When advocates are ready to start a media campaign, they often begin by asking what messages they should use, what language works the best or what words they should avoid. But when it comes to media advocacy, message is never first. That’s because, unlike with social marketing, the goal of media advocacy isn’t to raise awareness — it’s to change policy.
Before crafting their messages, media advocates should ask:
- What problem do I want to solve?
- What policy solution am I advocating?
- Who has the power to make the change I am seeking?
- What is the best way to communicate with my target audience?
- Will engaging the media help me reach them?
Only after answering these questions should advocates start developing messages and pitching stories to reporters. To learn more about using media advocacy strategically to advance healthy public policy or to request assistance in developing a media advocacy plan, contact us.
Related resources
Media advocacy 101
An introduction to using mass media to support policies that improve health.
Making the case for health with media advocacy [pdf]
This training manual introduces media advocacy, describes the news media’s role in shaping debates on community health, and can help advocates clarify their overall strategy and learn how it relates to a media strategy, a message strategy and a media access strategy.
Planning ahead for strategic media advocacy [pdf]
This training manual takes participants through each step of developing a media advocacy plan: setting goals and objectives, identifying strategies and tactics, assessing resources, determining timelines and specifying who will do what.
Layers of strategy [pdf]
This 1-pager outlines BMSG’s four-stage approach to media advocacy planning, a process we call the layers of strategy. Before deciding what to say, advocates need to know what they want their targets to do. That involves developing an overall strategy tied to an advocacy campaign’s specific policy goal. Media, message and media access strategies follow.
GOTMME media advocacy planning tool
This worksheet is designed to help media advocates plan their communication work in a strategic, coordinated manner. Using “GOTMME,” a 6-step planning process, advocates can identify their policy goals, objectives, and target audiences; craft their messages; identify their messenger(s); and evaluate their results.