SCA-PR-msg - 3/6/01
Public relations ideas, handling the media.
NOTE: See also the files: SCA-in-video-msg, SCAguests-msg, recruitment-msg,
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NOTICE -
This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that
I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some
messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.
This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium.
These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org
I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with
seperate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes
extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were
removed to save space and remove clutter.
The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I
make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the
individual authors.
Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these
messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this
time. If information is published from these messages, please give
credit to the orignator(s).
Thank you,
Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
mark.s.harris at motorola.com stefan at florilegium.org
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From: NIELSEN at falcon.mayo.EDU
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Park Pick-Up, Awards for Traveling
Date: 30 Jun 1994 13:34:37 -0400
Greetings unto the Rialto from Lady Therica.
It's us, it's us!!! Our group is the one who does the park pick-up every
month. It started out when I was seneschal, and saw the highway signs for
volunteers picking up garbage. "Oh, my," I thought. "Wouldn't that be wonderful
advertisement for our Shire if we had a section of the main highway with our
name on it?"
Well, I proposed it to the group, where it went over fairly well (one rather
obese gentle was dead-set against walking the two miles to pick up garbage,
but he was the only nay-sayer.) One of the members volunteered to look into
the requirements. Unfortunately, all the 'good' roads were already spoken for,
and so we settled on doing a park. (Which the obese gentle preferred.)
The park is our main downtown one, and it takes about an hour for 6 people
to clean our section. (The park is actually split down the middle by a small
lake (well, okay, a wide spot in a small river...) and we clean one side.
Another club from town cleans the other side.) When I was 'captain' of Park
Pick-up Patrol, we would pick up the garbage and then head to a favorite
pizza parlor (and sometimes even a movie!) afterwards, making for a great
evening out. (Reminds me of the Mary Poppins' song, "Just a Spoon Full of
Sugar Makes the Medicine Go Down..."). Several times I had people ask me why
we were picking up the park, and were very impressed when I explained who we
were and why we were doing it. (Along the lines of, "Well, we use this park
in the summer for fighter practice, and thought it would be nice to help keep
it clean...") Of course, the big wooden sign with our name on it is nice, too!
Oh, and Elizabeth Braidwood? Ummm...they do give awards for traveling....at
least here in the Midrealm. At 12th Night Queen Catherine gave a gentle a
Doe's Grace for driving from Chicago to Minneapolis (about a 6 hour drive
or so.) A number of people were umm....put out? by this award, but hey, I guess
it's up to the queen, right? (Not that they didn't like the gentle receiving
it, but that there are many people who travel much more than that and are never
'officially' recognized.)
By the way, Sappy's ever so glad that the flames have died down enough he can
start coming out to play (and lend wooden support). After all, wooden soapboxes
have to be careful of how hot flames get, doncha know!
Therica
--'--,--< at
From: rcml at acpub.duke.edu (Robert Lonon)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: SCA in the News?
Date: 12 Sep 1994 15:43:19 -0400
Organization: Duke University, Durham, N.C.
After seeing an impressive display at Pennsic on the SCA in the
News, I am working at colelcting news articles (primarily
newspaper and magazine) written on the SCA for a
similar display. Although I will gladly accept
photocopies of articles, because of the University resources
here all I primarily need are reference information
(as long as it is a relatively large paper or magazine).
If you have any reference information could you please e-
mail it to me? (I'll compile a list and post it
if there is interest. If so, send me mail to that effect).
Thanks!
Corwyn Sinister
Barony, Windmaster's Hill
Kingdom of Atlantia
rcml at acpub.duke.edu
904 Clarendon St. Apt. 2
Durham, NC 27705
From: salley at niktow.canisius.edu (David Salley)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Pennsic on TV
Date: 18 Sep 94 14:35:34 GMT
Organization: Canisius College, Buffalo NY. 14208
Lothar writes:
> In this case I'd be very leery of letting a camera crew into an
> SCA event unless I knew damned-well where they were from, what they were
> doing, and how they intended to portray the SCA. In addition to being much
> more intrusive, TV crews are much more likely to go for sensationalism or
> humor at our expense.
At Ice Dragon 8 (9?), a news crew was told they could film. The
camera man stepped over the list ropes into the list and turned on a rack
with _eight_ floods on it, blinding both fighters. The marshall, Lord Gavin,
now Duke Gavin, said one word, "Out." The cameraman replied, "Press. I
have a right to be here." Gavin, and his two deputies, Lord Hak (now Syr Hak)
and Lord Bear (now Viscount Bear) dropped their batons and converged on him.
