| How to Write a Letter to the Press or Media
by Gila Ansell Brauner
These Guidelines will be helpful for writing to
your Member of Parliament/Congressperson/Mayor/NGO, Media channel,
or other Public Personae.
First: Open one intellectual, one middle range,
one tabloid newspaper, and one weekly magazine and look at the
Letters columns.
1. Select some letters from different publications
that make a positive or negative impression on you as a reader
(length, language, style, content focus).
Make a few notes from what you like, on the do's and don'ts of
successful letter writing to Editors.
Look at the structure and style particularly. Imitation might
be your best guarantee of publication!
2. More Guidelines :
- For the most part, Letters to the Editor begin "Sir/Madam,"
are short and to the point; sound knowledgeable, well written
and polite;
- The effective ones are not politically or ideologically argumentative;
nor are they declarative - but discussant, or informative;
- They make points/corrections, which can be substantiated in
brief
summaries (not at length);
- Do not distribute a chain letter which has been making the rounds
over the Internet unless you received it directly from the author
for this purpose. Despite the motives of various action groups,
these are for your information and your letter needs to be an
original, on the same topic.
3. Specialized campaign groups recommend letter
writers avoid any kind of criticism, but offer, rather, points
for future coverage (to present a more complete picture...(, and
include positive observations about the news or opinion item under
discussion.
4. Know your newspaper, know its public - and know
what they will and will not publish, by following a few days of
letters.
Of course, this does not mean that a newspaper whose coverage
is very biased against Israel is going to publish your letter
about its presentation. However, a lot of letters do go unpublished
and those that are published will be edited. Writing a good letter
about a major issue of coverage makes an important point, and
if a number of people write such letters, then it increases the
chance that one will eventually be published. The paper will even
do this just to show how fair they are, especially if you have
a serious correction to offer.
Sometimes, it is important that the writer should be a professional
from the relevant field, or that it be written by a well-known
personality.
5. There are generic categories to the media: news
should be news; features should be features; opinion should be
opinion… Your input as a subscriber is important to the press/channel/website.
For example:
- Over-editorializing in news items is a legitimate point of correction
in a Letter to the Editor/Director: so you can point out that
there is not much information in what is supposed to be a news
article (say on what you would like to have found information),
but that there is a great deal of editorialization;
- Where features on Palestinians have appeared which are unfavorable
to Israel in any way, it is equally possible for the press and
electronic media to prepare features on Israelis and offer them
for publication - ask for some!;
- Point out that it is good policy for a newspaper to publish
a range of opinions on one issue and ask them to do so, rather
than offering a totally"one-sided perspective".
6. It is a golden rule that you send such letters
by regular snail mail, unless it is an online edition.
7. You, or your action group should retain copies
of letters submitted for file, and send copies to any partner
groups/organizations. Similarly, if your letter is published,
or if you receive any correspondence relating to it, make file
copies.
8. Don't forget ground rules and basic etiquette:
Letters must be authentically signed and have a return address
(even if you ask for your name to be withheld);
Do not pester newspapers with regular letters to the Editor on
every item the paper publishes concerning Israel. |