Introduction
Working with Local Media to Influence Coverage of Aging

By John A. Cutter

I have participated in several workshops for gerontologists over the past decade focusing on media and aging, and I always begin by asking how many in the audience have had a personal experience with a reporter. Almost all hands go up.

I then ask how many would describe the experience as positive. Fewer than half raise their hands.

Why were the experiences so negative? Several themes recur. They range from memories of mistakes and misquotations to a sense of bias, incompleteness, or lack of subtlety in the resulting article or broadcast.

And when I talk with my journalist colleagues on the age beat, there is a similar frustration that some gerontologists do not understand how the media work. These colleagues--all experienced in covering aging issues--wonder why more people in the aging field do not seem to appreciate things like the importance of deadline or the need to translate research into terms that the public at-large understands.

Evidence to support the negative views of each side probably exists as do examples of positive encounters between the aging network and the media. But as the world ages and media interest in baby boomers and older people continues, gerontologists and journalists will find themselves dealing with each other more and more. It is important to make such encounters work for both sides and to make them as free as possible from suspicions, stereotypes, and prejudices.

Here, culled from personal experience and past discussions with others on the age beat, is some practical advice for gerontologists. (It assumes that you are seeking something more than the printing of a notice about an upcoming meeting, but rather want to see aging issues covered well in your community.)

• Ask yourself why you want or need to talk to the media. If you are seeking coverage for your agency, program, event, or research project, you first must answer that fundamental question. You might be surprised to discover that you can live well and happily finding other ways to inform the public or policy makers that are more effective than dealing with the media. For example, newspaper readership is notoriously low among low-income people, so if your program is aimed at that group, the media might not be the right forum.

• Realize that the media are not your friends. You certainly have the right to expect an accurate and fair article, but the media do not exist to provide "publicity" or a "good" story for you. They serve--not always in this order--their readers and viewers, their editors, and themselves. That will not always mean that the media's idea of the story is the same as yours.

• Pay attention to local media outlets. The New York Times is a great newspaper, and National Public Radio and cnn are invaluable, but in most communities, local newspapers, radio, and television rule. Studies show that readers want local community and neighborhood news more than other types of news, say they get most of their news from local television and newspapers, and would miss their local TV news and Sunday newspaper more than national media outlets.

• Find out who covers issues important to you and get to know him or her. Call the newspaper or radio or TV station and ask, but also read and listen to see which reporter does which stories. A growing number of newspapers have someone whose job includes aging issues. Many also have someone who covers social services or health issues, although sometimes it is the same person who covers aging. In smaller markets, newspaper beats often are divided by towns, so look to see whose byline appears over stories from your area. And although many local TV stations use general assignment reporters who cover a variety of topics, most have someone who specializes in health, which often includes aging issues.

• Meet a reporter before the reporter meets you. It is better to establish some relationship with a reporter before the person calls on deadline with a pressing--and perhaps controversial--question. Try to meet in person over coffee or a visit to the reporter's office, or look for the reporter at an event or hearing. Also visit the pressroom at professional conferences and meetings. (I have been to national aging conferences consistently since 1992. Seldom has someone just come in to meet a journalist.)

• Understand deadlines. You can't call the day of or the day before an event or news conference and expect coverage. There is no firm rule, but in general the media need time to plan, and the more time, the better.

• Think real people. It is important to the media to be able to tell stories through the eyes of real people who are or could be affected by an issue. So, you will not get a lot of local media interest in covering a hearing or study on aging services, but you might find a lot of interest if you can link journalists with people who use those services. Think ahead of time which people might be comfortable telling their story to the press so that you are not scrambling to find someone on the media's deadline. And think diversity, even if the media outlet is not; diversity should be part of the story, and you can help.

• Think photos. For TV and many newspaper stories, photos--especially of real people doing something--are essential.

• Think background information. Most good reporters want and need background, even on issues they know well. You can improve your chances of seeing a more complete article or broadcast by providing statistics, reports, and key research articles to the media. And put as many of them as you can on the Web, since journalists often keep odd hours and might need access to them after normal working hours.

• Refer journalists to a better source. If you are not the right person in your agency or field to talk about an issue, you can help the media by pointing them in the right direction.

• If you are not happy with something in a story, call! Mistakes happen, from misspelled names to misinterpreted data. Let the person who wrote or broadcast the story know as soon as you find out. If you are unhappy with the response, call up the management chain, from editor to publisher. Some newspapers also have an ombudsman who acts as reader advocate.

• Write it yourself. Newspapers have op-ed and letters-to-the-editor pages that provide an opportunity to give your direct views on an issue. Take advantage of it.

• Understand the difference between editorials and news stories. Reporters do not write editorials and are not supposed to be influenced by a newspaper's editorial stance. It doesn't help to complain to a reporter about an editorial in the morning paper.

• What is news? Although much ink is spilled in journalism about the values that determine news, it is an ever shifting and inconsistently applied concept. What's news on a slow Monday morning might never see publication on a busy Friday. Accept that sometimes the media will ignore your newsworthy item and sometimes later fall all over themselves to cover it. But if you want some insight, look at magazines like Columbia Journalism Review (also at www. cjr.org), Internet sites like those of the Poynter Institute (www.poynter.org) and the Project for Excellence in Journalism (www.journalism.org), or read The Elements of Journalism (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2001).

I was asked to write about how gerontologists can work with the media, so I've written little about how the media can improve its encounters with the aging network. Since I expect this discussion to continue, I would appreciate feedback on this article and suggestions for journalists at my e-mail address. 1

John A. Cutter is a freelance writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times and many other publications. He spent 2000­01 as a Kaiser Family Foundation media fellow writing about Alzheimer's disease and is finishing a master's in gerontology at the University of South Florida, Tampa, Fla. Contact him at jcutter@nasw.org.

References

Newspaper Association of America. 1997. Consumer Media Usage: A National Study. Vienna, Va.

Kovach, B., and Rosenstiel, T. 2001. The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect. New York: Crown.

Generations Table of Contents

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