(We're talking some 800+ lbs of beef on the hoof, here) The cameraman
figured they were bluffing and stayed where he was. They picked him up and
carried him out of the list, out of the hall and out of the building and
put him down. They passed the reporter running out as they walked back in.
Gavin started walking over to the autocrat to explain when the autocrat who
had seen everything merely said, "Thank you." At the post-revel that night,
we waited in dread for the evening news. It was _gorgeous film_ of fighters
and feasters that he couldn't possibly have had time to shoot. We were
puzzled by this until someone spoke out, "Hey, I wore that garb _last_ year."
We have no idea who our guardian angel at the station was.
- Dagonell
SCA Persona : Lord Dagonell Collingwood of Emerald Lake, CSC, CK, CTr
Habitat : East Kingdom, AEthelmearc Principality, Rhydderich Hael Barony
Internet : salley at niktow.cs.canisius.edu
USnail-net : David P. Salley, 136 Shepard Street, Buffalo, New York 14212-2029
From: folo at prairienet.org (F.L. Watkins)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Maybe a News Legate is Needed..
Date: 3 Dec 1994 18:15:50 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
A special liaison to the media is SOP around here. Certainly such
a liaison (either permanent, rotating or on special assignment) is
is logical and practical; media wandering unsupervised has been a
big bugaboo at Rev events (imagine them hiding in the woods at
Pennsic; now imagine the Pennsic fighters carrying guns :( )
IMO, such a liaison should have three goals in mind: first and
foremost, the safety of the media rep(s); second, to answer
questions and to direct the rep(s) to worthwhile sites & people;
and finally, to keep the rep(s) (gently) away from the stuff
that gives a poor and/or incorrect image of the Society. By putting
a single person in charge, you avoid the main difficulties of
confusion, misunderstandings and the unfortunate spectacle when
two people are vying for the attention of the rep (and, yes, I
have seen it happen), not to mention encounters with new age
fringies who earnestly report that most SCA combat are duels over
the presence of Coke cans at events (!).
Yrs, Folo
--
Damin de Folo - F.L.Watkins - folo at prairienet.org
Baron Wurm Wald (MidRealm) - Commander Baldwin's (NWTA)
From: JOEL.CARD at rook.wa.com (joel card)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: SCA Marketing...
Date: Fri, 20 Jan 1995 16:01:09 GMT
Organization: Knight-Line! (206) 565-0594
John Cathcart here...
> of your practices and workshops. A PBS station south of St. Louis
> recently aired a report (very favorable) filmed at an event held by our
Pl> Can you tell me how the PBS report was received by the public? Did
Pl> you have new people approach your Canton after that? I must say, that
Up here in Blatha An Oir (An Tir) we have supported a number of pledge
drives by answering phones. In trade, we get a chance to talk about
the SCA and give out local info during a planned interview during the
evening. Just contact your local PBS station and ask to speak with their
community relations person.
We have done this during Tales of the City, During evenings of music,
whatever...It's a great way to get info out to the masses on the SCA and
your local group.
It has been about 6 months since the last pledge night and I STILL get
the occaisional "Hey, I saw you an TV! So...whats this group your with?
(about the time I hand them a club buiseness card and say "call me")
From: charles at krusty.eecs.umich.edu (Charles J. Cohen)
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Camera Crews/Photographers at Pennsic
Date: 30 Aug 1995 13:12:44 GMT
Organization: University of Michigan AI Lab
Teach Mr T <teachmrt at aol.com> wrote:
>Back to my original rant. I would love to know from site officials how
>many "official" photographers and reporters were indeed there, and I would
>like to know how much advance working was done in setting up the Wednesday
>Media Day and whether it paid off (and whether the photographers were told
>the battle times had been moved).
I was one of the people asked to help escort the news reporters on the
Wednesday of war. I was not told that I couldn't talk about it, so
here I go :)
Lady Tamara of the Middle spent months putting this thing together
with the media. So don't worry, this wasn't a spur of the moment
thing. Before the media arrived, she took us (us = a performance
troupe I'm in - she knows all of us and knows we have no problems
talking with people and answering questions) to where the media had
parking spaces so we'd be able to escort them there and back. She gave
us information we needed in case we didn't know (like how many members
we had world wide, when it started, how it started) and gave us tips
for how to answer questions. Bascially, she wanted us to stress,
rightly so, our educational aspects.
