Media is big business—their first obligation is to turn a profit. Serving the public interest is secondary.

  " Mass media are owned and controlled by a corporate elite that join with the elite in government to induce conformity or a mainstream view of society."

 Understanding the Media

1. Decision-making power rests with media personnel.
2. The media try to balance issues in a story. The code of balance and objectivity often neutralizes the story’s impact.
3. The media frame the issue; they determine the meaning and parameters of the issue, and they allow little opportunity for those making the news to influence the framing.
4. A grass roots leader can be made a celebrity if the media choose to place that person in the spotlight. The "cult figure" syndrome can be detrimental if it robs the movement of access to the media by persons other than the media’s anointed celebrity.
5. Radio and television newscasts usually break at three and seven minute intervals for commercial advertisement, prohibiting an in-depth discussion of an issue.
6. The media can trivialize an issue, reducing its importance to the public. By presenting the grassroots issue in a way that minimizes the serious nature of a movement, they misrepresent the issue and make it seem marginal. Being trivialized is deadly.
7. The media’s attention span is extremely short, and to keep the story before the public requires creative thinking.
8. If a grass roots organization targets a corporation, as is often the case, the media are likely to protect the powerful group under attack.
9. Those issues or approaches of grass roots groups that are compatible with the views of the media enjoy greater success in obtaining positive media coverage than those whose cause rests outside the mainstream of social acceptance.
10. An unforgettable visual is worth a thousand words.
11. Never go unprepared when engaging the media. Ignorance of a subject or surreptitious manipulation of an event can backfire, and the negative impact of a poorly staged media event seen by the public on television can be difficult to overcome. Reporters can spot a setup.
12. Social change rarely comes overnight, and even with ubiquitous national news media, grass roots groups need to engage reporters for a sustained period of time with the best available information in order to gain credibility and ultimate acceptance.