VIDEO ADVOCACY

Mary Joyce for the Health Media Initiativeof the Open Society Foundations

Geneva, Switzerland | June 13, 2013

Styles

image: Flickr/JustinJensen

Lobbying

Vertical Campaign

Horizontal Campaign

3 Stylesof video advocacy

Lobbying

You

Your video

Decision-maker

Enacts goal

1.

In-PersonScreening

Successstories

2007: Bound by Promises (17 minutes), about modern-day slavery in Brazil, was screened before the Brazilian Congress’ Human Rights Commission, and has proven instrumental in getting Mobile Inspection Squads, which are responsible for investigating claims of runaway slaves, to resume their work. "Bound by Promises" has also led to greater investments in programs for workers.

2005: The Austin, Texas City Council unanimously approved a resolution opposing vigilantes along the U.S.-Mexico border and requiring authorities to monitor and

report all vigilante activities after a screening of Rights on the Line (4 minutes). The film was co-produced by partner American Friends Service Committee in

collaboration with the American Civil Liberties Union.

source: http://www2.witness.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1011&Itemid=70

2005: The State Senate Majority Leader in California introduced sweeping legislation to overhaul the State’s juvenile prison system five days after System Failure (31 minutes) by partner Books Not Bars revealing rampant abuses in the system was screened at the Capitol.

Casestory

US Secretary of Defense sees the documentary The Invisible War,

about sexual assault in the military.

He decides to change the military’s policy about investigating assault

cases to make it easier for victims to seek justices.

Film director and producer commit themselves to work on a lobbying campaign.

They have a screening on Capitol Hill for members of Congress that is co-sponsored by 2 members of Congress who are allies.

The filmmakers also organize 30-40 other private screenings for policymakers.

They reach out to politicians, advocacy organizations, journalists and military personnel.

They used their existing political connections. One producer’s mother was a Senator.

The private screenings created a strong word of mouth campaign, which led to the Secretary of Defense seeing the film.

How it happened

source: http://www.filmindependent.org/resources/case-studies/case-study-the-invisible-war/#.Ua-TiPZAS4d

Lobbying

You

Your video

Decision-maker

Enacts goal

1.

In-PersonScreening

and your allies

More people to arrange screenings.

More people to get press contacts.

People to organize supporting tactics.

You get the benefit without doing the work, because tasks are decentralized.

Allies are motivated to participate because they reinforce their own key relationships with journalists and decision-makers by using your content.

Allies work to their strengths. Lobbying organizations lobby, grassroots groups hold protests and rallies.

Who are your allies on your video topic?

The Importance ofallies

When is lobbying the best option?

When would it not work?

Lobbying1.

Vertical

Decision-maker

Enacts goal

2.

Supporters

Internet

campaigning

Internet andOffline

You and your allies

Vertical

Decision-maker

2.

Supporters

campaigning

Target is an authority figure

You and your allies

Allies andsupporters

Allies help you mobilize

Supporters.

Allies Supporters

Allies andsupporters

Ally Supporter Group

National Bar Association lawyers around the country

helps you mobilize

University Student Association university students

Union President union members

Who else?

Vertical

Decision-maker

Enacts goal

2.

Supporters

Internet

campaigning

Internet andOffline

How?You and your allies

Supporters

VKontakte

Twitter

Facebook

blog (yours or an ally’s)

web-site (yours or an ally’s)

Influencingsupporters

upload to YouTube or Vimeo

Then share via:

LiveJournal

What else?

Vertical

Decision-maker

Enacts goal

2.

Supporters

Internet

campaigning

Internet andOffline

How?

You and your allies

Decision-makerSupporters

e-PetitionTo: Chairperson

1. citizen2. citizen3. citizen

protest or rally

call

letter

email

e-petition

Influencingthe decision-maker

Who are your likely supporters?

What technology do they use?

Developingtactics

You websiteAlly’s websiteYour blogAlly blogPopular blogFacebookTwitterVKontakteLiveJournal

Posting to Youtube = Distribution!

Vertical2.campaigning

Casestory

When the Global Fund pulled out of Russia in 2009, the Russian government refused to continue supporting harm reduction programs. A campaign using video of expert

testimony on the crisis convinced the Global Fund to extend its funding.

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union filmed experts at the 2009 Moscow AIDS conference talking about the crisis in Russian harm reduction.

They made a video, “Officially Neglected” (9 minutes) and posted it on Youtube.

They shared it on their own website and on their Facebook page.

They allowed other NGOs to post it on their sites (example: drogriporter.hu)

They emailed the link to NGO allies.

They reached out to ally websites with higher traffic, like stopthedrugwar.org, to try to get a broader audience for the video.

They started an e-petition to focus supporter influence on the target.

Allies also showed the video directly to decision-makers (mixing advocacy styles!)

How it happened

source: http://www.filmindependent.org/resources/case-studies/case-study-the-invisible-war/#.Ua-TiPZAS4d

When is vertical campaigning the best option?

When would lobbying work better?

Vertical2.campaigning

Horizontal

Your video

Enact goal

3.

Citizens

Internet

campaigning

by making a change in their personal behavior.

You and your allies

Citizens

Target is peer group

You and your allies

Horizontal3.

campaigning

Casestory

Celebrities, sports teams, businesses, politicians, and ordinary people make videos urging LGBT youth not the commit suicide because life “gets better.”

In September 2010, in response to the suicide of a number of gay teens, gay journalist Dan Savage and his husband record a Youtube video telling queer teens that “it gets better” and suicide is not an option.

Savage writes about the video in his column in the Seattle weekly The Stranger a few days later. In that column he says that he has started a Youtube channel to host videos of LGBT adults saying how it has gotten better for them.

Decentralization: Savage doesn’t make all the videos. He inspires others to make their own and share their own stories.

The campaign gets very big very fast. Over 50,000 people create a video. A month later, President Obama creates a video for the project.

Over 50 million people have viewed one of the project’s videos.

How it happened

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Gets_Better_Project

With these types of projects, it is easy to measure participation and it is hard to measure goal attainment. (What is the goal?)

It is easy to measure how many people have watched the video or created a video.

It is very hard to know how many viewers were queer teens considering suicide who were convinced not to by watching the video.

They don’t know if they have attained their goal of preventing the suicides of queer youth.

This is because, unlike a vertical campaign, the individual targets are unknown to the advocate so their reception of the campaign is also unknown.

Measuringsuccess

views = success!

Measuringsuccess

You

Your video

Decision-maker

Enacts goal

Supporters

Measuring success

measure here!(not only here)

If you decide to run a peer campaign, how might you measure goal achievement?

Measuringsuccess

Lobbying

Vertical Campaign

Peer Campaign

3 Stylesof video advocacy

What type of campaign is yours?