Call to arms

Moriarty

IrelandOffLine needs you help.

Over the last few months, representatives from Eircom have given interviews on various newspapers and radio shows.
We in IOFFL often feel that these interviews are one sided and that they don't paint an accurate picture of the current broadband crisis here in Ireland.

Generally speaking Eircom refuse to appear on the same interview as an IOFFL representative
and therefore we don't get an opportunity to refute Eircoms claims or to tell our side of the story.

Therefore we need the help of all IOFFL members to counter this. We have seen in the past how, after Eircom have had a one sided interview in the press, IOFFL members wrote to the editor and journalist in question, pointing out the mistakes and a few weeks later a far more accurate and balanced article is published. This is fantastic and we in the IOFFL committee would like to see more of this happen in the future.

What we would like to do is put in place a strategy for dealing with such events and guidelines and tips for how the members can respond to them.

The following are the strategy we propose to deal with various media events:

Newspaper Interviews/Articles:

1) The IOFFL member who first sees the newspaper event or article creates a new thread on the forum with a link to the full text of the article.
2) The member pulls the most important points out of the article and posts them to the thread.
3) We discuss each point on the forum, gathering information on how we should respond to the points.
It is very important that we gather factual information to support our point of view, such as reports, surveys, etc.
4) We find the contact details (email and snail mail) of the journalist and editor.
5) Each IOFFL member who has the time sends an email or letter to the journalist and editor, taking inspiration and facts from the info we gathered in step 3 above.

N.B. It is very important that we just don't send a form letter or just cut and paste the info from step 3. It is much more impressive when an editor receives letters from different people with different ways of looking at the issue and focusing on different points, but all coming from the same basic ideal. So use the info from step 3 as a resource.

Radio Interviews:
1) If an IOFFL member hears of an upcoming radio interview, please post a new thread about it with details of date and time.
2) If as many members as possible could record it that would be great. (Just to make sure we have at least one copy of it).
3) Create an MP3 of the recording (16k -20k is generally fine for radio interviews), upload it somewhere and post a link to it on the thread.
If you don't have somewhere to upload it, then PM me or email the IOFFL committee and we will upload it to one of our servers.
4) If someone could create a synopsis of the points from the interview and post it to the forum.
5) We discuss each point on the forum, gathering information on how we should respond to the points.
It is very important that we gather factual information to support our point of view, such as reports, surveys, etc.
6) We find the contact details (email and snail mail) of the radio show.
7) Each IOFFL member who has the time sends an email or letter to the radio show, taking inspiration and facts from the info we gathered in step 3 above.

N.B. It is very important that we just don't send a form letter or just cut and paste the info from step 3. It is much more impressive when an editor receives letters from different people with different ways of looking at the issue and focusing on different points, but all coming from the same basic ideal. So use the info from step 3 as a resource.

Guidelines and Tips

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- Be professional and courteous.

The most important thing is to be professional, all the other guidelines stem from that. A professional well thought out and balanced response will get far greater attention then some language filled rant.

- Don't attack the person, attack the content.

Don't attack the interviewer or the interviewee, it only makes you weaker. Instead attack their points and refute them with well-developed arguments supported with factual information.

- No language or rants.

It just makes you look childish and it will cause your letter to be dumped in the bin.

- Don't use nicknames for companies, etc. (e.g. Eircon, Eshat, etc.)

- Support your arguments with verified, factual information.

It makes you look more professional and knowledgeable, has a higher chance of being accepted and is harder to refute.

- Don't copy.

Form letters just don't impress. Add in your own ideas and views and pick the points that are important to you.

- Do add you own ideas and views.

- If the article/show is corrected later, send the journalist/editor a thank you note.

- In closing the letter, point the person to the www.irelandoffline.org website for further information and assistance.

N.B. All of these tips also apply to the thread we are posting to in the forum. Remember the IOFLL forum is often visited by a variety of people including journalists, companies and government types.

The following two threads are successful campaigns we have before and have some sample letters to give you some idea of how to write such letters:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=115313
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=114057


If anyone has any other ideas or criticisms, please let us know in this thread:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&threadid=123416

This will be very much a community effort, everyone's help counts.