50mbuffalos.mono.net
How to crash the MSM
This article is about media strategy and how to get the media as an allied instead of fretting about lack of coverage, biased coverage or any other type of general abuse. It is appropriate to criticize media, but criticism from the trenches will only increase the gap between campaign journalism - including activist blogging - and mainstream media.
Nieman Reports has an extensive collection of articles about journalism in a repressive environment written by both Iranian journalists and Westerners.
If you are invested or interested in the planning of a global media strategy for Sea of Green you should probably read my entry Lost in Translation.
The premises in this article is laid out in my blog post Not Getting It, but be warned: I am not cuddling protesters, but laying it out in straight terms.
The premises in this article is laid out in my blog post Not Getting It, but be warned: I am not cuddling protesters, but laying it out in straight terms.
The formal news criteria
There are four main criteria for news. In order to qualify for rotation in mainstream media a story must be:
- Acute - it just happened or it happens right now
- Vital - it is essential to an ongoing political process
- Interesting - there has to be new information or an unusual angle
- Sensation - it has to evoke emotions
For campaign journalism or activist blogging to work it has to take these factors into account, or it will be dumped along the way by mainstream media in favor of coverage that scores higher on those 4 parameters.
It is no use arguing about it. It is how the free press works, according to the law of demand and supply. Blogging, campaigning, demonstrating - these things can create demand, and they have:
Mainstream media are responding, because enough people are displaying interest in the topic, but it does not solve other problems related to the basic news criteria.
For instance, the Western press coverage has depended on ceaseless protesting. You could say every line has been written in blood, and every minute of air time has been paid for with broken limbs.
It has cost a lot of blood. It ended when it became apparent that there is no low to which the Iranian regime will stoop to, and eventually getting up in the morning to be massacred will not accomplish any goal - anyone who knows international politics also knows that the cavalry is not coming, never was.
Neither does objecting to the cynical aspects of our reality address or change other factors influencing MSM news coverage.
It is no use arguing about it. It is how the free press works, according to the law of demand and supply. Blogging, campaigning, demonstrating - these things can create demand, and they have:
Mainstream media are responding, because enough people are displaying interest in the topic, but it does not solve other problems related to the basic news criteria.
For instance, the Western press coverage has depended on ceaseless protesting. You could say every line has been written in blood, and every minute of air time has been paid for with broken limbs.
It has cost a lot of blood. It ended when it became apparent that there is no low to which the Iranian regime will stoop to, and eventually getting up in the morning to be massacred will not accomplish any goal - anyone who knows international politics also knows that the cavalry is not coming, never was.
Neither does objecting to the cynical aspects of our reality address or change other factors influencing MSM news coverage.
The technical news criteria
Besides the four basic or formal news criteria you have a list of technical factors required in order to provide steady and adequate news coverage:
- Photo opportunity - the story dies, when no newsworthy imagery is available
- VIP involvement - the story dies, if no prominent sources can be pulled
- Exclusivity - papers compete for breaking news and exclusive content
- Credibility - verification of facts is essential to the industry
The importance of controlling imagery
If we look at these critera through the green optics Iranian government has cut off Western press from photo opportunity.
Controlling visual and emotional impressions is an essential first move for any oppressive government, and it was a calculated move by the US Bush administration when launching the Iraq war - no photos of dead American soldiers, a lesson learned from the Vietnam war.
The Green Revolution has succeeded for weeks, keeping a story rolling in the press, through constantly providing updated, emotionally provocative and deeply engaging photo and video material.
At some point, however, a clash simply becomes another clash. That is, for instance, what has happened to bombings in Israel and Iraq. They do take headlines, but only because they score on the formal critera - the stories are soon forgotten, if they do not add anything new to the equasion.
Controlling visual and emotional impressions is an essential first move for any oppressive government, and it was a calculated move by the US Bush administration when launching the Iraq war - no photos of dead American soldiers, a lesson learned from the Vietnam war.
The Green Revolution has succeeded for weeks, keeping a story rolling in the press, through constantly providing updated, emotionally provocative and deeply engaging photo and video material.
At some point, however, a clash simply becomes another clash. That is, for instance, what has happened to bombings in Israel and Iraq. They do take headlines, but only because they score on the formal critera - the stories are soon forgotten, if they do not add anything new to the equasion.
