In two previous posts, I've explored the topic of improving the relationship between Muslims and the media -- from grassroots steps we can take as Muslims, then looking at how mainstream media (MSM) news operations function and some of the challenges they face in getting clear, usable information on Muslim issues.
In this segment, I'll explore how Muslim institutions in particular have failed to meet those challenges due to 1) weak messages and and 2) a general unwillingness to engage with the media and the public, including insufficient leveraging of modern media tools.
However,these deficiencies can be remedied when organizations reevaluate both their strategy and their tactical methods, which I'll address in the final post.
People, Not Quotes
To sum up from the last post: MSMs require a) a story that can connect with its audience; b) a wider range of easily accessible, less insular Muslim sources that are willing to speak in a compelling manner on Muslim issues or that can refer to those who are; c) a simplified understanding of the range of Islamic thought and discourse, and easier access to that diversity.
MSMs want a story,not just a reaction to an event -- some kind of personalization, and ideally a localized one. They also abhor "official sound" as a first and only offering. "Official sound" is usually a necessary component, but by its very nature, it's pretty much anathema if it's all you've got. I've seen more than one story get postponed, or else cut from a planned 90 second or 2 minute segment to a 10 second anchor reader if other sources or elements don't develop in time for deadline and all we have is official sound. There's not a story there -- it's just a talking head.
You can't make a story out of only official sound -- and Muslims desperately need their own compelling stories to be shared, so that a tangible, personal shape begins to broaden and clarify the collective mosaic of Muslim identity.
It boils down pretty simply: newsrooms need stories, and Muslims need their stories told.
Of course, not every news story should be a Muslim story, but when there's an appropriate event or a good fit, Muslim agencies should be prepared enough, be supple and agile enough to offer a compelling, useful, response.
Contrast those needs of both the Muslim community and that of MSM outlets with the kind of statements released by major Muslim organizations after Ft. Hood, well compiled by Sheila Musaji in this post on her blog. I'll repost some of her aggregation here, then analyse the releases from a newsroom perspective.
While these statements of unanimous condemnation by such organizations are certainly necessary, sincere, and often eloquent -- and institutions of course can't not do them -- from a newsroom perspective, there is little memorable or useful in any of them. There is no story, no angle, no human connection; nothing offered that I can build a news piece around, only droning quotes to repeat. It's all official sound, each interchangeable and in aggregate, somehow predictable, indistinct, generic. It's nowhere near enough.
These all fall under the category of what I call IIAROP Release Suicide. For nine years, Islamic organizations have spewed out thousands of press releases saying "Islam Is A Religion Of Peace" (what I call "IIAROP" releases), and yet Islamophobia has never been higher. So you tell me if this is a good, effective strategy with proven results. I think not.
Of the batch, the more enticing statements come from ISNA and APAAM. As a newsroom editor, I'll want to know more from ISNA: Can Dr. Safi be reached for comment? Can he describe the workshop? How did he and workshop attendees react to the Ft. Hood news when it broke? How did he adjust or use the workshop itinerary, what kind of discussion ensued? That's a great story. ISNA had the foresight to provide contact info for Safi, and announced plans for a later press conference.
APAAM is promising, too: strong, vivid, easy, unequivocal language, and also leaves me with a desire to know more. Tell me about Arabs and Muslims in the military, hook me up with someone who's willing to talk about their experience. while the relase is a little long and repetitive, their overall tone also imparts a sense of approachability: you definitely get a sense that if they were called, they'd be willing and eager to help share their stories and experiences.
CAIR gets some points for conciseness and strong language; though they don't offer me anything that makes me pick up the phone and follow up with them, their language and brevity makes them the most usable quote, and that's certainly of some value.
However, the usable accounts, the real stories, what a newsroom really needs, did not come from any organizations, but from blogs. But frustratingly, these moving stories of Muslims who have sacrificed in the American military, such as those concisely chronicled in the Beliefnet blog post "Crescents Among The Crosses" by Shahed Amanullah, were many, many links away from the prime sources of major Muslim institutions as listed above.
