MEDIA
PACK FOR UNITE / MHNA OFFICIALS
AND REPRESENTATIVES
Winter 2005/06
For
information on this pack and any other media and press issue, please contact:
Shaun Noble, Professional Communications Officer, Unite Health, 33-37
Moreland Street, London EC1V 8HA
Tel:
020 7780 4080 Fax: 020 7780 4142 Email: Shaun.Noble@amicustheunion.org
CONTENTS
Media relations- the background
Public relations- the umbrella for media relations
The importance of the local media
Media relations- your questions answered
Ten easy steps for writing a press release
Tips on letter writing
Tips on TV and Radio Interviews
How to find details about the local media
Health service professionals and the media
Download pack as a pdf file
MEDIA RELATIONS
–THE BACKGROUND
This
briefing paper is designed to help MHNA Officials and representatives
deal with the media in their own localities. It explains why media relations
are a significant vehicle in fashioning the way Amicus/MHNA presents itself
to the outside ‘world’. It
may also be of assistance to Amicus/MHNA members wishing to know more
about the media – the ‘circus’ that never stops, the
‘show’ that never closes – and its constant demands,
never ending and sometimes trivial.
The
media is a 24-hour beast – it never sleeps. It has acres of newsprint
to fill and hours of broadcast time to be taken up. Organisations spend
a lot of money in the race to get their share of that media attention.There
is much that Amicus/MHNA can do locally to boost the profile from suggesting
feature articles, writing to the newspapers on current issues and making
yourself available as a expert to be called on by local radio.
One
of the concerns that MHNA members have expressed is what protection do
they enjoy if they raise a controversial issue. This issue is explored
by in the section entitled Health Service Professionals and the Media
updated in November 2005 by the Amicus Lead Officer for Nursing, Barrie
Brown (pages 13-14). For those of you that have requested Deals on Wheels
and Make IT Happen campaign packs in the past, much of the following material
may be familiar.
This
is not meant to be an exhaustive study of media relations, but an easy-to-read
guide highlighting the most important aspects.
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PUBLIC RELATIONS- The umbrella for media relations
Why
does Amicus/MHNA need public relations nationally?
Amicus/MHNA
has a number of ‘audiences’ that it has to address on a daily
basis, 365 days-a-year. These include:
- Ministers
within Department of Health, and the devolved parliament/assemblies
in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
- Health
authorities or boards
- NHS
primary care trusts
- its
own membership (internal communications)
- the
general public
- MPs
- partners/competitors’
– RCN, UNISON, voluntary organisations
- its
own staff
- companies
that may wish to collaborate with Amicus/MHNA on projects
- the
media
Each
one of the above ‘audiences’ needs to be communicated with
by the MHNA with the aim of influencing them to think about - and act
on – Amicus/MHNA’s goals. Each
‘audience’ has to have a clear and distinct message, tailored
to its own requirements – an individual communications strategy.
Public relations is the tree under which all the activities that Amicus/MHNA
stages to promote itself shelter, whether it is conferences, publications
and campaigning. Media relations are a vital offshoot of the PR ‘tree’.
Two
themes to the public relations dimension:
•
Proactive – relevant events, publications, issues that you wish
to promote
•
Reactive – responding to issues that affect Amicus/MHNA, some of
which could be critical
For example: Government proposals, such as the Draft Mental Health Bill,
that may pose a threat to mental health nursing roles
Why
does Amicus/MHNA need media relations locally?
The
answer is simple – for broadly the same reasons that an organisation
needs to have a high national profile. Whether
you live in Plymouth, Peterborough or Peterhead, what happens in your
community is a microcosm of what is going on nationally i.e. cutting mental
health services will have implications that will be reflected in your
community – Amicus/MHNA should be commenting on these effects locally.
Remember that local papers/radio stations are on the look-out for local
angles. What happens in Southampton won’t (unless it is a major
national story) be of interest to the Portsmouth News.
The
impact of devolution across the UK highlights the difference of emphasis
that newspapers take, especially now that the four countries have their
own health agendas and health ministers to implement those policies.
There
is scope for a regional approach to issues affecting mental health nurses,
where local representatives could liaise. Country and Regional Committees
may wish to investigate the possibility of a regional media spokesperson.
There is certain logic to this, given that local TV stations take in three
or four counties. For example, BBC TV East covers Norfolk, Suffolk, and
Cambridgeshire as well as parts of Northamptonshire, Essex, and Bedfordshire.
For journalists on BBC East, there is a greater attraction to covering
a story, which embraces all or most of their region as opposed to one
single area. Amicus/CPHVA should reflect this reality when preparing to
comment on a particular issue.
