SOCIAL ACTIVISM GUIDE

I stumbled upon this and I HIGHLY recommend you take like 30 seconds and look at this. Because it's a good summary of info if you didn't already know this.

<<Find the guide here>>

EDIT: Another sweet guide is HERE.

- Highlights

• gives specific demo events
• how to be involved with the media
• publicity tips
• lots of other random stuff.

Granted, it also covers a number of campaigning efforts that I'm not AS fond of, but it's worth your time. I'm pasting the bits I found particularly useful, but i'm saying right now it's not my work. it is coming from the site linked above.

"Use the Media: Basic Tips for Working with the Media

• Develop and maintain a "press list" (which consists of the reporter's name, title, address, phone number, email, fax number, deadlines). Be sure to include: wire service (Independent Media, United Press International, Reuters), local and regional newspapers/magazines, local "zines," local TV news and talk shows, local cable stations, special interest publications (ethnic, college, high-school, religious, punk, trade, professional).
• Meet with reporters, DJs, talk show hosts, and editors personally--develop the relationship and establish rapport. See where their interests lie. Follow-up with phone calls to give them story ideas or to give them an update on your program.
• Read reporters' stories. Give them feedback--make them aware you are reading, watching, and listening to them. By reading their stories you will know whom to contact for your media outreach.
• Be prepared to give reporters facts, accurate information, quotes, historical background information, and if possible an "exclusive," meaning they are the reporter breaking the news.
• Return reporters' calls as soon as possible.
• Use all the "free" resources the media offers, such as the calendar column, letters to the editor, Op-Ed articles, and Public Service Announcements

Creative Action

In today's busy world, how do you get people to stop and take notice? Creative action can be a great way to get attention and help to educate others about an issue.

Tips:

• Focus your creative action on a specific target and message.
• Creative actions do not have to be theatrical; you can make a banner, billboard, or anything visual.
• Research history--the civil rights movement (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), non-violent actions (Gandhi), apartheid (South Africa)--to learn more about direct action techniques already taken, including challenges and successes.

Here are some examples:

100 Chairs

To demonstrate the growing wealth divide in the U.S., line up 100 chairs in a high-traffic place on campus. Ten people spread out over 70 chairs (lying down, stretching out) while 90 people have to fit on the remaining 30 chairs. This shows that 10 percent have 70 percent of the wealth, while all the rest (90 percent) have only 30 percent of the wealth. You can modify this using 10 chairs and 10 people or use this concept to demonstrate other statistics.

Source: United for a Fair Economy

Human Bar Graph

One hundred students line up to represent the president's salary, while one person represents a janitor's salary. A sign or spokesperson explains what is represented. Source: United for a Fair Economy: The Campus Living Wage Campaign

Interactive Theatre

Create a short (5 minute) skit on some issue (for example, hunger, homelessness, racism, sexism). Make the skit controversial. Go through the whole skit once for your audience. Then repeat the skit, allowing the people in the audience to say "stop" at any point. The person stopping the skit then replaces a character they choose and changes the play. Hold a discussion at the end.

Guerrilla Theatre

Create a dramatization that highlights your issue. For example, when Georgetown University students were protesting sweatshop labor in the production of campus wear, they staged a fashion show in a high-traffic area of campus. Students donned clothes with the university logo, and as they strutted down the walkway, the emcee talked about the sub-standard wages paid to workers who assembled the clothes. Guerrilla Theatre was used in the 1980s to dramatize death squad abductions in Central America. Students would stage an "abduction" in the cafeteria; this creative action engaged many students to join in Central American solidarity work.

Invisible Theatre

Create a situation that will draw on-lookers into a discussion about an important issue. Example: Two people go into a clothing store where sweatshop labor is being used to manufacture the clothes. The cell phone of one person rings. "Hello. Yeah, I'm here shopping at the (Name of Store). What? You're kidding! They use sweatshop labor to produce their clothes? Hey (to other person, in a loud voice so that others can hear), did you know that (Name of Store) uses sweatshop labor to make their clothes?" Draw the other shoppers and staff people into a discussion on living wages as a human right (see Global Exchange, globalexchange.org, for current campaigns on living wages and other issues).

Demonstrating Inadequate Shelter

Build shantytown housing on campus to demonstrate how people not earning a decent wage are forced to live in many countries. Sleep out in your quad to demonstrate homelessness in the U.S.

Cyber Activism

Rallying a Large Group of People for an Event (Virtual Organizing)

As the November 1999 Seattle WTO and the April 2000 IMF/World Bank protests showed, the Internet can be an extremely powerful organizing tool.

Tips:

• Create a web page to go with your event. Make your emails short and direct people to a hyperlink to the web for more details. Make sure your page is always up to date.
• Find a service provider that will allow people to easily subscribe to your listserv (try groups.yahoo.com orgroups.msn.com)

Op-Ed Pieces

Op-Ed Pieces are a highly effective way of expressing your opinion in the newspaper. Op-Eds are opinion pieces that appear opposite editorial pages. They are persuasive, well thought-out, well-written, short in length (usually about 800 words) but longer than a letter to the editor, and authored by a high-profile person or someone who has experience with the issue. The published op-ed should be timely, and present a strong, well-informed position, supported by facts.

Letters to the Editor

Letters to the Editor represent your perspective in the local newspaper and can be a counter argument for articles that you do not agree with. They also:

• reach a large audience;
• are monitored by elected officials and other decision-makers; and
• create an impression of widespread support for or against an issue.

Press Releases

A press release is a full and succinct account of your story/event, usually one or two pages, and should be written as a news article. Press releases help editors write an article. In fact, some small community newspapers will actually print your press release "as is."

• The first paragraph is the lead. It is one to three sentences long and answers "who, what, when, where, why, and how?" The lead must grab the editor's attention.
• The second paragraph is the bridge. It provides the source and a transition for the more detailed information.
• The third paragraph is the body. The information given in the lead is explained in detail in the body. Add quotations, facts not included in the lead, and general information on the organization.
• Add a photograph to grab attention.
• Follow-up with a phone call and/or personal visit-it may increase their interest in the story.