Inform Your Local Media about Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan - Editorial Board
Your voice is needed to get your local media (radio, television, newspaper) to publish information about Winter Soldier.
What is an "Editorial Board Meeting"?
An editorial board meeting is a meeting with the editorial board of a local newspaper or managers of a local radio or television station. By meeting with these people, you relay your message face to face, being able to bring all out all facts, and openly answer all questions and responses. You should have a reason for wanting to meet with an editorial board. In this case, we are trying to encourage our media to cover the Winter Soldier Campaign.
Depending on the issue you want to talk about, the newspaper, television, or radio station will give you different editors to work with. It helps to know the previous positions of the news source, as well as editors that you may like to work with.
How to set up an editorial board meeting:
- Find two to four people who can represent Veterans For Peace well. They should include people very familiar with war or the aspects of war (ie. Veterans, military families, policy makers, etc).
- Call the editorial page editor. Be brief, telling them what you would like to discuss and ask for a meeting.
- Hopefully, they will be able to tell you who you can talk to, how many people you can bring, what date and time, etc.
- Be flexible to work with their schedule. They are very busy and you are asking for a favor from them - so be flexible!
- Have one person be the spokesperson, introducing others and make a 15-20 pitch of the issue.
- Bring material to back up your story or position. This includes a one page summary of your position, phone numbers of experts/individuals attending, flyers, pamphlets, or newspaper articles already published (no more than 10 pages of material)
- If they choose not to adopt your position or focus on your issue, offer to submit an op-ed instead.
- If you are meeting with television or radio representatives, be warned that if they are interested, they may want to do an interview right there. Be prepared!