And
if you have a media success, make sure that others know about. The 'Mental
Health Nursing' Journal (email:
commprac-depeditor@daisybroadband.co.uk ) is always on the lookout
for stories that highlight successes of mental health nurses, or alternatively
the problems they face as they grapple, under resourced, with mounting
case loads.
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THE
IMPORTANCE OF THE LOCAL MEDIA
Local
newspapers are often the butt of disparaging remarks – “our
rag is always getting it wrong”. However, as an Amicus/MHNA member
responsible and interested in media relations, you ignore them at your
peril. There are about 1,300 daily regional and weekly newspapers in the
UK. These
newspapers attracted an estimated £2.8 billion worth of advertising
revenue in 2000. (Figures from the employers’ organisation, The
Newspaper Society, January 2001).
In
September 2003, the Press Gazette ran a story entitled 'Weeklies continue
strong performance' and it is worth quoting at some length. It said:
"Over the past decade, readership of paid-for weekly newspapers
has grown by 15 per cent. It’s been a quiet revolution, largely
unnoticed by the mainstream press, and the latest six-monthly figures
show no sign of a slowdown. Once again, more than half of all paid-for
weeklies grew their overall circulation between January and June. This
is despite an industry-wide policy of reducing bulk sales that has seen
the percentage of actively purchased sales grow from 96 per cent to 99
per cent in three years. Some 40 million adults – that’s 84
per cent of the UK population – now read a local paper, according
to figures by Target Group Index. For
the editors at the heart of this unheralded success story, the formula
isn’t a complicated one. The same words tend to crop up in their
explanations of what they feel they’re doing right: community, grassroots,
campaigns, hard news."
This
last aspect is borne out by a recent survey of newspaper content, which
asked respondents to rank 27 topics in order of popularity. Top of the
list was local news
And
don’t forget the BBC local radio stations that number about 40.
They are a better bet than the commercial stations for two reasons –
they are more speech-based and they have a greater number of journalists
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MEDIA RELATIONS: Your questions answered
Why
does Amicus/MHNA have to have anything to do with the media?
As has already been stated, Amicus/MHNA has various audiences that it
wishes to influence and using the media is one of the most cost effective
ways of getting your case across to a wide selection of opinion formers.
Even if Amicus/MHNA never did any proactive media relations, journalists
would still ring up as Amicus/MHNA is a national organisation. Everyone
is interested in healthcare. Overall, Amicus Health has 100,000 members
working in the health sector.
What
makes news?
News is about the superlatives – the best, the worst; the biggest,
the smallest; the first and the last.
It is about things happening which affect people in their daily lives
– that’s why the NHS is constantly in the media spotlight.
‘Bad news’ is more likely to be covered than ‘Good News’
– the attacks on the World Trade Centre on 11 September, 2001 being
the most dramatic example of this since the Cuban missile crisis in the
early 1960s. The 7 July attacks on the London underground. were another
stomach-churning example of ‘Bad News’.
However
there are many ‘Good News’ stories that are covered on a daily
basis e.g. England winning the Ashes from Australia, and long lost relatives
being reunited after many years.
What
makes news contains the following elements:
•
Conflict - (i.e. NHS trust freezes nursing posts)
• Hardship to the community – (A&E unit closes
at local hospital)
• Unusualness (novelty) – (Dietician recommends girls
should eat more junk food)
• Scandal – (Trust loses millions because financial
mismanagement)
• Individualism – (Mental Health Nurse’s sponsored
walk along Great Wall of China for charity)
The
five simple questions that journalists want answered are: Who,
What, Where, When, and perhaps the most important, Why.
Media
outlets are inundated with organisations/lobby groups/companies trying
to gain space for the views – only a minority of press releases
make it. The reason that so much effort is expended in a bid to gain coverage
is that organisations recognise that the media is crucial for building
their profile – and they are prepared to invest large sums in getting
their message across.
In
the London Evening Standard on 23 October 2003, Simon Jenkins wrote in
his column of the capital’s mayor, Ken Livingstone: ‘He merely
hires 27 press officers – more even than in Downing Street’s
citadel of spin – to act as his cheer leaders.’ Early
in 2001, the Evening Standard also revealed that the Department of Health
had 151 “information officers”. Throughout Whitehall, there
lurked a staggering 1,083 full-time media relations’ staff, according
to the paper – a 40 per cent increase in the first four years of
the Blair government.
Basically,
you are a sales person. Instead of selling holidays, cars, cosmetics,
you are selling ideas for stories.
Don’t
journalists distort everything you tell them?
Yes and No. Journalists are not your personal propagandists; their job
is to provide a balanced report, reflecting both sides of the argument.
