My friend, TV reporter Shawne Duperon, has fabulous ideas on how to get TV people interested in your story.
In her ezine this week, she featured the following question from Chris Jamieson of the Washington Council for Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect:
“I work in the child abuse prevention field. Typically, these stories only hold water with the press if they are part of a larger, high-profile tragedy. What stories might be a good fit with a more positive prevention theme?”
I love Shawne’s answer:
“Inspiring medical story pitches motivate news producers to come film your story. Here are a few ideas:
—Team up with one of your local hospital’s PR. You could focus a story on the intuition of nurses in dealing with babies with abuse trauma in the neonatal unit. There are nationally renowned medical intuits that have written books on this topic. So in essence, focus on a nurse. Work with the PR department to ask viewers to go to your website for more information.
—Find some amazing dedicated doctors. What are their heartwarming stories of making a difference with abused kids? Ask the hospital’s PR folk which doctor has the magic touch with wounded children.
Outside the hospital:
—What about doing a story on someone who is now an adult, flourishing in the world, AND was abused as a child? What about doing a story on a family that has gone through lots of counseling and now they have new tools to communicate?