Key Components to Telling Your Story (and Getting the Press and Public to Listen)...Going to The Dark Side, and Coming Back
Part 2 of 3
Eric Mack, Public News Service

Today we look at two more components of good storytelling that can help your story or pitch rise to the top of the heap and pique a reporter or editor's interest. In my first installment we looked at the importance of finding real people to help tell your story, and seeking out angles to make your issue or campaign relevant to the average person. Here, we'll build on those two necessities, and then talk about the importance of going to /the Dark Side. /But first things first, let's get started with the third component to tell your story right:

3. *Bring it Home to the Kitchen Table:* Once you've found everyday sources and stories the general public can relate to, along with a relatable angle or point of view, it's time to bring it all the way home. Like the election consultants say, you've got to talk about your 'kitchen table issues.' These are the issues that affect daily life in a direct way, the issues that dominate serious discussion at the kitchen table.

It's pretty easy to pin these issues down - usually they're related to
finances, employment, health, education and other things that directly affect a household's quality of life. It's our job as communicators to explain how the issue or campaign at hand is a part of that kitchen table discussion, and you might be surprised at how simple it is to do, and how powerful the effects can be. In most cases involving the environment, it's going to come down to health or money.

Recently, campaigns to preserve wilderness and other public lands in the West have been nothing short of brilliant in their ability to unite disparate demographics and rally support for protecting some pristine areas, even during the height of the Bush administration's push to drill, log and develop wherever possible.

Those campaigns, often targeting lands near conservative strongholds, succeeded because they were able to shift the debate away from being a left vs. right, red vs. blue, green vs. industry argument. The key was to make wilderness protection a kitchen table issue by hammering on the economic value of leaving those areas the way they are. Even business owners that couldn't give a hoot about wilderness or habitat protection were quick to change their tune when faced with the serious prospect of saying farewell to valuable tourism dollars spent by sportsmen and other wilderness enthusiasts in local communities.

Putting this component into play may sound like hours of research, but the good news is that if you've already found the right 'everyday' sources and angles for your story, it should flow effortlessly onto the kitchen table.

4. *Going to the Dark Side:* This is probably going to hurt just a
little bit. Another key component of telling your story that I almost
/never/ see in all the press releases I get is the other side of the
story. Somewhere along the way, perhaps in childhood or maybe during that really tough first job, the idea formed for many of us that the best way to deal with the opposition is to pretend they don't exist. But in today's world of information and disinformation overload, that approach just doesn't make sense anymore.

When you pitch a reporter or editor a story, you are essentially asking that journalist to trust you - to trust that you are a credible source of information - and it can be tough to trust someone who wants to tell you a story, but deliberately leaves part of that story out. So when you tell your story to reporters, tell the WHOLE story, including the other side. But don't fret, I'm not asking you to transform yourself into an investigative journalist overnight - when you tell your story, you can still tell it from your perspective, which journalists will expect, just don't commit sins of omission.

In addition to presenting a more well-rounded story that will seem more credible in the eyes of editors, acknowledging the other side in pitches, releases and editorials also provides another tremendous advantage - it allows you to respond. Is that coal plant really going to create that many more jobs? How is that company's track record when it comes to running the responsible operation it touts? You get the idea.

By presenting and rebutting the other side's claims, you're now
several steps ahead of the game, and if you've got the attention of the reporter or editor, they're now beginning their reporting work entirely from your frame of the debate.

In the next installment: Data and more!