 Welcome everyone to this workshop on media engagement making education for reconciliation news. I'd like to welcome Cheryl McNamara who is our media relations coordinator on staff here at Kairos. Cheryl comes to us with a wealth of activism and media experience and so we are very glad to have her on staff with us to have her expertise here today to share with us for the sake of our Kairos wins of change campaign and the work that we are doing in terms of education for reconciliation. Welcome Cheryl and thank you for being with us. Thank you Shannon and welcome everybody. I know that when we did our letters to the editor webinar a month ago there were some sound issues so please let us know if you're having trouble hearing. We definitely want to rectify that so yes so last month we we looked at writing letters to the editor and for this we're going to be working on looking at a few things including fostering relationships with editors and as well as meeting with the editorial board or the editor and writing op-eds and just a reminder for those who were here last month but also certainly for those of you who are new. The real big objective of engaging with the media is to build political will in support of the campaigns that we are working on. So for Kairos of course right now is the wins of change. We want our governments and everybody really to adopt the 94 calls laid out by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. We're starting right now with Education for Reconciliation call number 62.1. I will be focused on this campaign during this webinar however what I have to offer is broad enough that for those of you who are working on other campaigns this should be a value as well. So first just a bit about my background I as Shannon mentioned I am an activist focused on climate that's kind of been my focus. I've been volunteering with the Citizens Climate Lobby for five years. I founded the Toronto chapter and the Citizens Climate Lobby in addition to meeting with our elected representatives we also engage with the media because it helps to build political will for what we want our governments to do. And I've met with the editorial board of the Toronto Star three times with the Globe and Mail once and my op heads have appeared in numerous papers across the country. A few using my byline but a lot of them I've ghost written largely for Jennifer Henry. Okay so in terms of fostering relationships with our editors and colonists. This is important because most daily newspapers and to an extent smaller papers as well have an editorial section. And this is really the voice of the paper and you'll know when you go into the editorial part of the paper usually on the left side there's going to be a an article it's an opinion piece it doesn't have a byline to it. It's written by the comments editor or somebody in the editorial team. And it is considered the voice of the paper. Some major newspapers actually have editorial boards that includes the Globe and Mail the National Post the Toronto Star. I know the Ottawa Citizen has one it has just a few people. Some papers have this depends on how big they are some papers just have a comments editor and that's it. So this is a good thing to find out when you actually start to engage with the comment or opinion. Excuse me editor. So some small papers may not even have an editor editorial section. But if they do it's likely going to be written by the editor. So the objective of all of this of you know why do we want to engage with the editorial boards or the comment or opinion editors and even columnists as well. Is that we want to build a very trusting relationship with them so that they can write editorials or columns in support of our campaigns, particularly when it comes to the voice of the paper that is a real shot in the arm. One thing to keep in mind as well in this day and age unfortunately newspapers in Canada and around the world are suffering. They're competing against the digital age and they're competing for at dollars. And what we are seeing is a climb back of staff, which is really really unfortunate but that's that's just our current reality. And in particular I don't know if you've been following the news on the news but post media in particular might be going under and post media owns a number of really important papers in Canada including the Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald, the Ottawa Citizen, the Montréal Gazette to name a few. Yes they also own the Sun newspaper chain. I'm not going to get into the gory details of it but it's post media is likely going to go under and hopefully these important papers will be bought up locally. But we're not too sure what's going to happen. So the long and short of it is that newsrooms are actually stretched pretty thin and some of you probably know this already. If you're sending in an article even an article and event like a or rather sorry, a media advisory on event. Often what I'll do when I send one out I will call the newsroom and say can you follow this. And often when I when I speak to somebody in the newsroom of a newspaper they'll say we're really stretched thin we can't guarantee anything right now. So while this is a problem it's also a bit of an opportunity in that it is an opportunity to develop a rather trusting relationship with an editor. And one way to do that is to send them position papers or otherwise known as editorial packets. These are about four to five page three to five page documents that provide an editorial style campaign that you're working on. And it provides links to