Title: Chapter 34. Media Advocacy | Section 3. Creating News Stories the Media Wants | Main Section | Community Tool Box
Headings: Section 3. Creating News Stories the Media Wants
Section 3. Creating News Stories the Media Wants
What is a news story?
What are the benefits of using TV, newspaper, and radio stories?
Providing newsworthy stories
How do I present my story idea?
Choosing good media opportunities
What is a news story?
What are the benefits of using television, newspaper, and radio stories to spread your message?
Providing "newsworthy" stories
Choosing good media opportunities
Some guidelines for contacting the media
Do not call a reporter to pitch a story idea unless you are ready to provide everything she needs to write the story
Target reporters who will be interested in your news
Recognize that you will be interrupting someone who is busy working
Become a “go to” organization for the media
Continue to work to maintain your relationships and credibility with the media, and continue to pitch stories to them
Online Resources
Print Resources

Content: A news story can be: Long or short, depending on its newsworthiness (we’ll discuss this more later) or interest to people who watch TV, listen to the radio, or read the paper. Written, recorded, live, or taped, depending on the medium you use and the timeliness of the story
Hard - full of important facts and news items, or soft - focusing on the personal, more human side of a news event or situation. An example of a hard news story is an article on the alarming rise of HIV cases in heterosexual women. A soft news, or feature, article would be a story about a man in a wheelchair overcoming architectural barriers in town as he moves through his day. What are the benefits of using television, newspaper, and radio stories to spread your message? They can provide cheap, immediate coverage of your issues
They can connect you with the largest and most diverse audiences
They give you the possibility of continuous, in-depth coverage of your issues as long as you provide stories that sell
News stories add credibility to your work, since they’re much more widely believed than advertising
They offer a wide variety of strategies to communicate your message
They can provide a fairly comprehensive explanation of your issue or description of your organization and your work
They’re free publicity
Providing "newsworthy" stories
The fact is, most of today's public health and community development concerns have been around for a long time. Though your issues are important, they may not seem "newsy". One challenge that media advocates face is to promote issues from new angles so that journalists consider them fresh, current, and surprising - in other words newsworthy. If you're trying to create newsworthy stories (i.e., stories that are current, interesting to readers, or will impact readers' lives), you've got to make your issues seem fresh and unique.