One of the first challenges faced when someone is charged with securing press is simply finding a place to start. The solution is simple: read the local news. Recently, AAUW of Oregon created a successful case study based on this practice.

The News
The Statesman-Journal in Salem, Oregon, ran a series of investigative articles on sexual harassment at Oregon colleges and universities. Authors Alan Gustafson and Shawn Day detailed the experiences of five women who were victims of harassment, the policies used by Oregon universities to address the issues, and coverage of student perceptions of the problem.

The Action
AAUW of Oregon, already in the process of raising funds to sponsor new research for the AAUW Educational Foundation to investigate sexual harassment on college campuses, contacted the reporters, offering both existing AAUW resources, background on their programs, and information on the upcoming research. While they weren’t included in the initial , the effort paid off.

The Outcome
On June 20, the Statesman-Journal published the article, “Group Fights Harassment on Campus: Oregon women try to raise $100,000 for national campaign,” in which the state’s project was explained. But the article went further than just mentioning the goals.

State President Betsy McDowell was cited for submitting materials that helped in background research for the investigative series in May, showing AAUW of Oregon's active role in the issues within the state by highlighting tools from AAUW. McDowell also had the opportunity to promote AAUW’s mission as well as the upcoming area events hosted members to raise funds toward their $100,000 goal supporting AAUW research on sexual harassment. Finally, McDowell put reporter Alan Gustafson in contact with the AAUW national office so that he was able to interview Elena Siva, director of research for the AAUW Educational Foundation, who framed the issue of sexual harassment in education — at all levels — as both a serious and pervasive issue around the country and one that AAUW has researched and created tools to address for many years.

In the end, Oregon members were able to establish a connection with local media, secure coverage for their efforts, identify the organization and themselves as significant contributors in the field, and lay the groundwork for a receptive audience when AAUW Educational Foundation's upcoming research report, Drawing the Line, and LTI's Building a Harassment-Free Campus projects roll out in 2006.

How You Can Do It
A key element to AAUW of Oregon's success was keeping abreast to what’s happening in their local communities as well as nationally. Honing in on earlier articles that the newspaper had published on incidents of sexual harassment on campus allowed members to be ready to take action when the newspaper announced its investigative series in May. Keeping tabs on national news is critical, but being able to make that news relevant to events and initiatives in your local communities get press with a close-to-home appeal.

Using a variety of AAUW tools is the second part of the equation. Oregon members were able to make the story local by talking about their current project to raise money for new harassment research. But they were also able to refer reporters to AAUW’s past research — in this case, the 1993 and 2001 Hostile Hallways publications and the programs and initiatives deriving from the work such as the Harassment-Free Hallways resource guide. They also contacted the national office to get additional help from members of the research department. By doing this, they were able to establish the issue being covered by a state newspaper as one that has major national implications.

What’s next?
Drawing the Line and Building a Harassment-Free Campus projects are due to launch in early January 2006. Start monitoring your local media now to see if the issue is getting coverage and keep track of who is doing the reporting. As information becomes available and your branch launches programs in support of this initiative and more broadly AAUW's mission, use the existing news as an entry to make the new research into a local event by getting in contact with these reporters who are familiar with the issue. And be sure to let us know your successes by sending news highlights to media@aauw.org.

 Learn how other media-savvy members promote AAUW