really important resources really well founded resources, ideally, you know, well sourced maybe from, you know, well researched sources that a newspaper would treat seriously. And for the education for reconciliation campaign we're just polishing up the media packets or the position papers for education for reconciliation for each province. And those will be available very shortly. So stay tuned. So, oh sorry I probably shouted I'm so sorry for those of you who heard that. How to woo an editor or writer. So really it is and in a way it is, we are, you know, flirting and wooing them. We want to develop a relationship. So the first step is always to read the editorials or the columns of, you know, the paper or the person that you're interested in and then when I say person, a columnist, somebody who writes on the issue that that you're concerned about or that you're working on and an example for those of you who are familiar with the Toronto Star, Carol Gore Carol Gore is a columnist she also is on the editorial board of the Toronto Star. And she typically writes articles on Aboriginal issues. So she's a good one to keep in mind when you're sending information. So definitely read read their editorials and columns, and then you want to start flirting with them. You want to send a heartfelt thank you to the editor regarding, you know, a recent editorial that that you really liked and I mean, clearly it should be something that you're, you know, an issue that you're working on. And even if they say things that you know you may not agree with, still write to them thank them for it. And, you know, you might, you might not know but you know provide them with with some information that they didn't cover or offer another side. But mostly just thank them. It's a good way to start the relationship and I will go into a case study with my first meeting or first engagement with the Toronto Star to kind of give you an example of how that really worked. So you also and as I mentioned you might want to send a link or two of some helpful resources related to the issue. Next step you want to ask for a date. And that means you want to if it's with the editorial board, you want to meet with them, typically with a calmness. You don't really do that, but with an editorial board. They definitely take meetings with folks out in the community. So what's coming out for education for reconciliation of course is, you know, we're going to start to be meeting with our electric representatives in the spring. It would be fantastic if folks can get meetings with the editorial boards of their local press to present the issue to them. And in particular, you know, the broad issue of reconciliation, bringing some experts or offered to bring in some experts and see what they say. So make that pitch. You want to send an email and then you want to follow up with a phone call to see if they're interested. And I'll speak a little bit more specifically about that in a minute. Then you want to, if they say yes, even if they say no, but if they say yes, you send them a present and that is your position paper or media packet, which you will have for education for reconciliation. And then when you get the meeting, and, you know, afterwards, you want to pop the big question, which is, would you consider writing an editorial in support of this? If they say no, then ask them if they would consider printing an op-ed from you. So it's important to have an op-ed out the ready. And even if they decline the meeting, definitely follow up with the position paper. So those are kind of the steps you want to take. Now, some of you would rather have a group canal than engage with your local press, particularly when it comes to the editor of the editorial board of the blah, blah, blah, right? And you might be thinking, you know, well, it might be easy for Cheryl McNamara to, you know, pick up the call, make a pitch and find out if they want to meet. But I can tell you, when I first started doing this, it was not easy. I was very scared. And I want to get into a case study, my first meeting with the Toronto staff. It was basically a year in the making in terms of our first engagement with them to getting an editorial in somewhat in support of what we wanted. And for this, when I say we, I mean, Citizens Climate Loving. And what we were looking for was a very specific carbon pricing policy that we wanted them to support. So back in the summer of 2011, we, we knew we just started our chapter and we knew that we needed to engage with our local press. And one of our volunteers named John stepped up and he, he took the initiative to start this relationship. I was focused on the global mail. So John basically emails Andrew Phillips, who is the editor of the editorial board of the Toronto Star, and asked him for a meeting. And Andrew said, listen, it's the summertime or the staff is pretty tight right now. We really don't have enough staff for a meeting. We had asked to meet about our carbon pricing mechanism. But he said, listen, we don't know you, send some information about about you will read it. And we might be, you know, available in the fall. So that was great. That was the first good engagement. The autumn came and at that point we were helping the Climate Action Network with their campaign to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies. I think this is something that a lot of us are very sympathetic to. And we thought, oh, this would be a great opportunity. We're engaged in the campaign. We can meet them about this. We can also talk about carbon pricing. So we, John