They will quote, for example, the local NHS trust, which might be diametrically
opposed to what you are saying. The story may not appear quite as you
envisaged it, but if more than 60 per cent of your message has been reported
you are doing well. Remember how difficult it is to get your story covered
in the first place.
Which
paper or magazine should we aim for?
That depends. Every media outlet has it own readership, and set of listeners
and viewers. Every outlet has its own news agenda. What The Times covers
is different from the local weekly paper, which, in turn, is different
from the Nursing Times. So what media you aim for is a question of judgement
– and that comes from experience.
There
are three main types of media outlets:
• National
• Regional
• Specialist
THINK
LOCAL. You should consider the opportunities offered by your local evening
paper or BBC local radio station in the first instance.
Who
should speak to the media?
Having agreed your ‘line’, it is best that one person is appointed
as the contact point for the media.
It’s easier for the journalists as they have only one person to
chase and they can build up a rapport with that spokesperson over time.
Hopefully, mutual trust can develop. Both sides benefit. There should
be, ideally, co-ordination between what the spokesperson is saying locally
and what the Amicus/MHNA is saying nationally.
It’s better to have only one person delivering the message, as this
avoids confusion and misunderstanding.
What
should I do if a journalist rings me up?
Again, it depends. It may be a non-controversial subject in which case
you can comment there and then. However, it could be a more tricky call
and, in that case, it would be appropriate to say that you will ring them
back as soon as you have checked it out.
Don’t be bullied into giving an off-the-cuff quote on something
you know nothing about – that can be very dangerous. However, you
should also be aware that journalists spend their lives fighting deadlines,
so ring them back as quickly as possible.
Never
say ‘No comment’. It might give you a false air of self-importance,
but usually it looks as you have something to hide. If it is a difficult
situation, use a bland form of words, that appear to say a lot, but are,
in reality, sophisticated forms of ‘No Comment’.
For
example: “It is a very interesting point that that has been raised.
We are investigating this matter and there should be a full response in
the near future.”
What
should I say?
There are usually three main points you wish to get across. It’s
better to have several well-thought out points than an endless shopping
list, which can lead to a rambling confusion, thus diluting the crux of
the message. This is especially true for radio when time is limited and
the interviewer may be more interested, unfortunately, in the upcoming
traffic report than what you have to say.
The
Five Cardinal Rules for Press Releases
•
Give it a bit of ‘spin’ or it will end in the bin
•What is worthy is not necessarily newsworthy
• Do it now or don’t do it at all
• ‘Comment is free, but facts are sacred’ C.P.Scott,
Editor, Manchester Guardian (1926)
• Never say: ‘No comment’
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TEN
EASY STEPS TO WRITING A PRESS RELEASE
•
Select the most eye-catching angle i.e. ‘Amicus/MHNA hits out at
Trust's 30% budget cuts’
• Get
in first
• Rely on FACTS, not opinion, to get the message across
•
Write in plain and simple English; avoid jargon, repetition and excessive
emotionalism
•
The first paragraph should have the salient points, encapsulated in fewer
than 30 words
• Add
a ‘soundbite’ quote from a named spokesperson
•
Tell the story in eight paragraphs (Yes, I know that is not always possible)
• Does
the story lend itself to a photo opportunity?
• Put
a contact name and telephone numbers on the press release. (Make sure
that the spokesperson doesn’t go on holiday the day you send out
the release.)
• Consider
a follow-up/writing a letter
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TIPS
ON LETTER WRITING
•
Keep the letter brief and to the point, otherwise it will be edited down.
Mark it: For Publication
• Send it quickly, preferably by fax or email marked: For Letters
Editor
• Include a daytime telephone number and address. Some newspapers
like to check up to see you if you are genuine
• Don’t write too often for the same publication
• If you are really ambitious, ask for friends/colleagues to respond
to your letter – even if they disagree with you as this generates
an on-going debate
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TIPS ON TV AND
RADIO INTERVIEWS
Do-
• Plan what you want to say in advance and rehearse
• Think in short ‘sound bites’
• Have a maximum of three points you want to get across
• Ignore the question and make your point regardless. You will probably
get away it with it as local TV and radio presenters are not Jeremy Paxman!
• Look smart
Don’t-
Some of these tips may seem glaringly obvious, but-
• Relax your guard even when the interview is over – sound
is still being picked up. (This is what happened to John Major when he
spoke about “the bastards” in his Cabinet.)