Robert Salaam, a military veteran and Muslim convert who keeps an active blog, also had great points, but was hard to discover initially.
As always, Sheila Musaji's work at TAM provided great resources in addition to the above compendium, but again she's demonstrated a reticent stance in engaging with non-Muslim media in some of her posts. If I were a non-Muslim in a newsroom, it's clear she's not going to be a source I can partner or ally with to help my viewers gain a better understanding of Muslims. She and Assef are not going to help Western media tell the Muslim story.
Organizations such as APAAM and AMAF/VAC should have had such stories of Muslim veterans readily on offer for the media to draw on, in addition to the largely interchangeable 'official sound' press releases. One shouldn't have had to dig that hard to find such stories of Muslim American soldiers who have served this country -- and newsrooms trying to find compelling ways to personalize or contextualize a breaking news event like Ft. Hood don't have time to chase a 7-step chain of blog links to find such accounts. Those stories were a strong collection of palpable, real experiences that could have connected and resonated with the mainstream media and its audiences had they been more easily surfaced. Instead, from a newsroom point of view, I'm pretty much relegated to deciding which bland, unmemorable, interchangeable "we condemn..." soundbite to use.
Disengaged
So if the major organizations couldn't offer a story, could they at least tell me what they're doing, their plans, their next steps? Not really. Only ISNA announced a later press conference, and not very effectively, at that.
In events such as Ft. Hood that will impact the Muslim community, it's important that Muslim organizations go beyond abstract sound bites and offer (or point to others who are offering) specific, future plans or courses of action.
In the case of ISNA, its announcement of the later press conference is cryptic as to the presser's intent, other than to say "representatives from all three organizations will be holding a press conference ... to discuss the matter further."
That kind of nebulous ambiguity is not conducive to ensuring media coverage, because if a newsroom is juggling resources to cover events,as outlined in the earlier post, then what often makes or breaks a presser getting covered is a sufficient understanding of what the presser will be about. It can even be in how it's worded; for example, "Mayor Holds Press Conference To Discuss City Finances" vs. "Mayor To Unveil New Steps To Tackle City Budget." The second sample is more specific, conveys a sense of more relevance to the user.
In researching this blog post, it wasn't until I found ISNA's post-conference release that I learned about the fund set up by ISNA for Muslims to donate for the victims. Considering that the announcement for the presser came earlier on the same day ("Today at 10 am"), it seems unlikely (but I suppose possible) that at least some basic plans for the fund drive hadn't been arrived at in time to include in the announcement. If I know in advance the presser will touch on such a plan, I'm far more likely to cover it; that's a tangible element and story, an interesting development. Without such specifics, three or four representatives simply "discussing the matter" has less appeal if I have a busy news day and limited staff to go gather news.
None of the other organizations even hinted at future steps or plans, which is a particular shortcoming from the The American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, in my view. Given the factors and questions that surrounded the immediate aftermath of Ft. Hood, it was the most qualified organization to take a very active stand in coordinating or relaying follow-up investigations and developments, offering military psychological experts, other Muslim soldier experiences, etc. So many questions were crying out to be answered, by Muslims and Non-Muslims alike, that AMAF/VAC could have provided a valuable service by taking an active and visible role in offering media access and availability. Instead, they offered a brief statement (with typo) and no visible follow up. True, their focus is not as a media relations arm, but even statements of what their courses of follow-up were would have been of immeasurable benefit.
An in-depth analysis and critique of each of the above organizations' web and social media usage is beyond the scope of this blog. In brief, however, all of the web sites in the above organizations could use varying degrees of revamping in terms of objective, targeting, focus, content, and ease of use.
More problematic is the lack of visibility or good use of social media tools. While an effective leveraging of Facebook and Twitter vary among the organizations, most fell short (simply regurgitating or automating your web content onto Facebook is NOT a good practice).