For example, I was wearing my jester outfit. So people tend to ask me
about that and juggling. So I would mention that in addition to
performing, I've had great opportunities to *teach* others how to
juggle, to research the proper clothing, and to learn about various
types of jesters, and then act on that knowledge in this sort of
performance environment.
The media trickled in at about 10 AM, and there were about 10 of them
(not including camera crews). There was breakfast waiting for them
(prepared by a chef from the autocrats pavilian and others - I forget
their names, but they were amazing and so was the food) and folders.
The folders were very professional, with lots of information about the
SCA: history, terms, an outline of what a knight wears, what Pennsic
is, etc. While they ate, our madrigal group sang about four pieces
for them, and I did a little bit of table juggling (*at* the tables,
not the tables themselves!). Between all of this we answered lots of
questions, and I thought it was fun.
They were supposed to go to the field battle at 11 AM, but because of
the heat it was reschedualed for 9 AM. Instead, they were given a tour
of the merchant area, the A&S competition pieces in the Barn, and the
glassblowing area. Then they were taken to the tournament that
started at 2 PM (I'm sorry, I do not know the name of it, my work was
done at about 1 PM, and I was waiting around in case any more media
showed up).
That is about all I can remember.
In Service - Midair MacCormaic
From: "Dana J. Tweedy" <tweedyd at emh1.pa.net>
Newsgroups: rec.org.sca
Subject: Re: Is the SCA bad for your reputation?
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 21:25:52 -0800
James D. or Jane Sitton-Logan wrote:
> Greetings. Madeleine de Lindsay here.
> How does one refute ridiculous charges based upon SCA membership? How
> can the SCA educated these morons about what the SCA ACTUALLY is? Has
> anyone else had similar problems, and how did they deal with them? You
> may email me privately at hammer at startext.net if you don't want to
> open up a whole 'nother can of worms here on the Rialto.
In my area (South Central PA) my shire always has to keep an eye out
for those who think the SCA is some kind of Satanic Cult(tm), but really
I haven't had much trouble with these kind of people. My neighbors have
gotten used to the fact that I keep a set of stocks in my garage (for a
local Demo),and that I can be seen test firing my Trebuchet, not to
mention the Viking Tent. It helps my father was a minister, and I'm a
member of the local Fire Company.
My Shire is near Gettysburg and Sharpsburg, so Civil War Re-enactors
are a fairly common sight here. Most people understand when we tell them
we're like the Civil War people only 800 years earlier (yes I know the
SCA isn't quite like the CW re-enactors, but the public seems to buy it).
The local cops like to come out to the park and watch Fighter practice,
and we try to get some good publicity now and then through holding demos
at the schools and cubscout troops.
As for crazy neigbors, I sympathise, but there really isn't anything
you can do about her. For the Authorities, find some copies of the SCA
news articles as in Life Magazine in 1995, and Smithsonian in 1981, and
see if anyone has tapes of the Amazing America segment that aired on the
Discovery Channel, and The "Sunday Today" report on Pennsic XX or any
local newspaper clippings would help show you are hobbyists in a
recognized group, not cultists in a secret sect.
Karl Rasmussen of Tvede, aoa,CSC
Date: 10 Feb 1997 08:41:05 U
From: "CAB" <scientific.com!cab at uunet.uucp>
Subject: PR issue
To: EDEN.COM!ansteorra at uunet.uucp
>I was always taught, and have always practiced, that the seneschal of any
>branch is in charge of that branch's public relations. It's something I've
>tried to keep in mind whenever I was a seneschal.
>
>- Galen
Not to "pick" on Galen' comment, because I think this is a very common opinion
in the SCA. As a former Senecshal, I feel very strongly about this. And I
really dislike it when I hear someone say something along these lines.
ie: That is ........'s job. So I don't have to worry about it.
And this is another point, very often, it is not even that person's job. Do
you really know what the Laws of this Kingdom say?
Actually according to Kingdom Law the Seneschal (with respect to me public) is
simply the SCA legal representative to the local area.
The hospitler ... (quoting from Kingdom Law Article II section 11) ... shall
be responsible for the advertising and public relations of the Society for
Creative Anachronism, Inc ....
