Working with Local Alliances: Communicating with the media
Nationally Health Scotland has a comprehensive communications strategy for reducing smoking, reducing exposure to secondhand smoke and preventing children from starting to smoke. There is substantial evidence to support the use of local media interventions as part of a successful comprehensive tobacco control strategy. It is also important to keep influential members of the community such as political representatives, business and community leaders, well informed of tobacco control activities.
These do not need to be expensive paid advertising campaigns; low cost interventions such as media advocacy have proven extremely effective.
Enhancing local media tobacco control knowledge can increase the amount of press coverage received for press releases, promote the use of feature stories by local media and ensure that health promotion events are well publicised.
This media support pack, which collates information from several sources, has been produced to provide local tobacco control alliances with the information they require to develop and maintain an effective communications strategy. It covers the various forms of communication and provides examples and templates, contacts both national and local, and a tobacco control events calendar which highlights various events happening throughout the year that gain national media coverage and may be used to highlight different aspects of tobacco control work locally.
This guide is not meant to circumvent the communications facilities provided by statutory organisations but rather to complement this and provide those involved with tobacco control work the means to refine their communications work.
Communicating your work: An information pack for local tobacco control alliances in
Central Scotland
Glasgow
Highlands and Islands
Lothians
Mid Scotland and Fife
South Scotland
West Scotland
To find out more contact the Local Alliances Officer on 0131 220 9472 or email janet.wilson@ashscotland.org.uk
Produced by ASH Scotland’s Local Alliances Project February 2008