BlogTalkRadio interview

Hi All–

Thanks to @mikeboehmer57 for having me on his BlogTalkRadio show, PR Mike in Cincy! We talked about using Social Media for Social Services agencies.

Have a listen here!

Review of Equus: The struggle for identity

I just finished reading Equus, the 1975 Tony-award winning play written by Peter Shaffer and recently revived on Broadway with stars Daniel Radcliffe and Richard Griffiths.

The play revolves around Alan Strang, a troubled boy of 17 who has been court-ordered to receive care after he blinds six horses with a metal spike. His foil is Dr. Martin Dysart, a psychiatrist who is Strang’s last resort.

It’s in the therapeutic setting that the two go to battle (and is a far cry from the tête-à-tête between Matt Damon and Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting). It is revealed that Strang, torn between an atheistic father and a Christian mother, creates his own religious world evolving the sexual and spiritual worship of horses.

The play’s action is focused on Dysart coaxing Strang to reveal his thoughts and motivations. Dysart is able to do so, in part, because he, himself is in crisis. Strang’s inner world is an obsession of which Dysart, a man tired of his profession and marriage, is jealous.

“But that boy has known a passion more ferocious than I have ever felt in any second of my life. And let me tell you something: I envy it.”  (Act II: Scene 25)

Dysart has a professional responsibility to save Strang and society from the consequences of the boy’s obsession. But in doing so, Dysart realizes he must end the boy’s passion—his most raw and truthful part of himself.

I was amazed with the depth of the play, which I only read and never seen performed. The precision of the dialogue reminded me of the meticulousness of poetry. Equus is a remarkable and haunting work.

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To my chagrin, I hadn’t heard of the play until Radcliffe joined the London production. But here is Dan Radcliffe’s interview on Inside the Actors Studio that really motivated me to seek out the text.

Ohio State Alumni Magazine – Willie Young

Ohio State Alumni Magazine

I just received my contributor’s copies from Ohio State Alumni Magazine for a story I wrote about Willie Young, Ohio State’s Off-Campus Student Services Director.

I first met Young when I was working on my master’s of Journalism and Communication at OSU, and he let me ride along with him during a weekend night. He was very gracious with his time with this former grad student and really does care about the students. I’m happy he was able to be featured.

The fun part for me is I pitched this story almost five years ago, and it was good Mr. Young remembered me.  Lesson learned: You just never know when queries might get answered.

Here is the PDF of the article

DIY Public Relations: Print outlets in Greater Cincinnati

Here is my second post about DIY nonprofit public relations in Cincinnati:

Now that you’ve sharpened up your writing skills, you’re ready for the pitch—the story idea about your nonprofit that you know the people will want to read and the media will want to cover. To have a successful pitch, you have the right story for the right media outlet.

Good public relations can only happen if you know the media outlet to which you’re submitting your news. If you’re not sure which reporter or section that should receive your news, you need to study the outlet more.

Here is a partial list of print media outlets in Greater Cincinnati you may want to consider submitting your press release. Each hyperlink goes directly to the reporter/editor contacts page of each outlet.

• CIN Weekly
• Cincinnati Business Courier
• Cincinnati Enquirer — Decide which section of the newspaper is most appropriate for your news. Don’t send to every section or every reporter cuz that’s just annoying.
• Cincinnati Magazine — The magazine has a “15 Minutes” Page for nonprofit events, but your photo needs to be an exclusive.
• Cincy Not-For-Profit News
• Cincy Magazine (formerly Cincy Business Magazine)
• CityBeat
• Community Press and Recorder – Remember these newspapers are only interested in news that affects the neighborhood or community they cover.
• Dayton Daily News
• Express Cincinnati

PRSA Cincinnati has a page of media links you may also want to check out.

I use these pages to doublecheck I have the right information. In fact, I find them more useful than keeping an email address list.

Stop back soon for my next post of broadcast and radio outlets in Cincinnati.

Writing in the New Year

Now that Christmas has passed without incident, I’m looking forward to the New Year and the possibility of fresh starts. I plan to write more in 2009, because, frankly, I just need to for my own sanity. My volunteer responsibilities are decreasing,  so I should have more energy to devote to the vicious cycle of writing, editing, crying, re-editing.  I might even try my hand at fiction again.