(Now that both Copora and Ansteorran Kingdom Law are on line, I suggest that
every SCA person rush to read these documents. It is amazing what you can
learn from them.)
HOWEVER .... As I said in a previous posting, I do not in any way believe
that the hospitaler should be the only person expected to help with PR. The
hospitlers job is to coordinate PR and newcommer's not do all the work by
themselves. I think that each member should work to help in these efforts.
(Do you remember what it was like when you first joined? If not, think about
it for a while.)
However, on the topic of a PR person. In the shire I was in, we did have a
"PR" person, this was run as a deputy to the hospitlers office. There was a
file with copies all past articles that the press had written about us. Twice
a year we would invite the local paper to either attend a local "fighter
practice" or local event where the PR person would "baby-sit" them. We also
had a "standard" blurb, all written out that we could give them that explained
what the SCA was all about. The reporters really seemed to like having a
"hand-out" that they could take back to the office. And we were sure that
they were getting the "story" that we wanted printed.
Oh, another point ... Someone in one of the previous posts said that the SCA
at times had been mistakenly likened to satanist, cultist, ect., but that this
was probably only urban legend. Let me tell you that it is not. As a former
senecshal, I know that these sort of allegations have actually occured. If
you are not sure, contact the Kingdom Constables or Seneschal's office. I am
sure that both offices will have records on file of actual instances that they
know about and are/have taken legal action on.
What is important in the long run .. is that each member of the SCA be very
careful any time that you describe what the SCA is to anyone outside the SCA.
I have seen people who have only been in the SCA a couple of years start
talking to someone that they don't know. When that person starts asking
questions, the SCAdian comes up with "flippant" answers like ... "We really
like to beat on each other with sticks". Only to find out later that the
stranger was a reporter that just stopped by and took notes back to their
paper.
Remember we do not ... go out into the woods, dress in funny cloths, make
fires, dance around and hit each other with "sticks".
We do ... recreate the best of the midde ages including costumes, arts and
sciences, and combat in order to learn about this time in history.
Both may seem to be true ... however, the second, cannot be taken out of
context and twisted into something bad.
So, in closing, let me say that each and every SCAdian needs to be VERY
careful in what they say to people outside of the SCA.
L. Crystal Berringer
Date: Tue, 06 May 1997 12:04:58 -0500
To: ansteorra at eden.com
From: Dieterich <cjw at vvm.com>
Subject: Re: SCA vs Mundane
Allysyn wrote:
>I would like to start a new topic, if I may.
>
>I have recently been innundated with rude comments from mundanes about how
>"very unrealistic and silly I am being for getting into such a fantasy
>world." For example, I recently made a necklace with a beautifle letter A on
>it (persona name) and I display it proudly around my neck. A 'friend'
>says, "why don't you use your REAL name, and be more realistic?"
>
>"That group has nothing to do with reality."
>"Why don't you sew REAL stuff?"
>"If you spent as much time working on normal things..."
>"The only people who participate in organizations like the SCA are crazy
>fanatics." (yes, this one was told to me in church!)
>
>I realize that part of the problem is that I live in an overly conservative
>town, and out of 52,000 people, there are 119 churches--mostly Southern
>Baptist. (After all, you "MUST be a Pagan if you get into that sort-of thing!"
>
>But before I douse the burning cross in my yard (or is that our Pell?) I
>will scream loudly, VIVAT ANSTEORRA!
>
>Allysyn
Dieterich hier,
I would like to point something out that I think is being overlooked here...
Allysyn has a very real problem with her community and none of the posts
that I have seen are very condusive to bettering either *her* relationship
with them or *our* relationship with them as a group. In a perfect
scenario, there should be a way to allow your community to not only accept
you, but also embrace you as a beneficial element. Here are ways that I
have both seen this done and have done myself:
1. Have your shire/barony/whatever do some sort of community service
*outside* our normal go-show-the-little-kids-what-armor-looks-like demos.
