How to work effectively with mainstream media and engage them to increase the visibility of your advocacy work

Advocacy Accelerator

The way in which the media perceives issues determines how they frame and present them to the general public. In particular, framing issues that inform policy makers of an agenda, communicates that it is an issue affecting the general public and calls for some urgency in acting on them.
In recognising the potential of the media in shaping agendas, anyone engaged in advocacy work must be consistent in coming up with creative ways to pitch their issues to the media. This requires an in-depth knowledge of the media environment, editorial policies and news values.
Within the Voice Linking and Learning project for Kenya and Tanzania, the several Partner organisations involved have requested in previous events, for their capacity to be built in the following areas:

• Increasing the visibility of their beneficiaries in the media and development space
• Influencing behavioural change, policy and practice through communication
• Preparation of success stories to be shared with the media
• Do’s and don’ts when engaging with media
• Media communication skills/ packaging a message for media
• Developing a communication strategy

It is for this reason that the Voice consortium planned this webinar to serve as a platform for cross pollination of knowledge on best practices on working with the media to increase the visibility of Partner organisations’ advocacy work, in particular the do’s and don’t’s, media strategy development for the impact of advocacy. This webinar also provides a platform for Partner organisations that have effectively worked with the media to share their success stories with their peers.