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WORKING WITH THE MEDIA

WORKSHOP NUMBER 79

Sandra P. Wood, M.Ed.
Georgia Council on Child Abuse, Inc.
1720 Peachtree Street,
Suite 600
Atlanta, GA 30309

WORKING WITH THE MEDIA

Most of what the community knows about child abuse, it learns from the media. Well-designed messages and communication strategies can increase awareness, change attitudes, teach skills, reinforce healthy behavior, build community understanding and generate public and political support for prevention.

The news and entertainment media play a role in establishing social norms and standards, influencing which behaviors are labeled as "abusive," and determining standards for acceptable and "normal" child care. It is critical that the media cover child abuse issues in an accurate and fair manner. To do this, they need correct and current information about the incidence of abuse, its impact on children, and our ability to intervene. Child abuse professionals have an important role to play in working with the media to prevent abuse and to assure that appropriate intervention, child protection, and treatment services are available.

Given the power of the media to impact the way people think, child abuse professionals need to understand both how to react to stories as they emerge and how to generate the types of stories and coverage that will result in a positive and effective response to the problem. Strong relationships with the media are needed in order to effectively use the media's power to convey prevention messages and to engage the public in the mission of prevention.

This workshop is designed for professionals at the intermediate to advanced level who serve as their organization's media spokesperson or who may have need to work with the media. It also can help professionals who serve on child fatality review teams learn how to communicate their findings and recommendations to the media in appropriate and effective ways.

Workshop discussion will include the following topics:

• The importance of building positive relationships with the media
• Challenges in working with the media
• Understanding the media and their needs
• Designing a proactive and a reactive media plan
• Roles of the identified media spokesperson
• Responding in a crisis situation
• Examples of how a child fatality review team can use the media to communicate findings and recommendations for prevention
• Examples of successful media campaigns

Updated on July 3, 2008