One of the best examples that I have seen of these types of activities is
adopting a portion of highway for trash patrol. Not only does the community
see you all in 'regular' clothing, but they know who you are because you get
a sign posted on the piece of road you police. Doing any type of
fund-raising activity or widely publicized community service (battered
women, big brother/sister, blood drives) where the- pardon my generlization-
'church wives', KoC, Shriners, etc. will see and hear you helps a great
deal. Make sure that you make AT LEAST radio coverage of these events to
help make you a regularly heard name.*****NOTE- IF YOU DO THIS YOU WILL
INEVITABLY WIND UP WITH MORE NEW SCA MEMBERS...BE PREPARED FOR THEM WITH
FLYERS*****
2. I gather from your post that you are a Christian churchgoer and the
complaints you list from that end are common. I am fortunate to have a very
strong and experienced Christian friend who has dealt with these problems
VERY successfully. Here are a few of the things I have seen him do that
help Christians who are not SCAers understand that we are not fanatics or
pagans:
a.) He involved himself in an artform within the SCA that has
religious, if not Christian connotations and let his Church see the
beautiful things he has made that glorify God. With the Catholic Church as
the single common theme in Western Europe in the middle ages, it is _easy_
to find one of these artforms that you can both enjoy as well celebrate your
Christianity with. These include Calligraphy and Illumination (do the Lords
Prayer in the gothic style and donate it to your church), Painting (same
type of project... and be sure to donate it), Iconography (for all you Greek
Orthodox folks... but not *just* you), Music or Song (perform for your
church... most ministers will let you, even in the more conservative
churches), or even Sculpture or Woodcarving (donate a handcarved cross done
in a period style). Talk about your chosen artform and most importantly
*where you are learning about it*.
b.) Research the beginnings of the Church within the SCA. Find out
the whys and wherefores of the ceremony in your specific religion and
discuss them with your minister. Although 'I' am not Catholic, Dieterich is
and so I am learning about things like rosaries, common prayers, a pinch of
latin... things that not only give my persona depth, but also help me
understand more about the Church itself. Ministers love people who are
genuinely interested in Church history so discuss what you find with him...
heck, he may take up a cloistered persona himself- I HAVE SEEN THIS HAPPEN.
c.) The last thing I have seen work is by far the most difficult to
prepare for and I do not recommend it to anyone who is not willing to
immerse themselves in preparatory research first. In a conservative church,
such as the Baptist Church, Assembly of God, and Pentacostal, it is common
practice for anyone to give 'witness' or 'testify'- note: I am not an expert
on these churches so if I bungle this one, please forgive. What I am
talking about is for an individual to teach a lesson based on scripture with
a midieval example. A common example of this would be to relate a saints
story to the congregation and relate it to the days lesson. What my good
friend is doing is preparing a testimonial based on scripture with visual
aides; namely a full suit of period Roman Armor. The basic pretense is to
give an idea of what a piece of scripture (namely, Ephesians 6:13)
*actually* means; to show their eyes what the written word means. Its one
thing when they _hear_ about the 'breastplate of righteousness' but when
they actually *see* what the genuine article that Paul was writing about
looks like it helps them better understand how serious the words are. Once
again, however, I do not encourage this road unless you are VERY prepared;
this is the one that is most likely to backfire on you if someone in the
congregation is more informed than you are on the given subject; i.e.
"Mildred, can you _believe_ he thought St. James was boiled alive??? I mean
*everyone* knows he was shot to death with arrows!! Just goes to show you
those SCAers are ignorant nutbars- harumph!"
3. The last major issue I'll deal with here is the 'fantasy' issue. To
help others understand why we take personas/other names I usually start by
relating the idea of 'living history'. For brevitys sake- too late
Dieterich- Ill sum up: we learn as much about people in the past by actually
making and using their tools/clothes/weapons etc. as we do from the actual
excavation of said materials. The most prominent example of this is the
Wisby remains with injuries to the back of the heads- were they running
away?? No. We found out- through re-creating the fighting style with similar
weapons that it is easy to injure a mans back while standing in front of him
by throwing what is known today as a 'wrap'. Personna is just another way
to help us distance ourselves from our 'moderness' and allow us to study
more easily.
I usually follow this point up with the idea that what we are doing is a
form of theatre. To quote a friend:"Court is theatre, and good courts are
good theatre. Bad theatre is why arsonists begin their careers." Stress
to them the fun of playing a role well.
Dieterich Kempenich von Eltz
Date: Fri, 28 Nov 1997 07:58:38 -0700 (MST)
From: Mary Morman <memorman at oldcolo.com>
Subject: Re: SC - SC Feast n the law
> Are we feeding other people for money? Or are we doing the cooking, and the
> other people are chipping in to buy stuff and rent the site?
