The mass media have certain patterns of behavior which are fairly predictable, and our movement needs to learn to use those patterns to our advantage.

We need to understand that the mass media have always reflected the biases of their owners. This is not a new phenomenon. The white-owned media have historically been biased against people of color, straight-owned media against sexual minorities, and so on. I find it difficult for many middle class activists to empathize with working class people and their unions -- why? Middle class activists have been conditioned by the systematic bias of media owned by the wealthy.

We free up our creative energy when we simply acknowledge that these biases exist, rather than go into righteous indignation every time we read or see a new piece that puts us in an unfavorable light. Once we acknowledge the reality, we can decide: for the next campaign we design, do we need favorable media coverage, or not?

If we don't need it because, for example, the group we want to influence through direct action can get our message in other ways, then we can save ourselves some aggravation. We may be able to rely on the independent media, on the Internet -- even on street speaking and mass leafleting. It depends on who we need to reach. The Chinese students during their pro-democracy uprising in 1989 were facing a totally controlled mass media, so they used word-of-mouth and middle-of-the-night posterings and supplemented with faxes!

If we do need some positive media coverage, we can learn how to get it. There's a whole art to this and some allied media professionals willing to lead workshops on it, but I'll state a few principles here.

• Media usually show what is most dramatic. If a thousand people sit in lockdown and three people smash a window, the campaign will be presented as smashing windows. Organizers need to handle that reality; avoidance of that reality just leads to confusion and demoralization in the movement. (More on this later.)
  
  
• Liberal media pundits, who might be expected to be "on our side," usually start out confused. Early liberal commentators on the civil rights movement were often full of advice on how nonviolent action was a bad idea and sweet reason would be better. The first women to picket the White House for the right to vote were criticized harshly by liberals in the media. Let's face it. To many people of goodwill, an uproar is upsetting. A ruckus is confusing. Most middle and upper class people dislike conflict, however liberal or even radical their political views. If they are media commentators, they will find fault with our direct action.
  
  
• Mass media generally prefer to ignore direct action if they can. The struggle against the School of the Americas, for example, has often found its increasingly large direct actions to be all but ignored. Media will sometimes make exceptions if the action is particularly novel, creative, or includes humor. For example, the campaign against military aid to Pakistan got television coverage in Philadelphia 27 days out of 30, because the organizers found creative and photogenic ways of dramatizing the blockade, and there was such a strong local tie-in. There was also a narrative in the anti-weapons campaign, a story with build-up of suspense. Media have a harder time resisting a campaign with a story-line and an unpredictable "ending." This is another limitation of organizing events rather than campaigns.
  
  Many of us who saw "Millionaires for Bush (or Gore)" at the conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles may not know about their stunt during candidate Forbes' presidential primary race in New England. The group (affiliated with United for a Fair Economy) went to the 1999 kick-off Forbes news conference in "Republican drag," which included dark suits and conservative ties for the men. At the point in the news conference when the reporters were most bored, the group suddenly unleashed their signs "Millionaires for Forbes" and cheered Forbes in the name of greed. The media coverage was a victory for the movement and embarrassing for the electoral charade.
  
  
• Just because a creative tactic got media attention once doesn't mean it will get it again. Media editors often find it easy to ignore whatever has been done before. In September, 2000, at Carleton College in Minnesota demonstrators realized this truth and switched tactics. Charleton Heston, president of the National Rifle Association, came to speak on behalf of a Senator, and the protesters decided not to block the entrance to the hall or rally outside and chant. Instead, about half the students in the audience wore black and, when the half of the audience gave Heston a standing ovation, the protesters sat impassively in their chairs. The public radio report of the event was unusually detailed and vivid.
  
  This tactic may work again and again, but to increase our likelihood of coverage in a tough media environment, it pays to go to our creativity and invent new tactics. Creativity is one of the biggest strengths of our movement -- let's use it!
  
  
• Because the reporting side of mass media often ignores or downplays, and the liberal pundits usually start out confused and critical, a movement that needs the media needs to use sustained campaigns rather than episodic uproars. The organizers in Dr. King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference practically had this down to a science: they could predict how many days of a campaign before coverage would appear in local papers, how many weeks until regional papers started covering, how many weeks until national media paid attention, and how long until the liberal columnists changed their minds and saw merit in the protests. These campaigns were often successful in achieving concrete victories, with media coverage as one ingredient of their success. People of color, working against white-owned media bias, successfully used the media as a resource in their struggle. Readers who have seriously explored the power of racism have an idea what an amazing feat that was!

Today's activists can learn how to do that when we need corporate mass media for achieving our campaign objectives.