Regionals on TV?

[FRANK(WGH)]

I think everyone needs to realize that NASA isn't a television production company. They are around to explore the outer reaches of space. We as the FIRST community need to come up with some creative way to get the television media involved. We've already had some great successes in this realm. Tech TV, Discovery, many national news sources. We just need to keep up with what FIRST has already done and get local sources involved now. Do something with your teams that will catch their attention. FIRST can only do so much. That's why Dean gave us this assignment.

Originally Posted by STORMCENTRE

Start by promoting FIRST to all of you're local and regional media, assignment editors, news directors, newspapers and radio stations and in press releases and information make it very clear what they will see and hear, I am just a camera guy in the news media in Toronto and I can tell you that it is one hell of a selling job to get them interested in "anything" these days.

so what? when? why? visuals and sound? and story angles!!! you all know why FIRST is important and all about it now put that to you're local and regional media in context with a local issue, perhaps cuts to education or school funding are in the news? crime involving young people are in the news? this is a great counter balance to those stories, hit them with press releases ahead of time and a day before the regionals/events and hit them the day of the events and don't get you're hopes up....I go home dissapointed 9 out of 10 days because no matter what story idea I come up with...it usually gets shot down and all you can do is keep trying.

Storm is absolutely correct. I tried very hard to get local media to the Buckeye regional and all I got was one of the local newspapers. Given, I could have tried harder and done some things differently, but there is no guarantees when it comes to the media. That is, unless you kill someone or win a championship. Even then it's hard.

Persistence is key. Be the squeaky door, but don't ruin your changes by becoming a pain. It's a fine line.

Create value for your story. Show the media why they should cover your story. Tell them your FIRST stories. These are compelling and people need to know what FIRST is doing to changes the lives of many students. They also need to know how these kids are going to change the future. IN our town, they need to know how we can turn our economies around.

Let's come up with some constructive answers to the question of how to get the media involved. No more blaming FIRST or NASA.

[PizzmasterP27]

I agree frank.

Something we did different at team rush is that each student on the team, 33 students, wrote an individual personalized letter to 3 of our metro-detroit broadcasting stations. In this letter they explained what FIRST meant to them and how it would mean soooooooo much for them to come and make a news story about the great lakes regional.

Hopefully what we are trying to do is the foundation for getting each regional broadcasted on ALL the news and sports channels.

[FRANK(WGH)]

Originally Posted by PizzmasterP27

Something we did different at team rush is that each student on the team, 33 students, wrote an individual personalized letter to 3 of our metro-detroit broadcasting stations. In this letter they explained what FIRST meant to them and how it would mean soooooooo much for them to come and make a news story about the great lakes regional.

This is what I was talking about. That's actually a really cool idea. the more information we send these stations, the less work they have to do and the better the chances that they will cover FIRST. The reason the the NEWS is so dull is because some stations have gotten lazy. So lets try and spice things up.

[Bongle]

You could maybe get news coverage with interestingly-worded press releases or pre-written articles.

TORONTO - A group of cult-like high school students gathered in the Hershey Centre today to compete in what they call a 'Game' with objects that they refer to as 'Robots'. Thousands of students will eventually pass through the doors of the Hershey Centre, each getting indoctrinated with the radical message of the group's leaders, who they refer to as "Dean" and "Woodie". Once released back into the community at large, many participants attempt to recruit more schoolchildren into the group, some as young as 10.

Tight security abounds at the Hershey Centre, with bag searches at the door for contraband. Once inside, this reporter noticed an intense religious-like fervor among the participants. Students (again, some very young) are packed to the rafters, all intently watching a field in the centre of the hockey rink that they have taken over for a weekend. I asked one group, who were intently scribbling obscure statistics on clipboards, what they were looking for. "Hurdles", replied one. "Herds and hybrid", said another. Another simply replied with a number: "1114". These code words are prevalent among the stands, with participants mumbling in low voices the same words and statistics all around the stands. Every now and then, spontaneous dancing erupts in the stands.

This group, calling themselves FIRST, has meetings just like this in 40 places across the planet, and intends to change western culture. Participants decry what they call western culture's "celebration" of people such as Paris Hilton, and sports stars, while they claim it is engineers who actually make people's lives better. They say they will not stop until people begin celebrating others as "science and technology heroes".

So you've got the cult thing going on, the sleeper cell kinda thing, people recruiting schoolchildren, there are many hooks for outrage that might get an editor to take a second look.

Note: I'm joking, don't actually submit this to anybody ever. We don't need uninformed people raging against FIRST.

[FRANK(WGH)]

I so wish that creative writing would get the attention of the press without them thinking too much into it. That's a great release. lol