>
> Alasdair mac Iain
Hope this is relevant, since I'm not on top of all the postings. Some
years ago we did a 'church dinner' for the site in our barony that was
serving as a regular SCA hall. (we even had our own key!)
It was one of the best 'events' I've ever done and I still treasure the
photos taken there. We cooked a three course meal. We had dancing, a
masaque, and musical entertainment. We had carving and serving lessons
and served dinner with three 'attendants' per table. We had a lord and
lady and their page sit at high table and 'host' the hall. Every SCA
person there was there as a servant or entertainer. Those feasting were
the church members sitting in their own hall and oohing and aahing about
how it looked like a different place.
The church advertised this in their bulletin and people paid $5 per head
for the dinner. we were given the entire amount, spent most of it on food
and decoration, but still ended up with $100 for the baronial treasury.
It was great! And, ya' know, the folks at that church really liked and
trusted us. didn't think we were weird or 'satanic' or anything. they
- -knew- what we were doing and thought it was a fun hobby.
elaina
Subject: ANST - Re: ANST-A Different Motto Story
Date: Sat, 20 Jun 98 02:01:20 MST
From: Aslyn Crystyn <aslyn at onramp.net>
To: ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG
While this is not a *typical* motto response, it's a great story that has a
motto in it. As many have come to know....it's a patented Aslyn story.
While it is not *my* motto, it should be someone's. Read on, dear friends:
Once upon a time in the far off, mystical land of Denton, there was a group
of like minded individuals holding a fighter practice in one of those fabled
sylvan parks of fair Denton (much unlike fair Verona). Upon the field there
stood a brave display of heraldic prowress...one round shield, it was noted,
had a row of big, fluffy pink pom-poms lining the edge of the shield (much
like George Hamilton's hat in Zorro, the Gay Blade). My, how they
fluttered in the wind that day. I call this to your attention, gentle
reader, because it also caught the attention of the local newpaper, who sent
its best, crack Fashion Reporter to the scene of the event. The fashion
reporter, quick to assess the potential of the situation, and quick to
dismiss the far more intriguing events surrounding her (i.e., fighting,
etc.), reviewed the fighter practice scene with a keen eye turned to style
and haute couture. She noted the bold color schemes of the ladies'
dresses...the clear, definitive designs found on shields and tabards in
*smashing* Fall colors...the effective use of string in bodices.....and
then...the piece de resistance....she opined this memorable motto:
"Cutting a swath of color, texture and style across the
battlefield...."
I tell you truly, friends. There are days when I am at a tourney, and if
the wind is *just* right...I envision those pom-poms fluttering in the
wind...and, I notice the *fashionable* members of our Kingdom (and you
*know* who you are). So, remember...the next time *you* are at an event,
ask yourself: *am* I cutting a swath of color, texture and style across the
battlefield? If so, swath on.
Well, there you have it. Education and entertainment all rolled up into
one. This will most likely be my one and only post to this list. I've just
been laughing about this story for years, and I thought from the majority of
what I've been reading lately, ya'll could use a laugh, too.
We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.
Aslyn
Subject: ANST - Was Several questions- Now SCA and Media
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 98 05:42:28 MST
From: John Yates <ktmc at icok.net>
To: ansteorra at Ansteorra.ORG
A Good Thursday Morning to Ansteorrans of the List!
I read a post regarding, in part, how often to write news articles
from a Hospitaller, and part of a reply referencing, in part, to a
section of the Florilegium soncerning PR ideas and 'handling' the media.
In the city of McAlester, Oklahoma, there are only 4 radio stations
and one daily newspaper, with no local television station. Our group has
a beneficial thing in having members working at three of the radio
stations and the newspaper.
Working in both print and broadcast news, I thought I would point out
that each of the three major 'media' mediums (TV, radio, and newspaper)
would have different lead times, manner of operation, possibilities for
public service announcements in advance, feature stories, etc.
Much would depend on where a group is, what type of media outlets
(both in the city where a branch is located, but often those smaller
papers on the fringe of the Dallas market, for example,) are located.
What type of event/demo the group is holding, whether it is open to
the public, etc., would also impact how to present it to get the most
media coverage.
I would be happy to converse by private e-mail in more detail on
media. One point though; no publicity can be better than negative
publicity! It helps to have friendly, or at least non-antagonistic,
media.
Valstarr
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