Boiling Over to Get Media Coverage During Winnipeg's Boil-Water Advisory

Most non-profit groups don’t have the resources or the stature to make the news—to capture the media’s attention and set the news agenda for the day.

That’s why they need to be alert to what’s happening in the news, and find ways to piggy-back on the day’s events. 

By hooking their agenda to what the media is already talking about, they have a chance of being caught in the current.

That’s what’s happening right now in Winnipeg, where I live.

The city is under a boil-water advisory, due to a test that revealed e-coli in the water system.

It’s an inconvenience to most residents. At most, the advisory will last a couple of days.

Activists and organizations who advocate on behalf of Aboriginals in Canada who have to boil their water every day have seized this opportunity to make their case.

Specifically, a group that is agitating for the residents of Shoal Lake First Nation will hold a rally in the city to underscore the severity of the crisis facing people in that community. (Which is also located on the source of Winnipeg’s drinking water.)

"While this city has been inconvenienced by a 1-2 day E. coli scare, we thought it was important to publicly highlight the irony of the boil water advisory Shoal Lake #40 First Nation has had for over 17 years," a spokesperson was quoted as saying in the Winnipeg Free Press. 

Their efforts underscore a few things.

First, non-profit groups need to pay attention to the news agenda. Trying to force your issue into an agenda that is already crowded with other things is not a good strategy.

Second, by tagging along with the news of the day, groups can get pulled along and use it to highlight their own concerns.

Third, the media likes it when groups do this. A major story can have a number of angles, but the obvious ones are quickly exhausted. If the media wants to keep the story alive, they will need fresh perspectives. 

Offering new angles—including ones the media may never thought of—can earn you the gratitude of a busy and harried reporter who needs to produce something different by deadline.

In the case of the group advocating for people in Shoal Lake, it got them an advancer to get people out to the rally, and will probably get them coverage of the rally itself. 

Preston Manning, former leader of Canada’s Reform Party, offered some wise words about this issue when talking about climate change and the environment.

Too many groups, he said, start with the big affects of climate change out there, and then wonder why the public is so indifferent.

“In selling an unfamiliar concept or policy solution, start where the public’s head is, not where yours is,” he wrote in the Globe and Mail. 

“‘Think global, act local,’  many environmentalists say. But few Canadians get up in the morning thinking globally; local thinking guides local action.”

For groups trying to draw attention to the water woes facing many Aboriginal reserves in Canada, Winnipeg’s boil-water advisory was a great opportunity to create empathy and understanding—to think local.

It’s a great way to get media attention, too.