However, the most egregious problem is that NOT ONE of these organizations have their Twitter or Facebook information available anywhere on their main site. To me, that's shocking in this day and age. I only found their Facebook and Twitter pages via Google or Bing searches, or an internal Facebook search.
Here's how the above organizations stacked out:
Newsrooms are increasingly using tools such as Twitter and FB, both to gather information and disseminate it. Undertaking better practices and accessibility for such platforms will not only help organizations in their own reach and efforts, the symbiotic benefit as your social media output meshes with that of MSM outlets and practices has great potential and can only help in developing that long-term relationship with the media.
In the next entry, I'll wrap this series up by looking at the media needs on Muslim issues for both the Muslim and non-Muslim general user, and offer some strategic and tactical ideas for organizations to think about that can improve overall Muslim media reach effectiveness. I'll also review previous elements in the series in light of the strategic discussion, and explore how it all can work in tandem towards the stated goal in the title.
Next: Reclaiming The Perceptions Of Muslims, Pt. 4 - Analyse Your Press Release; Serving Non-Muslims
In this segment, I'll explore how Muslim institutions in particular have failed to meet those challenges due to 1) weak messages and and 2) a general unwillingness to engage with the media and the public, including insufficient leveraging of modern media tools.
However,these deficiencies can be remedied when organizations reevaluate both their strategy and their tactical methods, which I'll address in the final post.
People, Not Quotes
To sum up from the last post: MSMs require a) a story that can connect with its audience; b) a wider range of easily accessible, less insular Muslim sources that are willing to speak in a compelling manner on Muslim issues or that can refer to those who are; c) a simplified understanding of the range of Islamic thought and discourse, and easier access to that diversity.
MSMs want a story,not just a reaction to an event -- some kind of personalization, and ideally a localized one. They also abhor "official sound" as a first and only offering. "Official sound" is usually a necessary component, but by its very nature, it's pretty much anathema if it's all you've got. I've seen more than one story get postponed, or else cut from a planned 90 second or 2 minute segment to a 10 second anchor reader if other sources or elements don't develop in time for deadline and all we have is official sound. There's not a story there -- it's just a talking head.
You can't make a story out of only official sound -- and Muslims desperately need their own compelling stories to be shared, so that a tangible, personal shape begins to broaden and clarify the collective mosaic of Muslim identity.
It boils down pretty simply: newsrooms need stories, and Muslims need their stories told.
Of course, not every news story should be a Muslim story, but when there's an appropriate event or a good fit, Muslim agencies should be prepared enough, be supple and agile enough to offer a compelling, useful, response.
Contrast those needs of both the Muslim community and that of MSM outlets with the kind of statements released by major Muslim organizations after Ft. Hood, well compiled by Sheila Musaji in this post on her blog. I'll repost some of her aggregation here, then analyse the releases from a newsroom perspective.
STATEMENTS ISSUED BY MUSLIM ORGANIZATIONS:
ISNA Islamic Society of North America: "The Islamic Society of North America condemns in the strongest terms the attack on soldiers at Fort Hood, resulting in the murder of at least a dozen soldiers and the wounding of many others. We express our deepest condolences to the victims and their families. Although many details of the shooting are unknown at this time, it appears that the attack was led by a career soldier, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. The soldier who led this attack was either mentally unstable, or was motivated by a perverted ideology for which there can be no justification. ISNA is proud of the many Muslim men and women who serve loyally in the United States military. We are grateful for the sacrifices made by all US soldiers, who represent the religious, racial and ethnic diversity of America, to defend the Constitution and our national security. ISNA, a faith endorser of US Muslim military chaplains, is proud of the service they provide, offering comfort and support to people of all faiths and beliefs. Just today, ISNA's chaplain endorser, Dr. Louay Safi, conducted a workshop at the US army base in Fort Bliss, Texas."