The importance of "celebrity" involvement
Getting the involvement of celebrities or political VIPs in struggles for civil rights and human rights worldwide have always been an essential factor, and to dismiss this is to sow the seeds of defeat.
The civil rights movement in USA enjoyed the notoriority of such characters as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Muhammed Ali. In India the struggle for independence rested on the charisma of Ghandi, by Churchill somewhat contemptuously dubbed a "skinny fakir in a loin cloth".
In the case of the anti-apartheid struggle you had Nelson Mandela, and even if he was absent the popularization of the movement through concerts was a huge contributor to the political movement to abolish apartheid.
Whether you like it or not, organizing the movement and popularizing its ideals and goals is a crucial success factor. Dismiss green bracelets, t-shirts and other symbolic utterances, and you may as well slam Wall of Green. Symbols matter, and human symbols - like Neda, like Mousavi - matter more than anything else.
In the Green Revolution Bon Jovi's involvement caused a support video for Iran's protesters to become most viewed in a week, where #iranelection was knocked off Trending Topics by the death of two US celebrities.
The civil rights movement in USA enjoyed the notoriority of such characters as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Muhammed Ali. In India the struggle for independence rested on the charisma of Ghandi, by Churchill somewhat contemptuously dubbed a "skinny fakir in a loin cloth".
In the case of the anti-apartheid struggle you had Nelson Mandela, and even if he was absent the popularization of the movement through concerts was a huge contributor to the political movement to abolish apartheid.
Whether you like it or not, organizing the movement and popularizing its ideals and goals is a crucial success factor. Dismiss green bracelets, t-shirts and other symbolic utterances, and you may as well slam Wall of Green. Symbols matter, and human symbols - like Neda, like Mousavi - matter more than anything else.
In the Green Revolution Bon Jovi's involvement caused a support video for Iran's protesters to become most viewed in a week, where #iranelection was knocked off Trending Topics by the death of two US celebrities.
What newspapers want: The exclusive
Papers and media corporations and news shows in the West compete for ad revenue and thus for attention. You cannot change that, except by subsidizing the industry and essentially paving the way for government controlled media like Press TV.
In order to get your message through, you have to play the game. Either play the game or concede. There are no two ways about it, just as there is no option in Iran to arm yourself and get rid of the oppressors. The battle is defined ahead, and not to accept that is to sow the seeds of defeat for the movement.
Mainstream media are eager to cover Iran, but pre-empted by Iran's global terror, both when comes to the silencing of Iranians at home and the extended reach abroad, the fear of Iranian expats in US and Europe of stepping forward, risking to expose relatives in Iran. That is the hand we have been dealt.
It will automatically limit the excitement of Western press. Nobody likes to use concealed sources. Usually journalists only do it in extreme cases, where there is a direct threat against the person. Great stories are killed in the editing room, because a source wants anonymity.
So, the extensive use of anonymous sources in the current Iran coverage is a media sensation in itself, but it is also a dangerous practice, because it extends the privilege of anonymity to a huge group - literally millions - and becomes a moral hazard to the media, a presedent that could be exploited by other groups, regimes.
Newspapers not only want to report what is acutive, vital or significant, interesting and emotionally gripping, they also want to differentiate themselves, and there is no better way to do it than to have exclusive stories, things not reported by others. The basic reports are covered by news agencies like AP and copy-pasted by other papers.
To continually engage journalists and editor's boards in Iran the movement needs to provide new angles with credible sources for good sound bites.
In order to get your message through, you have to play the game. Either play the game or concede. There are no two ways about it, just as there is no option in Iran to arm yourself and get rid of the oppressors. The battle is defined ahead, and not to accept that is to sow the seeds of defeat for the movement.
Mainstream media are eager to cover Iran, but pre-empted by Iran's global terror, both when comes to the silencing of Iranians at home and the extended reach abroad, the fear of Iranian expats in US and Europe of stepping forward, risking to expose relatives in Iran. That is the hand we have been dealt.
It will automatically limit the excitement of Western press. Nobody likes to use concealed sources. Usually journalists only do it in extreme cases, where there is a direct threat against the person. Great stories are killed in the editing room, because a source wants anonymity.
