be guidelines to help us think through the issues and never requirements which will invariably limit our ability to get press at all. while i hate this stuff, and hate it when people hero-ize those of us doing the relatively speaking easy work, it's ultimately going to help us get more resources to achham. kristoff is right - it's a fine balance, but one i think we need to go for.
Monitoring Nyaya Health press and publicity
Google Alerts
By utilizing a Google Alert, we are able to receive automatic updates in our email accounts regarding certain search strings. Currently, while we refine the search string (so as not to create overwhelming numbers of emails) Dan will monitor this Alert. Once this Alert has been appropriately refined, press@ will begin to receive daily digests with any Nyaya-related article detected by the Google Alert filter.
In order to set up your own Google Alert:
- Login to your Gmail account
- Click on "More" at the top margin above your inbox
- Click on "Even more" at the bottom of the drop-down menu
- Click on "Alerts," which is the first option in the left-hand column
- Create your Google Filter Alert by entering your search string and selecting the other parameters
- Recommendation for search string: "Nyaya Health" (make sure to use the quotes so that it only returns occurrences of both words together). With this search string you will likely receive less than one article returned per day.
- For "Type" it is likely best to select "Comprehensive" as only this option includes both the web and the blogosphere (in addition to all other media sources)
Soliciting Nyaya Health press
Targeted email campaigns to journalists / bloggers
Especially when Nyaya has a particular event, article, or other occurrence of note, targeted email campaigns to relevant journalists and bloggers can be very useful to increase the publicity and our organization's public image.
The two main requirements for sending out targeted emails are:
1. list of blog outreach contacts, which can be viewed here. Based on the topic, add more contacts to increase traffic.
2. Enthusiasm! Always be positive but objective in your emails highlighting what you want to state. It goes a long way.
As we have done in the past (e.g. with the GHD 2.0 PLoS article), it is important to create lists of relevant contact persons / websites / etc.
- Specific information about PressReleases.
- Our list of blog outreach contacts can be viewed here.
- A sample cover letter for publicity solicitation emails, and a sample press release to be included with all solicitation emails can be viewed here.
See marketing materials on our Development Portal.
Comments (0)
You don't have permission to comment on this page.