Human Rights Education A Manual for National Human Rights Institutions 10.5. PLANNING FOR MEDIA ENGAGEMENT As with any human rights programme, it is important for the NHRI to set out the short-term goals and the long-term goals it wants to achieve through media coverage of specific human rights issues. Firstly, the NHRI needs to identify the overall goal for its media engagement, such as: • advocating for changes to government laws and policies • advocating for changes to the practices of government or private sector organizations • building community understanding about a particular human rights issue • encouraging individual or community action on a particular issue. Having identified the overall goal, the NHRI is better placed to identify the decision-makers and other priority audiences that it needs to reach. Some useful questions to ask are: • What is the specific problem we are highlighting? • What solution are we proposing? • Who can make the solution possible? Whose support do we need? • How do we need to frame the issue/solution to get the attention of decision-makers and our priority audience? 10.5.1. Identifying the right media outlets A common misconception about the media is that it operates as a single entity and follows a single agenda. In reality, the news media is made up of a plethora of media outlets and commentators, from “traditional media”, such as television, newspaper, radio, news agencies and magazines, through to online journals, Twitter feeds and bloggers. The range of media outlets operating today is enormous, as are the type of issues they cover, the way they cover stories and the audiences they reach. It is important that NHRIs are familiar with the various media outlets and the individual journalists who report on its activities. NHRIs should know the type of audience that each outlet reaches and the way that these outlets have covered human rights issues in the past. This knowledge helps the NHRI to determine what stories would appeal to which outlets and increases the chances of securing positive coverage of the issues. It is important to recognise that many individuals read or watch news stories on their preferred social media platform, through feeds drawn from multiple news services. In fact, a 2018 report from the Pew Research Centre164 found that social media has now overtaken print newspapers as a news source among adult Americans. This new way of consuming news adds another layer of complexity to the process of engaging different audiences and means it is essential that NHRIs engage with a wide range of media outlets. 10.5.2. Getting the right message Effective communication is based on getting the right message to the right group of people. The starting point is the audience, not the message.165 96 164 News use across social media platforms; Pew Research Centre; 10 September 2018. Available online at www.journalism. org/2018/09/10/news-use-across-social-media-platforms-2018/. 165 A way of identifying priority audiences can be scoping those ranging from supporters to detractors, and focusing on the middle groups (supportive but sceptic) who could be potential champions.