START SPREADING THE NEWS
For
environmentalists eager to get their message across but not sure
where to start, a couple of grassroots communication guides have
hit the bookstores. Getting the Word Out in the Fight to Save the
Earth, by Richard Beamish, tells how to publicize and promote an
environmental cause. Beamish, who has plenty of experience with
both large organizations and small community groups, provides
examples of newsletters, press releases, brochures, and other
promotional materials from across the country. An entire chapter
explains how to sustain an effort through fund raising. The book is
for “nonprofit groups already out there in the trenches and for
those who are preparing themselves – in the communities, board
rooms, churches, schools, colleges, and universities across this
land – for this most crucial struggle of our time.” Jason Salzman’s
new book, Let the World Know: Make Your Cause News, focuses on
attention-getting gimmicks to attract media coverage and offers
practical tips for working with journalists. Among the
characteristics of a newsworthy event, writes Salzman, are novelty,
simplicity, shock and humor.
Getting the Word Out
in the Fight to Save the Earth. Johns Hopkins University Press,
2715 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218-4319. 181 pages,
1995. $24.95, paperback.
Let the World Know: Make
Your Cause News. Rocky Mountain Media Watch, Box 18858, Denver, CO
80218. 74 pages, 1995. $10, paperback.
* Diane
Kelly
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Start spreading the news.
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