Engaging with the Media

There is a range of ways in which CSOs can engage effectively with the media to promote the 2030 Agenda and ensure accountability in its delivery, including the following:

1. Develop a strategy to work with the media – As a starting point, CSOs wishing to work with the media should develop a strategy for engagement. At a minimum, the strategy should identify the media engagement goals or objectives, target audience(s), key messages, type of media to engage with (e.g. print, television, radio, social media etc.), and target journalists and/or media outlets. Focusing on how to get the media to engage with you (as a CSO) should be a priority. This is, for most CSOs, the biggest challenge.

2. Identify your media engagement goals or objectives – There may be a number of different objectives for working with the media to further accountability for the SDGs. For example, CSOs may wish to use the media to raise awareness of the SDGs among the general public, highlight specific problems or gaps in implementation to be addressed by governments, or communicate opportunities for engagement as well as follow-up and review consultations with specific groups.

3. Identify your key target audience(s) – CSOs should identify their target audience(s) – i.e. whom they wish to reach with their messages via the media. Target audiences may include government policy makers, the private sector, civil society, specific population groups, etc. It is important to differentiate between types of audiences, as the target audience will impact your choice of message, type of media and media outlet. CSOs should try to identify the specific characteristics and interests of the target audience, including the type of media they are likely to engage with.⁸

4. Tailor key messages for media engagement – CSOs should create compelling and simple key messages that are tailored for their target audience. A key message is what you want the target audience to understand, hear about, and/or do. In crafting effective key media messages for general public use in relation to the SDGs, CSOs should use everyday language, avoid jargon and acronyms, give the message a human and local face (i.e. a real-life story), refer only to simple statistics and limit the number of messages. CSOs should be aware that the media might not necessarily tell a story in the exact manner in which a CSO wants it to be told.⁹ Accordingly, CSOs should keep messages short and simple and use the following questions as a guide in designing key messages for use with the media:

a. What do you want the audience to understand? b. What do you want the audience to remember? c. What do you want the audience to do?¹⁰

If targeting an audience beyond the general public, the language, manner and style of key messages should be tailored accordingly.

See also: “Tips for creating effective key messages” in our chapter on awareness-raising.

5. Identify the type of media to engage with – Depending on the target audience(s), CSOs should consider the type of media to promote the SDGs and accountability in their delivery, such as print, television, radio and/or social media. The selection of type of media should be based on what is typically used by the target audience. The biggest challenge in identifying the type of media to engage with, however, can be finding media outlets that will actually carry your message, as well as those that reach your audience.

6. Identify specific journalists and media outlets to work with – CSOs should identify specific journalists and media outlets that are best suited to convey its messages to its target audience. CSOs should conduct research on media outlets and journalists – by reading newspapers and magazines, watching TV, listening to the radio and researching online – and make note of any journalists who cover stories related to development, the SDGs and/or wider public sector issues.¹¹

7. Be proactive and contact journalists – Once CSOs have identified specific journalists, they should be proactive in reaching out to them. CSOs should contact journalists directly by phone or email, express interest in the stories they cover and, in certain instances where strong relations already exist, ask them what sort of stories they are looking for. CSOs should explain how they may be able to help with new, interesting and/or relevant information about stories related to SDG accountability that the journalists may already be interested in and confirm the best method and timeline for contacting the journalist in the future. Once initial contact is established, CSOs should find ways to communicate regularly with the journalist.¹²

8. Develop professional working relationships with journalists – CSOs should seek to develop positive professional working relationships with journalists by adhering to the following:

a. Make it easy for the journalist – Provide concise and clear written or visual information via press releases, opinion pieces, story pitches and/or press briefing information packs. Include contact information, background information on the issue, facts and statistics, quotations from experts and/or infographics where relevant.¹³ Also, CSOs should tailor their story to the established reporting line. In other words, present what you want to get across as fitting into what the journalist or media outlet already wants to talk about;

b. Know and adhere to deadlines – Be aware of the journalist’s deadline – which can vary depending on the type of media – and as far as possible work within their timeframes;

c. Be credible – Always provide accurate, reliable, and high-quality information and statistics so that journalists will come to know your CSO as a trustworthy source for information;

d. Respond promptly and professionally to media enquiries – Return phone calls and emails promptly and commit to get back to a journalist if you don’t know the answer to a question. Never lie or make up facts;¹⁴ where you are not 100 per cent sure of the facts, be open about their degree of reliability;

e. Develop a positive relationship over time – Invite journalists to learn about your CSO before stories develop. This is more often how strong relationships with the media are developed than through a particular story. Get to know what kinds of stories the journalist likes to cover;¹⁵

f. Link specific SDG themes to journalists’ professional expertise, and present the specific SDGs as an instrument to create more awareness and hold governments accountable – For instance, explain linkages between a journalist’s  expertise in environmental issues, health care and education and the relevant SDGs.