Our Services

Communication Strategy

Advocates for change often seek to generate as much publicity as possible to close a presumed Information Gap. ActionMedia believes the real problem is a Power Gap – the difference between your organization's ability to set the terms of public discussion and your opposition's power to do so.

Rather than seeking to make a publicity splash, we help groups use media to build a wave: stories that stay in motion, influence what others say, and continually create opportunity to build new alliances and power. We work with organizations and alliances to focus on the true objective: getting somebody to do something.

By building a communication strategy around carefully identified target audiences, advocates for change can make every communication, from a phone call to a newsletter to a press conference, part of a unified communication strategy.

Typically, we conduct two or more group meetings to develop the strategy, provide written recommendations, and consult on implementation as new opportunities arise.

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Organizational Communication Audit

If organizations do not effectively define and communicate their purpose and values, people – within and outside the group – are bound to misconstrue what the organization stands for. Many advocacy groups find that their staff members are less than effective when they talk in public about the organizations’ core values, goals, and accomplishments – and, most important, why they matter.

A communication audit examines and tracks how an advocacy organization presents itself in its written and web-based communication, and analyzes the operative values, assumptions, language and imagery at work. Through individual interviews, group meetings and written reports, ActionMedia helps organizations examine and articulate their focus, and define the context for positioning the organization. Specific recommendations are provided for revision of current documents in use, and organizational staff and leadership reach consensus on "our story," with coaching on how that story adapts to different program areas.

Advocates often believe that their goals speak for themselves. They don’t. To reach out effectively and bring more people into the story, advocates have to take the time to be sure they say what they mean, and say it clearly.

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Framing the Issues

Humans make sense of the world through stories. That’s how we learn and teach, and how we talk to each other. We all know there’s more than one way to tell a story. That’s what issue framing is all about – telling a story the best way, so that it draws attention to certain aspects and leads to a specific response, or conclusion, in the listener.

Framing is a communication tool that organizes value-based communication to be inclusive and mobilizing. A successful frame defines the terms of public discussion, and forces opponents to argue their case on the advocates’ terms. Naming the game is not the same as winning on any given issue. But through effective issue framing, advocates create the social context that makes winning possible. A powerful frame is a strong foundation for coalitions to help every partner in the coalition speak from the same basic story.

Each new push for public understanding and acceptance of an issue happens against a backdrop of long-term media coverage, of perceptions formed over time, of scripts and even folk beliefs we’ve learned since childhood. All of these things have shaped the way we interpret and categorize new information.

Framing the issues generally requires focus group research, or review of existing research, to determine underlying values and beliefs associated with the issue. ActionMedia helps advocates redefine their work to increase the clarity and power of all of their communication. ActionMedia reports its findings and recommendations, in writing and in workshop formats.

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Putting the Frame Into Play

ActionMedia provides training and on-going support to organizations that have developed a strong frame on their issue, to move that frame into public discourse. The success of a re-framing effort can be measured by “the echo effect” – hearing the values, terms, language, and assumptions in your frame echoed in the public speech of others. Different speakers will emphasize different parts of the frame, telling the story from their own perspective. As the frame gets repeated, more people see themselves in the story. Ultimately, the frame becomes the baseline for public discussion – the common sense way of defining the issue. When that happens, advocates have succeeded in setting the terms of debate.

ActionMedia works with groups in workshop and training formats, provides telephone coaching, and reviews draft materials, to help organizations recruit and make strategic use of new messengers, move the frame to reporters and other key messengers, and adapt the frame to new opportunities.

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Training and Workshops

•   Framing Growth & Development

A workshop for funders, citizens, and organizations advocating better planning for the improvement of communities and regions, drawing on research about public attitudes about community development. Values-based communication about growth and development issues can create broader agreement on smart decisions for the next development project in communities large and small.

•   Framing Affordable Housing

A workshop to help advocates understand that most citizens don't see housing issues they way advocates describe them. The workshop uses research based ideas to help advocates talk about these issues in ways that cause more people to understand and support the need for a wider variety of housing stock to meet community needs.

         
Click to View Slideshow: Re-framing Housing

•   Framing 21st Century Energy

Americans are divided about an assortment of political issues, but nearly all of them agree that our nation's current

energy policy is behind the times and needs a new, 21st Century approach. This workshop explores ways of talking about energy that will increase the bi-partisan demand for clean energy and greater efficiency, and reduce the production of global warming pollution.

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