So, the extensive use of anonymous sources in the current Iran coverage is a media sensation in itself, but it is also a dangerous practice, because it extends the privilege of anonymity to a huge group - literally millions - and becomes a moral hazard to the media, a presedent that could be exploited by other groups, regimes.
Newspapers not only want to report what is acutive, vital or significant, interesting and emotionally gripping, they also want to differentiate themselves, and there is no better way to do it than to have exclusive stories, things not reported by others. The basic reports are covered by news agencies like AP and copy-pasted by other papers.
To continually engage journalists and editor's boards in Iran the movement needs to provide new angles with credible sources for good sound bites.
What bloggers want: Some respect please
The blogosphere has been consistently downplayed, exploited and humiliated for a decade, and it has left some scars. The blogosphere loathes the term "credibility" and cheers loudly, when it is able to catch the mainstream media losing theirs.
I've been caught in the middle of this battle for a decade, and I have heard it all. I have as little sympathy for the vindictive grievances of bloggers as I have for the arrogant dismissals of the blogosphere from media workers in the established press utilizing and exploiting the blogosphere every day for creative input critical for survival.
It is a food chain, nothing more, nothing less.
Bloggers often want to be recognized as equals to journalists or even better. It is a vain ambition, a selfish interest that can corrupt any form of citizens journalism, campaign journalism or activist blogging from within in a matter of days. It is usually connected to a lot of peeple sneering at the concept of "credibility."
I've seen it happen, and I also know how grave the consequences are. I have worked with human rights, and if human rights organizations succumbed to professional pissing contests, they'd be DOA and do no good for anyone anywhere in the world.
It isn't about you, your role in the game, or the blogosphere over mainstream media. If you think like this, you sow the seeds of defeat, and you can only create a marginalized movement, an esoteric sub-culture for the adequately initiated.
It is not even about the movement. Nope, it is not about Sea of Green, keeping #iranelection afloat on Twitter or about making sure there are protests in the streets. A campaign is always about winning, and you can't win until you have defined your goal.
Any story where the movement itself is the primary theme dies out - becomes a fad, a flash in the pan.
News or just simply propaganda?
Just an example from the last two weeks: When reporters from established media asked for people to film a daily to verify the date of video clips some responses indicated bloggers were offended:
The call to time stamp footage was put into circulation and passed around, all right, but it did not strike me as something people really enthused about.
Apparently people have no idea how many hoaxes and attempts at manipulation the editors receive every day. Or any clear assessment of the cost in PR points of being caught pulling a hoax.
I have personally seen lots of footage online time stamped later to make it more urgent. Since I had seen it one or two days before I knew the date couldn't be right.
When it comes to approving dubious material the mainstream media have considered the significance of the event and treated the Iranian blogsphere with great lenience.
It does require a cool head and a steady hand to move through the procedures of actual reporting with a video camera in a combat zone, but don't tell me you can't produce a front page from a newspaper and film it as the first thing, and then let the camera roll.
I've seen reporters doing their stand-up crouching behind a rock after running from sniper fire, while directing their crew.
Anybody who want to be respected as a citizen's journalist should, at the very least, be able to acknowledge the importance of accurately time stamping third party video material.
It's one of those things that will make more footage get into rotation on cable networks.
I've been caught in the middle of this battle for a decade, and I have heard it all. I have as little sympathy for the vindictive grievances of bloggers as I have for the arrogant dismissals of the blogosphere from media workers in the established press utilizing and exploiting the blogosphere every day for creative input critical for survival.
It is a food chain, nothing more, nothing less.
Bloggers often want to be recognized as equals to journalists or even better. It is a vain ambition, a selfish interest that can corrupt any form of citizens journalism, campaign journalism or activist blogging from within in a matter of days. It is usually connected to a lot of peeple sneering at the concept of "credibility."
I've seen it happen, and I also know how grave the consequences are. I have worked with human rights, and if human rights organizations succumbed to professional pissing contests, they'd be DOA and do no good for anyone anywhere in the world.
It isn't about you, your role in the game, or the blogosphere over mainstream media. If you think like this, you sow the seeds of defeat, and you can only create a marginalized movement, an esoteric sub-culture for the adequately initiated.