CAIR Council on American-Islamic Relations: "We condemn this cowardly attack in the strongest terms possible and ask that the perpetrators be punished to the full extent of the law. No religious or political ideology could ever justify or excuse such wanton and indiscriminate violence. The attack was particularly heinous in that it targeted the all-volunteer army that protects our nation. American Muslims stand with our fellow citizens in offering both prayers for the victims and sincere condolences to the families of those killed or injured."
MPAC Muslim Public Affairs Council: "MPAC and the Muslim American community unequivocally condemn this heinous incident. We share the sentiment of our President, who called the Fort Hood attack "a horrific outburst of violence." We are in contact with law enforcement and US federal government officials to gain more facts from this tragic incident and work together in dealing its aftermath. Our entire organization extends its heartfelt condolences to the families of those killed as well as to those wounded and their loved ones," said Salam Al-Marayati, Executive Director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. We stand in solidarity with law enforcement and the US military to maintain the safety and security of all Americans."
ADC The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee: "The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is appalled by the attack that took place earlier today against soldiers and others at Fort Hood, Texas. Preliminary news reports have indicated that a rogue Army Major Malik Hasan and two others shot and killed at least 12 people and injured numerous others. ADC President Mary Rose Oakar said, "This attack is absolutely deplorable. ADC has been consistent and on record in condemning any attacks aimed at innocents, no matter who the victims or the perpetrators may be. Such violence is morally reprehensible and has nothing to do with any religion, race, ethnicity, or national origin. ADC urges the FBI and law enforcement agencies to make every effort to see that justice is served." Oakar continued, "ADC also calls upon law enforcement agencies to provide immediate protection for all Mosques, community centers, schools, and any locations that may be identified or misidentified with being Arab, Muslim, South Asian or Sikh as a clear backlash has already started. The actions of a few should not invite a backlash on innocent members of any community and we urge law enforcement and others to keep that in mind. "
AMAF/VAC The American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council: The American Muslim Armed Forces and Veteran Affairs Councail [sic], bold mine -- msd(AMAF and VAC) condemns in the strongest terms the attack on soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas resulting in the murder of at least a dozen soldiers and the wounding of many others. We express our deepest condolences to the victims and their families. We join the Community of Fort Hood, Texas in their mourning. Islam holds the human soul in high esteem, and considers the attack against innocent human beings a grave sin. This is a criminal act that is now best dealt with by the law enforcement community.
The American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council (AMAF and VAC) is a not for profit, non-political, independent American based organization. AMAF and VAC was established to serve the spiritual needs and religious welfare of Muslims who serve or have served in the United States Armed Forces, their dependents, as well as veterans. This encompasses all branches of the US Military, including the US Coast Guard.
UMAA The Universal Muslim Association of America: "UMAA strongly and categorically condenmns the heinous attack of a deranged individual in the name of Islam, at Ft.Hood Army Base. We pray for the families of the victims and the departed souls. No religion teaches any sort of violence against innocent civilians. The perpetrators of these vicious attacks have no semblance of being Muslims and do not belong to any civilized society. UMAA beleives that the responsible individuals should be punished to the fullest extent of law."
APAAM The Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in the Military: "At a time of deep sorrow in the midst of this horrific tragedy, our thoughts are first and foremost with the Fort Hood shooting victims and their families. One can only imagine the unspeakable pain and loss they are and will be dealing with in the weeks, months and years to come. It is unfortunate that whatever demons possessed Nidal Hasan, that he chose to deal with his problems in this way. In the aftermath of this terrible tragedy, it is more important than ever that we not make the same scapegoating and broad stroke mistakes that were evident in the aftermath of previous tragedies. The Association of Patriotic Arab Americans in Military urges the media, government officials and all of our fellow Americans to recognize that the actions of Hasan are those of a deranged gunman, and are in no way representative of the wider Arab American or American Muslim community. In fact, thousands of Arab Americans and American Muslims serve honorably everyday in all four branches of the U.S. military and in the National Guard. Additionally, many of us have willingly stepped forward to fulfill our duty with our fellow soldiers in both Afghanistan, Iraq and other locations around the globe for the defense of our national security, including most of the member of APAAM. Indeed, many of us are today currently deployed in both countries, honorably serving each and every day.
