Note: Conservative frames that currently dominate the media environment have given rise to policies that hurt everyone. If you work for a justice centered organization you know this from living it. And you know how important the need is for effective and resourced communications strategies that compete for public and political support. That's why we're so excited to release Echoing Justice: Communications Strategies for Community Organizing in the 21st Century along with our allies. The report provides most comprehensive information on grassroots communications capacity and strategy to date. See the full report at http://centerformediajustice.org/echoing-justice/

A brief timeline of communications in the grassroots organizing sector since the year 2000.  

2000 -
Q: How many communicators does it take to screw the status quo?
A: Zero.  Communicators don’t screw the status quo, they screw us by taking money we could be spending on organizers.  

2003
Q: How many communicators does it take to screw the status quo?
A: 1/2.  If 1/2 of one person faxes out enough press releases, eventually the status quo will be screwed.

2007
Q: How many communicators does it take to screw the status quo?
A. One.  If one person does some magic framing and gets onto myspace/facebook/twitter, sooner or later the status quo will be screwed.

2010
Q: How many communicators does it take to screw the status quo?

A. One for every organization and alliance. To develop narratives, to lead with values, to get 1000+ facebook/twitter/instagram followers, and to screw the status quo!   2012

[Click here to read Karlos Gauna Schmieder's Response to Makani]

I had a conversation a few years back with an organizer from the organization formerly known as ACORN. Just a few days before, the 2005 living wage ballot measure in Albuquerque had lost by less than two percent of the vote. The organizer was expressing her frustration that funders were "getting caught up" in resourcing communications strategies to mobilize mainstream audiences in response to the fact that the Albuquerque campaign was the first effort where opposition put money into media, testing a message that framed living wage as anti choice and impinging on workplace freedom. The media, in her analysis, was effective with the opposition but the coalition’s base of supporters was solid and the actual majority. They would have won, she believed, if they had resources for a few more organizers to get their folk to the polls.