It is not even about the movement. Nope, it is not about Sea of Green, keeping #iranelection afloat on Twitter or about making sure there are protests in the streets. A campaign is always about winning, and you can't win until you have defined your goal.
Any story where the movement itself is the primary theme dies out - becomes a fad, a flash in the pan.
News or just simply propaganda?
Just an example from the last two weeks: When reporters from established media asked for people to film a daily to verify the date of video clips some responses indicated bloggers were offended:
"I don't understand mainstream media. People are being shot at, and they want them to film a newspaper?"
The call to time stamp footage was put into circulation and passed around, all right, but it did not strike me as something people really enthused about.
Apparently people have no idea how many hoaxes and attempts at manipulation the editors receive every day. Or any clear assessment of the cost in PR points of being caught pulling a hoax.
I have personally seen lots of footage online time stamped later to make it more urgent. Since I had seen it one or two days before I knew the date couldn't be right.
When it comes to approving dubious material the mainstream media have considered the significance of the event and treated the Iranian blogsphere with great lenience.
It does require a cool head and a steady hand to move through the procedures of actual reporting with a video camera in a combat zone, but don't tell me you can't produce a front page from a newspaper and film it as the first thing, and then let the camera roll.
I've seen reporters doing their stand-up crouching behind a rock after running from sniper fire, while directing their crew.
Anybody who want to be respected as a citizen's journalist should, at the very least, be able to acknowledge the importance of accurately time stamping third party video material.
It's one of those things that will make more footage get into rotation on cable networks.
What activists want: Maximum impact
Your goal can never be to perpetuate the movement - that is simply uninteresting, and no journalist cares about that. In this case it is about securing the rights of the Iranian voters, about democratic principles and about human rights.
Some of the most succesful stories in the press have been about the involvement of women and women's rights, simply because these stories score high on all 8 news criteria - and because it writes the protest movement into an even greater narrative, one linked to the civil rights movement and to post-imperial independence movements.
If you write, argue and debate from the trenches, from a cornered perspective, you will fail to write your campaign into a broader spectrum of contemporary themes, grand narratives, and eventually the audience will reject your message.
I have been an activist for 2 decades, and if there is one thing I know it is that labour pays off and laziness is punished. When you are up against a dictatorial regime like Iran's you can't cut corners.
A real activist is someone who is so dedicated to the cause they will spend hours, days, weeks, months, as well as risk personal fortune and gamble with career and reputation, in order to achieve the goal.
Real activists would not sneer at demands for "credible sources" or try to get people to curse the press, blaming it for a failure to communicate. A real activist will ask the question: How can we communicate better? What can I do to serve the greater good of the movement? Where do I fail?
"It is better to light even the smallest candle than to curse the darkness", a Chinese proverb goes.
When it comes to media planning any kind of positive exposure, however little, is a victory. It may be the seed of even greater victory. A small notice in a local paper may raise attention with other journalists... a personal blog may inspire a major news outlet... a letter to the editor may cause a spin-off effect.
I've been doing this for 10 years, and I cannot count the number of times my memes have gone viral. Yet I have never received an award. I have not been mentioned among prominent bloggers. I have not had the need and rather wish it will never happened, since my byline - my name - is frequently enough published in other contexts.
Your goal can never be to perpetuate the movement - that is simply uninteresting, and no journalist cares about that. In this case it is about securing the rights of the Iranian voters, about democratic principles and about human rights.
Some of the most succesful stories in the press have been about the involvement of women and women's rights, simply because these stories score high on all 8 news criteria - and because it writes the protest movement into an even greater narrative, one linked to the civil rights movement and to post-imperial independence movements.
If you write, argue and debate from the trenches, from a cornered perspective, you will fail to write your campaign into a broader spectrum of contemporary themes, grand narratives, and eventually the audience will reject your message.
I have been an activist for 2 decades, and if there is one thing I know it is that labour pays off and laziness is punished. When you are up against a dictatorial regime like Iran's you can't cut corners.
A real activist is someone who is so dedicated to the cause they will spend hours, days, weeks, months, as well as risk personal fortune and gamble with career and reputation, in order to achieve the goal.
Real activists would not sneer at demands for "credible sources" or try to get people to curse the press, blaming it for a failure to communicate. A real activist will ask the question: How can we communicate better? What can I do to serve the greater good of the movement? Where do I fail?