• Look directly at the camera
• Accept free alcoholic drinks
• Try to be funny or too clever
• Use jargon
• Wear distracting clothes or accessories
• Rustle paper
• Swear, smoke, or chew gum
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HOW
DO I FIND OUT DETAILS ABOUT THE LOCAL MEDIA
Having read so far you may want to put into practice some of the things
you have digested. So how do you find out about the local media? Your
local library should have copies of the following reference books:
Willings
Press Guide – www.willingspress.com
- is a good overall guide that is found in most good libraries.
CCNMatthews
Directories - www.ccnmatthews.co.uk
- are regular updated lists covering national, local and specialist outlets.
(You probably won’t find this in the library, but the Amicus Health
Press Office has an up-to-date copy.)
The
majority of UK cities and towns are covered by at least two TV stations
(BBC and the regional independent TV company), two local radio stations
(BBC and commercial) and an evening paper - big provincial cities often
have their own morning paper, such as The Journal in Newcastle, the East
Anglian Daily Times (produced in Ipswich) and the Plymouth-based Western
Morning News. The internet comes into its own in this respect. There are
also a host of weekly papers, some of paid for and others that are shoved
free through your letter box
The
local BBC TV stations and the bigger regional evening papers usually have
a journalist whose sole job is to cover the health service. They should
be your first port of call; if not, the news desk should be contacted.
It is vital that you make contact BEFORE a news event happens, and NOT
AFTER. There is nothing as stale as yesterday’s news. News is a
perishable commodity whose life span can be measured in minutes and hours,
not days and weeks
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HEALTH
SERVICE PROFESSIONALS AND THE MEDIA
The
child deaths in Bristol and the terrible damage inflicted on women’s
health in a number of hospitals in Kent and Yorkshire are just two examples
of the many cases of clinical malpractice and negligence which could have
been avoided or halted much earlier if staff had had the courage to speak
out on behalf of patients and clients. Doctors were the ones accused but
many other staff failed in their duty to speak out
1
Professional Code of Conduct
Amicus/MHNA members and all other registered nurses, midwives and health
visitors have a duty under the NMC Code of Conduct to:
• ‘Uphold and enhance the good reputation of the professions’
(para 1.2)
•
‘You should be aware of the terms of legislation that offer protection
for people who raise concerns about health and safety issues.’ (para
8.2)
•
‘When facing professional dilemmas, your first consideration in
all activities must be the interests and safety of patients and clients.’
(para 8.4)
2
NHS policy
The Secretary of State for Health (and his Welsh, Scottish and Northern
Irish counterparts) have explicitly banned “gagging clauses”
in contracts which forbid staff speaking out. All NHS employers are supposed
to have in place a “whistleblowing procedure” which encourages
staff to do precisely what their professional Code of Conduct requires
them to do. These policies should have been agreed with the joint Trade
Unions.
3
Internal procedures
It would normally be appropriate for any concerns to be raised internally
through the local whistleblowing procedure. If one is not in place then
it is imperative one is negotiated. If it is in place it should have a
fast track facility to enable concerns to go directly to a senior manager,
and if necessary to a non-Executive Director of the trust or authority.
You should seek advice from your local representative or if necessary
from an Amicus official. Any attempt to deter you from raising concerns
or to penalise you for doing so should be immediately notified to a local
representative in the first instance and, where appropriate, to the relevant
Amicus official
4
The law
The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1988 protects workers from victimisation
if they seek to raise issues of malpractice in good faith. Malpractice
would include negligence, dangers to health and safety and the environment,
and breach of financial law. If an employee makes a complaint he or she
will be protected as long as the whistleblower has a reasonable suspicion
that a malpractice has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur.
Any disclosure to a union official or a solicitor is protected under the
Act.
5
The media
Members and representatives should not speak to the press without being
prepared. They should not speak to the press without making it clear they
are doing so on behalf of Amicus/MHNA rather than in an individual capacity.
They should not purport to speak on behalf of the trust or authority.
It is a legitimate part of the work of a Local Representative to speak
to the press whether on a matter of concern or as part of a wider campaign.
6
Some ground rules
If you are speaking as part of a publicity campaign e.g. car allowances,
or pay, then this is a straightforward issue, which should not create
any problems. If you are speaking on concerns about staffing, standards
of care which could be linked to individual patients or clients or which
might be sensitive for trust management that you should:
•
make it clear you are not speaking as an employee but as a spokesperson
for Amicus/MHNA
• normally be able to demonstrate that you have tried to raise the
matters within the trust’s procedures but with no success so you
have no alternative to speaking out
• advise the employer as a matter of courtesy that you may be speaking
to the press
Any
attempt to prevent or penalise you should immediately be reported to your
local representative or to a full-time official. Always take advice before
speaking to the media.
You
are protected by your Code, NHS policy and the law – and your union.
You have a right an obligation to speak out to protect patients and clients,
colleagues and yourself.
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