While these statements of unanimous condemnation by such organizations are certainly necessary, sincere, and often eloquent -- and institutions of course can't not do them -- from a newsroom perspective, there is little memorable or useful in any of them. There is no story, no angle, no human connection; nothing offered that I can build a news piece around, only droning quotes to repeat. It's all official sound, each interchangeable and in aggregate, somehow predictable, indistinct, generic. It's nowhere near enough.
These all fall under the category of what I call IIAROP Release Suicide. For nine years, Islamic organizations have spewed out thousands of press releases saying "Islam Is A Religion Of Peace" (what I call "IIAROP" releases), and yet Islamophobia has never been higher. So you tell me if this is a good, effective strategy with proven results. I think not.
Of the batch, the more enticing statements come from ISNA and APAAM. As a newsroom editor, I'll want to know more from ISNA: Can Dr. Safi be reached for comment? Can he describe the workshop? How did he and workshop attendees react to the Ft. Hood news when it broke? How did he adjust or use the workshop itinerary, what kind of discussion ensued? That's a great story. ISNA had the foresight to provide contact info for Safi, and announced plans for a later press conference.
APAAM is promising, too: strong, vivid, easy, unequivocal language, and also leaves me with a desire to know more. Tell me about Arabs and Muslims in the military, hook me up with someone who's willing to talk about their experience. while the relase is a little long and repetitive, their overall tone also imparts a sense of approachability: you definitely get a sense that if they were called, they'd be willing and eager to help share their stories and experiences.
CAIR gets some points for conciseness and strong language; though they don't offer me anything that makes me pick up the phone and follow up with them, their language and brevity makes them the most usable quote, and that's certainly of some value.
However, the usable accounts, the real stories, what a newsroom really needs, did not come from any organizations, but from blogs. But frustratingly, these moving stories of Muslims who have sacrificed in the American military, such as those concisely chronicled in the Beliefnet blog post "Crescents Among The Crosses" by Shahed Amanullah, were many, many links away from the prime sources of major Muslim institutions as listed above.
Robert Salaam, a military veteran and Muslim convert who keeps an active blog, also had great points, but was hard to discover initially.
As always, Sheila Musaji's work at TAM provided great resources in addition to the above compendium, but again she's demonstrated a reticent stance in engaging with non-Muslim media in some of her posts. If I were a non-Muslim in a newsroom, it's clear she's not going to be a source I can partner or ally with to help my viewers gain a better understanding of Muslims. She and Assef are not going to help Western media tell the Muslim story.
Organizations such as APAAM and AMAF/VAC should have had such stories of Muslim veterans readily on offer for the media to draw on, in addition to the largely interchangeable 'official sound' press releases. One shouldn't have had to dig that hard to find such stories of Muslim American soldiers who have served this country -- and newsrooms trying to find compelling ways to personalize or contextualize a breaking news event like Ft. Hood don't have time to chase a 7-step chain of blog links to find such accounts. Those stories were a strong collection of palpable, real experiences that could have connected and resonated with the mainstream media and its audiences had they been more easily surfaced. Instead, from a newsroom point of view, I'm pretty much relegated to deciding which bland, unmemorable, interchangeable "we condemn..." soundbite to use.
Disengaged
So if the major organizations couldn't offer a story, could they at least tell me what they're doing, their plans, their next steps? Not really. Only ISNA announced a later press conference, and not very effectively, at that.
In events such as Ft. Hood that will impact the Muslim community, it's important that Muslim organizations go beyond abstract sound bites and offer (or point to others who are offering) specific, future plans or courses of action.
