Lazy Advocacy: Why a Media Release isn’t a strategy (and how it hurts your chances with government)
There’s a persistent myth in advocacy and campaigning that issuing a media release aimed at government equals influence. On the contrary: it doesn’t, it never has, and likely never will.
By Neil Pharaoh
In fact, it’s often the least effective form of government engagement and, if anything, it sets your cause backwards. This includes the all-too-common “bundling”, where a heap of organisations put their logos at the bottom as well. Putting out a public statement telling a government to “do better” might feel like action, but will rarely get a mention in the media, and is regularly seen as lazy advocacy.
Worse still, when organisations and sectors do this deliberately to fire up their base or increase donations, they may see a short-lived impact from the people who already agree with them. But inside the system—with the decision-makers that they should actually be seeking to influence—it rarely (if ever) shifts a decision, changes a brief, or influences a Minister. More often, it annoys the very people you need to convince, especially if you have not actually done the work to build the case for change.
Departments who are already working on the issue get frustrated. Ministers and advisers (including those quietly trying to line up support or move something internally) get boxed in. Positions harden. Doors close. What’s worse, many organisations and coalitions do this instead of the real work that is required to shift a position: which is often under the radar, hard, boring, and exhausting. And, you know what? You also end up burning the very goodwill that you didn’t realise you needed.
Yes, you might get a bump in attention, and cynically maybe even donations or supporter engagement. But that’s the trade-off: you’re often turning more decision-makers against you than you are bringing with you.
Anyone who’s worked in a Ministerial Office will tell you that the government doesn’t respond to noise in the way that people thinks it does.
Decisions are made through cabinet processes, caucus or party room meetings, internal advice, party processes, backbenchers, departments, relationships, and political trade-offs. If you’re not in all those channels, you’re not shaping the outcome.
Public pressure absolutely has a role, but it needs to be deliberate and strategic, and most times it is work that happens in the background and nobody sees. Public pressure needs to be done at the right moment, for the right purpose. Treating media as a default tactic without background work is just lazy and counterproductive.
The reality is that if your strategy is focused on broadcasting to government rather than engaging with it, it will not deliver anything. If you actually want change, you need to work with how decisions get made and not just yell at them from the outside.
Otherwise, you’re not just talking in the wrong room, you’re making sure you’re not invited into the right one.
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