Brett Davidson's blog

In my work supporting NGOs in media advocacy, there's one thing that comes up again and again in conversations, but it's almost never addressed in the several toolkits and handbooks one can find on engaging the media.

Everyone working on the ground acknowledges it's a problem, but nobody seems to have much advice about how to deal with it.  I'm talking about the fact that in many countries, it's difficult to get into the news media without paying for coverage. I think it's high time that we had some serious discussion about this, and how to deal with it.

When I talk to scientists and activists, I often encourage them to think about new media (the internet, social media such as Facebook and Twitter) as well as the traditional media (newspapers, radio, etc) as a means of getting their message out. Though people do get excited, they question the reach of such media, in countries where internet access is very slow, or not widespread.