Penny

But, on a personal note, I need to mark 2008 as the year of the dog. After much debate, Marc and I adopted a 4-year-old cattle dog mix named Penny in August from the  SPCA Cincinnati. She has been surprisingly fun, probably just to me as a recovering cat owner. She has held me accountable to my exercise routine and makes lying on the floor look like the most comfortable place to be. I can’t wait to get to know her better in the upcoming year.

Happy New Year, everyone!

DIY Public Relations: Writing & Style

More than once, I have been asked to give advice on how to improve a nonprofit’s public relations activities. To make it easier for me to remember my own tips, I am planning several posts on DIY nonprofit public relations, focusing on Cincinnati. Many grassroots organizations just don’t have the capacity for public relations, but we’re all lucky enough there are plenty of online resources available.

This first post is about writing since it is the most important skill of a practitioner.  The great thing is you can bypass the costly degree (unlike me) and use the power of the Internet to learn what you need to know. We’ll get to writing for the web later.

Grammar & Writing

Before media writing, you’ll need a basic understanding of good writing. Freshen up on that 8th grade English with sentence structure, passive voice, paragraph transitions and more.

• The Guide to Grammar and Writing grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar — This website has tips for the word & sentence or paragraph level.
  

• Grammar Girl grammar.quickanddirtytips.com — One of the most popular podcasts, Grammar Girl “provides short, friendly tips to improve your writing.” Listen or read the transcripts.

Media Writing

• Newsroom 101 www.newsroom101.com — They say it best: “Newsroom 101 offers more than 2,000 free, self-instructional exercises for journalists, writers, editors, students and others who want to review (or learn) journalistic language, as governed by the Associated Press Stylebook.”

• News University www.newsu.org — A journalists’ training website by The Poynter Institute.  You’ll get to learn from the journalists themselves. To get started, I recommend the free  “Cleaning your copy” course.

• Providence Journal Writing Program  www.projo.com/words — Again, they say it best: “Weekly lessons on the craft of newspaper writing, from the staff of The Providence Journal“

Style

Just like those college papers, there are standardized rules of writing for media outlets.

• Associated Press Style www.apstylebook.com - The foundation of newspaper writing. Most newspapers use AP Style in their writing. If you write in AP Style, media organizations are more likely to reprint your press releases. Other newspapers, such as the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have their own style, but don’t worry about all that. Buy your own copy of the AP Style Book…it’s invaluable.

• Broadcast writing – Mervin Block, a broadcast writing coach, as his “top tips of the trade.”

That’s all I have for now. What are the resources you do use?

Poetry and Google iPhone App

I have been having great fun with my iPhone apps since their official launch in the summer. My favorite app has become the free and updated Google app with voice searching. Two surprising uses: to spell words that I hear on my audiobooks and to write lines of poetry as I drive (or at least noting the key words).

The other day, I wasn’t sure how to spell “espadrilles” but Google did. (It was important because I’m now listening to Confessions of a Shopaholic on tape). And I was able to start a new poem on my way home by capturing the key words of lines I wanted to remember.  It was great.

Review of Coal River: The serious battle against mountaintop removal mining

I have ridden the snake-like road of I-64/77 through southern West Virginia at least twice a year since I was  a girl and grew up in awe of the ancient Appalachian Mountains. But a few years ago, I noticed my first mountaintop removal site just off the highway between the valley of two other mountains. Its bleak look, desert tan in high elevation, was shocking in contrast to its green counterparts.

Michael Shnayerson recounts a similar situation in his book, Coal River: How a few brave Americans took on a powerful company—and the federal government—to save the land they love (2008). Shnayerson’s principal character, Joe Lovett, noticed similar sights as he drove along the same road also known as the West Virginia Turnpike. Lovett is a West Virginia environmental lawyer who has been working on stopping mountaintop removal mining years before I noticed anything.

The book concentrates on Lovett’s representation of local activists and their lawsuits to stop mountaintop removal. The suits were mainly brought against the Army Corps of Engineers, the coal company, Massey Energy, and its CEO and political big-spender Don Blankenship.