In the case of ISNA, its announcement of the later press conference is cryptic as to the presser's intent, other than to say "representatives from all three organizations will be holding a press conference ... to discuss the matter further."
That kind of nebulous ambiguity is not conducive to ensuring media coverage, because if a newsroom is juggling resources to cover events,as outlined in the earlier post, then what often makes or breaks a presser getting covered is a sufficient understanding of what the presser will be about. It can even be in how it's worded; for example, "Mayor Holds Press Conference To Discuss City Finances" vs. "Mayor To Unveil New Steps To Tackle City Budget." The second sample is more specific, conveys a sense of more relevance to the user.
In researching this blog post, it wasn't until I found ISNA's post-conference release that I learned about the fund set up by ISNA for Muslims to donate for the victims. Considering that the announcement for the presser came earlier on the same day ("Today at 10 am"), it seems unlikely (but I suppose possible) that at least some basic plans for the fund drive hadn't been arrived at in time to include in the announcement. If I know in advance the presser will touch on such a plan, I'm far more likely to cover it; that's a tangible element and story, an interesting development. Without such specifics, three or four representatives simply "discussing the matter" has less appeal if I have a busy news day and limited staff to go gather news.
None of the other organizations even hinted at future steps or plans, which is a particular shortcoming from the The American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council, in my view. Given the factors and questions that surrounded the immediate aftermath of Ft. Hood, it was the most qualified organization to take a very active stand in coordinating or relaying follow-up investigations and developments, offering military psychological experts, other Muslim soldier experiences, etc. So many questions were crying out to be answered, by Muslims and Non-Muslims alike, that AMAF/VAC could have provided a valuable service by taking an active and visible role in offering media access and availability. Instead, they offered a brief statement (with typo) and no visible follow up. True, their focus is not as a media relations arm, but even statements of what their courses of follow-up were would have been of immeasurable benefit.
An in-depth analysis and critique of each of the above organizations' web and social media usage is beyond the scope of this blog. In brief, however, all of the web sites in the above organizations could use varying degrees of revamping in terms of objective, targeting, focus, content, and ease of use.
More problematic is the lack of visibility or good use of social media tools. While an effective leveraging of Facebook and Twitter vary among the organizations, most fell short (simply regurgitating or automating your web content onto Facebook is NOT a good practice).
However, the most egregious problem is that NOT ONE of these organizations have their Twitter or Facebook information available anywhere on their main site. To me, that's shocking in this day and age. I only found their Facebook and Twitter pages via Google or Bing searches, or an internal Facebook search.
Here's how the above organizations stacked out:
- ISNA: Facebook, Twitter, but neither available from main web site
- CAIR: Facebook, Twitter, but neither available from main web site
- MPAC: Facebook, but not available from main web site; no organizational Twitter that I can find, but its Director of Operations does have one
- ADC: Facebook, Twitter, but neither available from main web site
- AMAF/VAC: No Facebook or Twitter
- UMAA: Facebook, Twitter, but neither available from main web site
- APAAM: No Facebook or Twitter
Newsrooms are increasingly using tools such as Twitter and FB, both to gather information and disseminate it. Undertaking better practices and accessibility for such platforms will not only help organizations in their own reach and efforts, the symbiotic benefit as your social media output meshes with that of MSM outlets and practices has great potential and can only help in developing that long-term relationship with the media.
In the next entry, I'll wrap this series up by looking at the media needs on Muslim issues for both the Muslim and non-Muslim general user, and offer some strategic and tactical ideas for organizations to think about that can improve overall Muslim media reach effectiveness. I'll also review previous elements in the series in light of the strategic discussion, and explore how it all can work in tandem towards the stated goal in the title.
Next: Reclaiming The Perceptions Of Muslims, Pt. 4 - Analyse Your Press Release; Serving Non-Muslims
Great Article and series, I will surely recommend your work.
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