followed up said, can you meet about this? And he said, it's John Andrew said it's a little narrow focus for us. Send us a position paper. We'll read it. But yeah, we're not going to meet about this. We had advice from the communications director as he's still in the United States. He said, no, you should really, you should press them on this. And so we did. And Andrew shot back. He was very crusty, very terse with us. He said, I don't need to meet with you on this particular issue. Just send us the position paper. And I thought, oh, heavens, we blew this relationship. He's angry at us. So I said, John, please just give him what he wants. So we sent him the position paper. At that point in time, John had to step back. He had to go get ready because he was moving to Paris for a job. So I took over and I started to flirt in that I started to follow what the Toronto Star was printing in terms of their editorials. I was emailing Andrew saying, I really like what you had to say with this and it was genuine. I really like their editorials. And Andrew would email me back and say, thank you. Thank you very much, which surprised me because I thought that, you know, they didn't really care about our opinions, but really they do. And I do remember contacting or emailing a columnist from the Edmonton Journal many years ago who wrote about, he wrote an article that really questioned the tar sands and he was writing about climate change. And I wrote him thanking him for his article. And he came back to me and he said, well, thank you. You're probably the only one who thanked me because he was getting a lot of hate email. And I can imagine, you know, editors and columnists, we probably receive a lot of email and a lot of it's probably negative. So sending a really positive, affirming thank you really does go a long way. So March comes along March of 2012. And Mark Reynolds, the executive director of Citizens Climate Lobby was going to be in town, as well as the new ED of the Climate Action Network. Mark suggested that I follow up with the Toronto Star and ask for another meeting. Well, I didn't know. I, you know, we tried once with the meeting and that didn't go so well. So, but I thought that, yeah, you know, it doesn't hurt to try. So I put together my pitch. I emailed it to Andrew and didn't hear back from him. The following day I thought you're going to have to call him and I dreaded it. You know, a day goes by and you're dreading something that you have to do. I really dreaded this. I knew I needed to call him at five o'clock. Five o'clock is a good time to call editors and journalists because it's after their deadlines have passed. And I called interpretation at five o'clock and Andrew picked up. He said, I said, you know, very nervously, you know, just following up on the email and if this would be of interest to him. And his response was, oh, oh, I did respond to you. Oh, well, let me see. And I had given him to date to times and dates. He said, well, Thursday, the 11 o'clock, does that work? And I said, yes. It was as if we were arranged to have coffee. It was that simple. So, and then he asked, please send me your position papers so we can read it in preparation for the meeting, which I did. So I was absolutely elated. We did a pre-meeting and we being Mark, Christian and myself, just to make sure that our ducks were in a roll and we wanted to ensure that, you know, our key messages came across. In the meeting itself, they gave us an hour. There were four people from the editorial board. There's more people that belong to the board, but four people could join us. They gave us an hour and Andrew, the editor, was the one who really kind of peppered us with questions. Like he really took charge. And I found that was certainly the case with the Globe Mail as well, so that when you are meeting, just know that the editor is going to be taking charge and he or she is going to be asking you some questions. They really are leading the meeting. So, I was able to meet with the person who actually does the editorials on climate change, Gordon, sorry, Gord Barthos, very nice man. And he assured me we read everything you send us, which was ratifying. The thing that came up in the meeting was they felt that carbon taxes wouldn't work in Canada. There was an attempt with Stefan Dion in 2008. And we explained that there was actually a very good example in British Columbia with the BC carbon tax, not a perfect tax, but at least it showed that emissions were reducing and it didn't hurt the economy. So that was news to them. So that was great. So that was kind of the big thing that came out of the meeting. We were able to educate them. I continued to send information and in August that year, they wrote an editorial in support of a carbon tax. We were absolutely thrilled. So, and it took a year. That took a year in the making, just as an FYI. The one thing before I move on that I also want to add is I've had some really great chats with Andrew Phillips, the editor. I pitched him on a number of occasions and he shot me down twice on what I was proposing, one of which really surprised me when we wanted to bring in somebody from the insurance industry and he was very skeptical. So we had a really good talk about kind of what they're looking for. So I really allowed him to educate me. I always listened respectfully to what he had to say. But we were also able to get two more meetings in one focus on clean tech and another one on carbon price. You were able to bring another visiting expert in. So it's been a really great relationship. So, um, or Barthos