Coal River’s literary tradition comes from other legal nonfiction such as Jonathon Harr’s book, A Civil Action (1995), and the 2000 movie, Erin Brockovich. (But this book does lack the fun use of feminine wiles). Water polluting is a major factor in all of these stories, including Coal River.

Lovett’s main legal argument is that, beside the loss of America’s “mother forest,” mountaintop removal permanently obliterates waterways with debris and dangerous contaminants, making the process a dire short-term solution with irreversible consequences.

While Lovett makes a sturdy case against mountaintop removal mining, Shanyerson is heavy-handed in his retelling, never attempting to provide a decent case for the other side. His heroes are portrayed as faultless angels; his villains as close cousins to Skeletor.

But once I was able to accept the author’s bias, I found Coal River a satisfying read even with the need to supplement the knowledge. It is a relevant book about what is happening now in terms of energy production, corporate responsibility, mine safety, environmental law, and state and federal politics–a complex policy issue not just for West Virginia but for the nation.

To provide more information mountaintop removal mining, here are some additional links:

• Check out Google Maps to see mountaintop removal mining sites in West Virginia. Type in “Kayford Mountain WV” to see a large site. Make sure the “satellite” button in turned on.
• A CBS 60 Minutes interview with former national mining regulator, Jack Spardaro, about a coal slurry spill in Eastern Kentucky and alleged cover-up.
• A Google News feed about mountaintop removal mining in West Virginia
• Michael Shnayerson’s original article for Vanity Fair in 2006, “The Rape of Appalachia.”
• ABC’s Nightline April 2008 investigation of Don Blankenship and his relationships with West Virginia state officials:

Voting in Ohio and Hamilton County

Nonpartisan voting information for Ohio is available at SmartVoter.org, a Web site managed by the League of Women Voters. Here you can get candidate and issue information.  You can also get a sample ballot. Remember you’ll see eight presidential tickets on the Ohio ballot. Here is a list of all presidential tickets, including write-ins.

Other links for voters in Ohio:

• Find your county in Ohio on SmartVoter
• See if you are you registered in Ohio (Ohio Sec. of State)
• Find your polling place in Ohio (Ohio Sec. of State)
  
• Information about what ID is needed at the polls

Hamilton County is fully participating on SmartVoter with candidate and issue information for county offices and city and village issues.

Highlights on SmartVoter for Hamilton County:

• Hamilton County SmartVoter website
• Cincinnati Issue 7 (red light cameras)
• Cincinnati Issue 8 (proportional representation)
• All ballot issues in Hamilton County

Find more information about voting and elections in Southwest Ohio at the League of Women Voters of the Cincinnati Area.

Why oh why oh, did I ever leave Ohio? A songlist to vote by

Ohio, you’re so fun, especially during election time. I know I’m in the minority, but I have been enjoying the flurry of mostly local campaign ads and direct mailers in this final gasp of the election season.

I can contribute this euphoria to three personal and selfish items:

1. I’ve been able to avoid all robo-calls…so far.
2. My volunteer project with the Cincy League of Women Voters’, (the production of the printed and electronic versions of the candidate/issues guides) is complete. I do love the sound of 100,000 copies of the Who & What hitting the pavement around town.
3. My absentee ballot has returned to its mother ship at the Board of Elections.

So for me, its all over but the shoutin’ and the countin’. In celebration, I’ve created an Ohio playlist to inspire during this final week of election mania (Listed by song, artist and website to listen).

• Carmen Ohio by Ohio State Marching Band (OSU Mp3)
• Ohio by Crosby Stills Nash & Young (YouTube with history clips )
• Down on the Banks of the Ohio by Blue Sky Boys (YouTube)
• Look at Miss Ohio by Gillian Welch (Last.fm)
• Cincinnati, Ohio by Connie Smith (YouTube. Ain’t she cute?)
• South of Cincinnati by Dwight Yoakam (YouTube. This is really about Kentucky but I love any song with Cincinnati in it)
• Ohio by Over the Rhine (YouTube)
• Hang On Sloopy by Ohio State Marching Band (OSU Mp3)
• Ohio from “Wonderful Town” (Passionato)

Any other suggestions?