{"id":2833,"date":"2011-06-30T11:33:04","date_gmt":"2011-06-30T16:33:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/girlwpen.com\/?p=2833"},"modified":"2011-06-30T11:33:04","modified_gmt":"2011-06-30T16:33:04","slug":"activists-media-work-likely-to-not-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/2011\/06\/30\/activists-media-work-likely-to-not-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Activists’ Media Work — Likely to Not Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the buzz about Michele Bachmann running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination<\/a>, many journalists are wondering about the Tea Party\u2019s power<\/a>.\u00a0 So, I\u2019m taking a break from blogging about healthy bodies to focus on healthy politics and share a recent email exchange with Tufts sociologist Sarah Sobieraj<\/a>, Ph.D. whose new book Soundbitten: The Perils of Media-Centered Political Activism<\/a><\/em> (NYU Press) takes\u00a0readers\u00a0inside activist groups’\u00a0struggles to get their issues and perspectives covered in the news.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0Adina Nack:<\/strong> What is media-centered political activism, and how perilous is it?<\/p>\n

Sarah Sobieraj:<\/strong> I studied 50 U.S. activist groups from across the political spectrum, expecting to find engagement in a range of political strategies, but nearly every organization had the same strategy – attracting attention from the mainstream news media. They invested astounding amounts of time, money, and energy into media preparation and training, but were largely unsuccessful. This exclusion from mainstream news diminishes the richness of our political discourse, and consequently weakens democratic processes, but I found that the activists\u2019 relentless pursuit of media inclusion also threatens activism<\/em>.<\/p>\n

With news coverage as the raison d\u2019etre, organizers often approached their own members as potential liabilities in need of discipline. \u00a0As a result, open communication among fellow activists was often replaced by rigorous attempts to control their speech and behavior. Activists were meticulously schooled on talking points, warned about \u201centrapment,\u201d and reminded repeatedly to \u201cstay on message\u201d at all costs. In some cases, members were given practice interviews, recorded, and critiqued by their group. This happened in the organizations that allowed participants to speak to reporters; many groups had designated spokespeople and prohibited other members from answering journalists\u2019 questions altogether.\u00a0 This member management stemmed from desires to control whatever fleeting coverage the group might attract.\u00a0 This approach was practical but could also be toxic. One activist described feeling like a prop, invited only to show journalists that their group had numbers, but told to keep quiet and stay out of the way.<\/p>\n

In addition to creating internal problems, media-centrism also interferes with external communication. Most groups were determined to reach the \u201cgeneral public\u201d and assumed that the news would serve as intermediary, instead of working to reach those in the vicinity of their protests, rallies, and other public events directly. As a result, the organizations perseverated on media strategy \u2013 creating photo ops and sound bites, writing press releases and designating spokespeople \u2013 but these extensive media trainings inadvertently undermined their abilities to communicate with bystanders. On several occasions, I watched pedestrians approach activists to ask questions only to have an activist respond with a rehearsed one-liner.\u00a0 Activists were ready with talking points but unable to actually talk<\/em>. Sometimes media trainings left activists so anxious that they directed bystanders to their website to avoid answering questions. \u00a0<\/p>\n

AN: <\/strong>Given the slim chances for media attention — why has the Tea Party fared so well?<\/p>\n

SS: <\/strong>The Tea Party is not among the groups I studied, but my research offers some clues to their success. Soundbitten<\/em> shows that journalists have an appetite for activism and a clear idea about what makes activism newsworthy: authenticity. \u00a0Authenticity can be communicated to news workers in a variety of ways: including emotionality, spontaneity, and originality \u2013 all of which the Tea Party had in excess in their early months. For example, during the Town Hall meetings on health care<\/a>, their disruptions violated social norms and created tense standoffs between elected leaders and emotion-fueled audience members that didn\u2019t feel staged. \u00a0Plus, the activists themselves were unexpected: flag-waving, silver-haired conservatives in orthopedic shoes and athletic socks are not what come to mind when most people think \u201cprotester.\u201d The events were perfect fodder for the 24-hour news cycle. \u00a0<\/p>\n

In contrast, the groups I worked with were passionate about their issues, but many of their events felt formulaic and professionalized \u2013 hyper-managed by rational-tongued spokespeople wielding talking points (designed to get journalists to focus on the issues) \u2013 or playful and cartoonish, which sometimes captured reporters\u2019 interest but rarely resulted in a serious examination of key issues.<\/p>\n

AN:<\/strong> So, did the activists you studied just take the wrong approach to mainstream news media?<\/p>\n

SS:<\/strong> Yes and no. In terms of capturing media attention, activists face a daunting catch-22 because of the professional routines and standards of reporting that have emerged in mainstream news organizations. The odds are stacked against them. \u00a0Most of the groups I studied failed to see that showcasing their professionalism \u2013 striving to appear legitimate by creating press releases on letterhead and answering journalists\u2019 questions with the latest data \u2013 was not an effective tactic. Yet, if they cater to journalists\u2019 appetites \u2013 for raw emotion rather than research, personal stories rather than publicly minded-speech, etc. \u2013 the coverage they receive tends to depoliticize public issues by portraying them as personal troubles. \u00a0<\/p>\n

So, the activists didn\u2019t approach reporters in the \u201cwrong\u201d way, but there may not be a reliable way to do it \u201cright\u201d in the current journalistic climate. This is a problem, and media reform is critical, but until those reforms take hold, activist groups might consider realigning their strategic emphases.\u00a0 It might make sense to stop investing the lion\u2019s share of their organizational resources in trying to win this battle. It is easy to forget that the quest for media coverage is a tactic for political change, not simply an end in itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the buzz about Michele Bachmann running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, many journalists are wondering about the Tea Party\u2019s power.\u00a0 So, I\u2019m taking a break from blogging about healthy bodies to focus on healthy politics and share a recent email exchange with Tufts sociologist Sarah Sobieraj, Ph.D. whose new book Soundbitten: The Perils […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1918,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[400,10745,85,868],"class_list":["post-2833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-book-reviews","tag-political-campaigns","tag-politics","tag-power"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1918"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2833"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2833\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/girlwpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}