from time to time contacts me with a question. So, great start. Or it was certainly a, you know, we didn't give up. And that's, I think, the lesson learned here. So lessons learned. When you go into pitch and meeting. You have to cover more of a broad issue like reconciliation, certainly from a local perspective. And if you could bring in local experts and spokespeople, I would definitely with a case for education for reconciliation, please bring in an indigenous spokesperson to get that side of the story as well and then ensure that within that conversation you bring up, you know, where, you know, making sure that all 94 calls to action need to be done need to be realized. We're starting with call to action 62.1 for this specific reason. So, and then you want to relate to obviously to what the province is up to and that's going to be covered or certainly covered in the position paper that you'll have access to. You always want to do a follow up call so usually you do a pitch you send an email to them and then maybe the next day at around five o'clock, give them a call. And if the editor declines, you know, you might want to politely ask why and in some cases like the Ottawa citizen, they said that we did tend not to meet with people so. Or there might be a very specific reason why and it will help you refine your pitch, another pitch in the future. Never be argumentive with them. Remember, this is a relationship that you want to foster. Okay, so now I will be taking questions afterwards. So now I just want to get into op ed writing. You mentioned are really good to have in your back pocket. If, if they don't want to print an editorial, or they don't want to run an editorial on it, then perhaps they can print your op ed. And I do want to caution having offering an op ed is not a guarantee that they are going to print it. Typically, I certainly know with the Globe and Mail they get about 30 submissions every day. So that's something to keep in mind. So op ed tips and just so you know, I will have the having or we will include after a document that really outlines these tips so that you can have them. So really the most to think about or to keep in mind when you are offering up a writing an op ed and submitting one is that it really needs to be topical. Now with the case of education for reconciliation, it is we're getting a lot of news of late thanks to the TRC, but certainly with the case of missing and murdered Indigenous women and the inquiry. This is definitely in the news. So it's not a bit of an issue, but if you're dealing with issues like Israel, Palestine, for example, if it's not in the news, the papers will be hard to press to to print it. You usually want to ask what the local angle is. You know, certainly with the issue like climate change, people tend not to care about polar bears, but they are concerned about what's happening to their local climate. So you always want to kind of tie and make that local connection and certainly with education for reconciliation. The local angle, of course, is the provincial one and what the province is up to. Of course, you want to be compelling right from the start. I always remember that. You really do need to grab the reader's attention. And one way to do that and just to address the point about getting personal. In op heads, sometimes you want to get personal. Sometimes it's not really appropriate, but in the case for education for reconciliation, reconciliation, it kind of is. And one way to start your op head is to talk about right about your own experience going to school. You know, did you learn about the residential schools? Did you learn about the trainees? Did you learn about the positive contributions historically and currently of Indigenous peoples in our country? And I bet you a lot of you, like me, the answer is no. So you want to start with that. So that's that's certainly one big tip specific to writing an op head on this issue. You always want to write focus on kind of a narrative approach. Some people think that, you know, you need to put lots of facts in there, but sometimes that can be a bit daunting for people. If you have important facts, just choose one or two really important ones. But you're you're weaving a story, right? In a sense, narratives like storytelling are far more compelling. Always you want to be focused, you know, typically like with any issue, you want to there's so many different points you want to make. So you have to choose. You need to choose either the salient point or the most important point that you want to get across with your campaign, for example. And if you say if you put in too many points, really you end up saying nothing. I always like to create an outline. I'm sure some of you when you write like to do that as well. That is very helpful. And along that line, one thing to keep in mind when you're writing is to answer the questions. And that means don't assume that the reader knows anything really about the issue that you're writing about. So assume that they know nothing about the TRC. They know nothing about the calls to action. They know nothing certainly about the residential schools, the treaties and everything like that. So that when you write something like the TRC, well, what is that? You need to write it out the truth and reconciliation commission. Excuse me. And then what is it? You know, a brief kind of paragraph on what it was certainly is. And so I think, you know, always, always approach you from the point of view of the reader, assuming that the reader knows nothing about this. And that can help with your