Media is both powerful and influential. Here’s how it can create positive change.
Last August 27, award-winning journalist Jessica Soho published her Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho Special Report: Diumano’y korapsyon sa flood control projects (Evident Corruption in government flood control projects).
Unbeknownst to her, this usual segment in her show would be cited as one of the main influences behind both the historical Baha sa Luneta and Trillion Peso March last September 21. Regardless of political affiliation, more than 50,000 showed up.
After years of frustration with ghost flood control projects and typhoon-related tragedies that, many say, could’ve been preventable with the highly-funded government interventions, the people have finally spoken up.
Even then, social media and online campaigns contributed greatly to both these youth-led rallies full of so many people: youth groups, church groups, civil rights groups…even everyday Filipinos.
If this doesn’t prove the power of storytelling in sparking change, I don’t know what else will.
Disclaimer:
Before I continue, let it be known that this article won’t be political commentary. Rather, I am simply writing the ways the media can power advocacies to spark the changes they want to see–no matter how big or small.
Without Advocacy Campaigns, Numbers Won’t Resonate Enough
I previously wrote about how stories are 22 times far more remembered than facts and statistics alone (and here’s the source I used from Stanford Women’s Studies).
Honestly? This will barely change. While facts have no feelings, people do. And facts alone won’t change anything unless it persuades someone that it matters.
And this is what advocacy groups and/or brands should aim to do: make the facts matter through genuine, community-focused storytelling.
Which brings me to my next point.
Advocacy Campaigns Engage With, and Mobilize, Communities
More than blogs about the importance of branding and authenticity, I also wrote about how important community engagement is in PR strategies.
And I did it because, through experience, I truly believe that campaigns–especially advocacy campaigns with a deeper purpose–highlight and champion the voices more of us need to hear.
Media isn’t just static visual content people can just blindly consume. It’s an arm extending to communities, saying “hey, we won’t forget about you this time around.”
It’s also an arm that mobilizes communities toward positively participating in society, be it for better literacy rates, fighting hunger, or even raising awareness about maternal health (as NGP IMC has done with MSD for Mothers and Jhpiego).
All of these involve a lot of engagement. Or the art of sitting down with people on their level (especially in remote places) and actively going into the hard problems that need to be solved. Or tackled.
Or maybe a practice/indigenous group that needs to be preserved.
Advocacy Campaigns Allow Collaboration Between Communities and Shareholders
The ultimate goal of any advocacy campaign is to have some form of bridge between a community and your brand/group’s shareholders. If you have no shareholders, your campaign should resonate with any government agency instead.
If the campaign didn’t succeed with this, at least it tried to break any sort of barrier: literacy, societal, cultural, economic, etc.
This is especially the case with green, sustainable initiatives. As explained by a talented Jeremiah, partnering and collaborating with communities is important to have when you have a campaign that promotes a green, sustainable project.
This goes for any advocacy campaign, or group in general. Health, gender…even reforms.
Which brings me to my next, important point.
Stories In Advocacies Always Lobby For Change
All stories (or at least, brand and advocacy-related stories) advocate for something: being true to yourself, environmental awareness, health is wealth, etc. These stories can either make people laugh, influence policy, or contribute to active discourse.
And stories advocating for something always lobby for some sort of change, one way or another. You don’t have to be a politician for your campaign to lobby for something, either.
But your advocacy campaign can make that opportunity possible.
Does it have to be a congress? No? But can you make your story lobby for change? Yes!
Stories in Advocacy Campaigns Preserve Culture
Surprisingly, preserving culture also creates change. How? By:
- Giving us a reference point about where we come from,
- Dispelling any misinformation we have about our identity (and this, in turn, changes how we see ourselves),
- Influencing us on what to do next, and
- Creating a well of knowledge we can use for a more sustainable future.
In short, the past influences the future. People can also criticize past events and tie them to the future–an important aspect of critical thinking that the media can foster directly or indirectly.
Advocacy through storytelling comes in because so many things about the past can be brushed off as insignificant. That can include historical events, clothes, food, and a way of life.
Concrete Example:
Mama Sita’s “Kwentong Pagkain” competition is a great example of a campaign that both preserves culture and creates change. The food essay writing/art competition was a way for Mama Sita to encourage appreciation for cultural heritage and preserve family recipes that risk getting lost.
And since so many Filipino dishes and recipes get lost in time (especially to Filipino families abroad), you also risk losing important things like regional folklore and national pride.
Remember: Media Holds Responsibility.
The Philippine Information Agency acknowledges that
- Framing and making a problem digestible to understand is effective in disseminating information, and that
- Using storytelling to make research not just intelligible, but inspiring, helps stakeholders feel a sense that change is possible.
In short, media campaigns have great power when they tell the stories that spark change.
Having media experts in your advocacy campaign is a responsible thing to have–especially empathetic, well-equipped PR agencies with a network of journalists and publishers.
I understand that I write for a PR agency, but I say this 100% as someone who was part of a youth group advocating for better mental health laws: proper communication, in the proper mediums, is important.
Regardless of the advocacy itself, each NGO and group has their own department for both internal and external communication.
That is how important proper communication is in advocacy.
If You’re Not Careful, Your Advocacy Campaign Can Add To Misinformation
Saying something is wrong is also an example of positive change. But without responsible media use (especially with tactless PR), you can also add to the wave of misinformation yourself.
NGP IMC’s integrated strategy includes empathy and connectedness. It’s been the backbone of many advocacy campaigns, including:
- MSD’s Hope From Within Campaign Against Cervical Cancer,
- Organon’s Heart to Heart Campaign for Optimal Cholesterol Control,
- MSD’s Collaboration with AYALA HMD in their Campaign Against Cancer, and
NGP IMC’s values have also been key in making brands grow for more than twenty years. Whether you’re a startup or a brand with an advocacy–or are an advocacy group yourself–NGP IMC is a great media partner to have if your values align.
If you want to dig deeper, you can set an appointment here, or contact them here.
Kriztin Cruz is a recruitment and digital marketing professional, freelance writer, hobbyist painter, and frustrated sociologist–with too many things to want and too little time to spare. She graduated with a Psychology degree in 2019 at De La Salle – College of Saint Benilde Antipolo. When she’s not drafting a corporate letter or working on anything digital marketing, you can find her doing the following, but not in this order: reading a good book, scavenging for a good book, sketching, painting, journaling, junk journaling, obsessing over an obscure Czechoslovakian surrealist film (or anything by Miyazaki or Del Toro), cooking, finding a cafe to relax in, and creating new things while a nice documentary plays in the background.