Last week was rather busy but so worth it. If the aim of Community Media Week was to spread the word about Citizens Eye and attract people to the opportunities available to people as a Community Reporter then it has been a success.
Sixteen venues across the city and county hosted the travelling Community News Café and by end of the opening day we had signed up 38 people.
I enjoy meeting new people and explaining the Citizens Eye community news agency and its origins, that were shaped in conversations back in 2007. Community groups and organisations have historically found it difficult to access the local mainstream media and if truth be told, it’s not always been the media’s fault. What is important to us and our particular part of the community is very personal and therefore not really news to the outside world.
So the question is when does your publicity, as an awareness raising exercise, become news?
From my discussions with professional journalists the answer is when either there is nothing else going on of more general news interest or the national news agenda of the day makes them seek out local examples, in order for them to give local comment.
Example… You run a teenage pregnancy drop-in clinic and are having a summer fundraiser. The football team are at home, the Mayor is causing a stir with his tweets and a public building has a black hole in its finances. What chance does your ‘good news’ story stand, although it’s a worthy subject, the whole ‘sell more papers’ battle for survival. In all honesty… Zero!
However, if the government of the day has launched a new strategy to deal with the issue of teenage pregnancy, then suddenly your event has ‘newsworthy’ context and you become a useful source for quotes. Sometimes you just have to realise the value of your event to the mainstream media and be prepared to be patient or target your message.
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