outline as well, you know. In terms of some other tips just to kind of close, you know, certainly tools that the writers craft like like metaphor assembly, that sort of thing are helpful. An example is I remember reading a really good op-ed on climate change from a climate scientist. And he started with the whole metaphor of high sticks poker. You know, he enjoys a good game of poker with his friends, but he does not like high sticks poker and he was able to extend that metaphor on the climate. So that's kind of an example. So in terms of your ending, you always want to end well. And it's important to ensure that kind of you repeat the main point of the op-ed and that usually can take care of itself when you cycle back to, you know, your opening. An example you're writing an op-ed about education for a conciliation you opened about your own personal story going to school you never learned this. Say you have children or grandchildren. Perhaps you want to mention, you know, I don't want my own children growing up ignorant of this. Again, you know, emphasizing the urgency of this really. So that gives you kind of an idea of how you may want to structure this particular op-ed. And then finally, you know, big question is, can you write a headline? You know, if you cannot sum up the op-ed in a couple of words, then you might want to rewrite. You might want to, you know, look again at the focus. So those are the tips on writing op-eds. And again, as I said, I will you will have available to you a document that kind of flushes out these points. In terms of submitting your op-ed, make sure, of course, that you're observing the word limit. Some papers like the Globe Mail or 650 words. Some are longer, 750. So it's definitely you want to observe that. Otherwise, they likely won't print it. Always ask for editing help. If you know somebody who's a good writer, ask if they can have a look at it and provide edits. If you're submitting on behalf of Kairos Canada, then definitely send it to myself and Ed Bianchi. We will not only provide you with editorial support, but it does need to have final approval on it. Always include the suggested headline. Keep in mind that papers, if they do accept your op-ed, they're going to change the headline. So good to know. The names of the authors, if it's more than one, obviously, and the short bios and headshots as well. And I always like to include the word count of the piece. Do paste your op-ed into the body of the email. Some editors prefer that. And then you might want to also include the attachment. And then do call the editor the following day to see if they received it and will consider it. And that's a good way. I know it can seem a bit daunting to call an editor, but it's a really good way to foster a relationship with them. And sometimes, you know, I've even called them before I submitted an op-ed and said, listen, I'm thinking of doing this. Would this be of interest? And they'll tell you, well, we can't guarantee. Fair enough. But then you might want to say, well, I'm thinking of positioning like this. What do you think? And I did that once actually for the Toronto Star. And I got his advice and then I wrote the op-ed and then I wrote him in my email. I said, you know, I really took your advice to heart. Thank you so much. It meant a lot. And I don't know. I think it may have, you know, helped him, you know, think of he didn't print it, but he posted it online. So that was that was nice. A little bit of a tip there for you. And also very, very important, don't call if they tell you not to call. Really observe that. Again, you don't really, you don't want to tick them off. So observe any instruction that that they offer. The global mail, by the way, they don't like to be called. Okay. And then the last thing I like to add is a trim and tabbing tip. Now, for those of you who do not know what trim and tabbing is or a trim tab, it's something I mentioned in my webinar last month. A trim tab, if you want to, to change or move the ship of state, you don't go at it from the side. You don't even go at it from the rudder. You go to the trim tab and the trim tab is this little flat thing that maneuvers the rudder that maneuvers the ship. So if you want to shift public policy on anything, meeting with representatives, you're trim tabbing, signing petitions, delivering petition is trim tabbing, but so are letters to the editor, so are op heads and definitely editorials. And what you want to do is if you get an editorial published or an op head, you want to send it to your elected officials, certainly your own, but definitely the minister. So in our case, the minister of education, even the premier, why not? So just a friendly reminder to do that. Right. So if you have any questions, you know, fall questions or what have you, certainly please feel free to contact me. So thank you everyone for being with us. We'll give you another moment or two and certainly, as Cheryl said, be in touch with us. See McNamara at Kairos Canada is Cheryl's address. And you can find us always on the website. We thank you very much for being with us. Thank you for joining us. And if you have any questions, please see me as a resource. Feel free to contact me. Please note as well, you're starting a relationship. Sometimes it takes a while. Don't give up. Certainly with reconciliation. This is a long road ahead. You know, you might not be able to get a meeting on education for reconciliation, but as long as you start the relationship, you might get a meeting on something else in the future. So keep it at it and good luck.