"It is better to light even the smallest candle than to curse the darkness", a Chinese proverb goes.
When it comes to media planning any kind of positive exposure, however little, is a victory. It may be the seed of even greater victory. A small notice in a local paper may raise attention with other journalists... a personal blog may inspire a major news outlet... a letter to the editor may cause a spin-off effect.
I've been doing this for 10 years, and I cannot count the number of times my memes have gone viral. Yet I have never received an award. I have not been mentioned among prominent bloggers. I have not had the need and rather wish it will never happened, since my byline - my name - is frequently enough published in other contexts.
Do the work, and media will play along
The point is that anything is possible, if you will waive copyrights, particularly in the 21st century and on the Internet. Let people steal your ideas, and your ideas will be magnified by others, while you remain free to produce new ideas.
People are more invested in ideas they think are their own, or ideas they can take credit for, than ideas that they will have to pay tribute to someone else for.
A true activist will not want recognition. He will accept it - like the leaders I have mentioned - if it is forced upon him, but for a true activist the goal is in the center, not his or her own role in it. Narcissism kills a social movement.
Cult of personality is useful, but Narcissism erodes idealism and replaces it with attention grabbing, scheming, rivalries, jealousy, mind games, quibbling, discord.
The Green Revolution has been so succesful, because it has been fought by nameless individuals risking everything - their lives and worse than that, the use or sanctitity of their body - to expose the repetitive violation of their rights.
The Sea of Green has been amplified in the West because people have waived their individualism for a greater cause, out of pure unadultered sympathy for the oppressed.
The Resistance Movement is growing, because it grows organically, allowing all players to do what they do within their framework of reality - to be a protest organizer in Dallas is vastly different from being a blogger in Tehran.
To win the battle the movement must form a proactive strategy that allows for the media to be what it is - simply the media. All the fretting about Michael Jackson blowing #iranelection out of the water has provided no progress to the movement, but Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora joining in has raised awareness in the West.
And the media added one more piece of coverage and an unmeasureable number of new eyes, ears and voices to the movement through the coverage of the video outside the established ranks of #iranelection followers.
If the movement continues to do things right, the media will eventually play along. But never has a media strategy based on the exclusion or indifference to the mechanisms of mass media come to fruition.
That is sowing the seeds of defeat, and no true - or "credible" - activist would ever want to do that.
Juli 1 2009
The point is that anything is possible, if you will waive copyrights, particularly in the 21st century and on the Internet. Let people steal your ideas, and your ideas will be magnified by others, while you remain free to produce new ideas.
People are more invested in ideas they think are their own, or ideas they can take credit for, than ideas that they will have to pay tribute to someone else for.
A true activist will not want recognition. He will accept it - like the leaders I have mentioned - if it is forced upon him, but for a true activist the goal is in the center, not his or her own role in it. Narcissism kills a social movement.
Cult of personality is useful, but Narcissism erodes idealism and replaces it with attention grabbing, scheming, rivalries, jealousy, mind games, quibbling, discord.
The Green Revolution has been so succesful, because it has been fought by nameless individuals risking everything - their lives and worse than that, the use or sanctitity of their body - to expose the repetitive violation of their rights.
The Sea of Green has been amplified in the West because people have waived their individualism for a greater cause, out of pure unadultered sympathy for the oppressed.
The Resistance Movement is growing, because it grows organically, allowing all players to do what they do within their framework of reality - to be a protest organizer in Dallas is vastly different from being a blogger in Tehran.
To win the battle the movement must form a proactive strategy that allows for the media to be what it is - simply the media. All the fretting about Michael Jackson blowing #iranelection out of the water has provided no progress to the movement, but Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora joining in has raised awareness in the West.
And the media added one more piece of coverage and an unmeasureable number of new eyes, ears and voices to the movement through the coverage of the video outside the established ranks of #iranelection followers.
If the movement continues to do things right, the media will eventually play along. But never has a media strategy based on the exclusion or indifference to the mechanisms of mass media come to fruition.
That is sowing the seeds of defeat, and no true - or "credible" - activist would ever want to do that.
Juli 1 2009
For a view from the highest position of the battlefield, please read Using Media Superiority.
