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I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many stories
on radioactive waste issues all in one day (see highlights above
and links to the right). It’s obviously a big issue for Utah policymakers.
KSL Radio On Demand
KSL Radio is doing something very cool, offering Podcasts of a lot
of its programming. What this means is that if you have an iPod
or MP3 player you can easily download KSL’s broadcasts and listen
to them whenever you wish. For more information and downloading
instructions, click
here.
Some experts believe Podcasting is the future
of radio, and KSL says it is the first station in the country to
provide Podcasts of large chunks of programming. So if you missed
Doug Wright’s talk show yesterday, but heard that he discussed
a topic you’re interested in, you could easily download yesterday’s
show and listen to it whenever you please. The station isn’t yet
offering Podcasts of its national talk shows.
Podcasting has a lot of other applications
besides downloading radio programs. Podcasting allows almost anyone
to become a broadcaster with very inexpensive equipment and free
software. A political candidate could make available key speeches
or press conferences or audio messages to voters. An incumbent could
record a weekly message to constituents and make it available in
a Podcast.
It has obviously been possible to do audio
over the Internet for some time now, but Podcasting just makes it
very simple and inexpensive for both the originator and the receiver.
Content is available on-demand. You don’t have to listen live. If
you hear of any other interesting Utah Podcasts, amateur or professional,
please let me know so I can pass it on.
The Art of Political
Campaigning
If you’re serious about politics and want to polish your campaign
skills, Campaigns & Elections magazine is sponsoring a campaign
training seminar June 16-18 in Washington, D.C. For more information
click here
or send an e-mail message to tallman@campaignline.com.
The seminar will cover dozens of topics, including how to get press
coverage, managing and using voter files, fundraising plans, survey
research, hiring consultants, grassroots organizing, using the Internet,
opposition research, and so forth.
Blog Watch
Rep. Jeff
Alexander writes about I-15 improvements in Utah County
. . . Rep. Steve
Urquhart discusses smoking in bars and the upcoming special
session . . . Dave
Fletcher
has a lot of interesting stuff (some of which I’ll highlight tomorrow),
including links to a lengthy
paper from Edelman (the world’s largest independent PR firm)
on the impact of blogging (see more info
here).
Communications Tip
Do You Have a Communications Plan?
Most political failures are failures of communications. But many
politicians and government leaders don’t even have a communications
plan. They simply take whatever communications opportunities happen
to come up and are otherwise silent. Obviously, this doesn’t apply
to major offices that employ full-time PR people (although often
even they don’t have very good plans), but it does apply to most
state legislators and many other appointed and elected officials
at all government levels.
Every policymaker should be pro-active with
communications. Every policymaker should have a communications plan.
The best PR comes naturally as a policymaker is actively pushing
initiatives and projects and pro-actively communicating about those
legitimate issues. You can’t create good PR out of nothing. You
have to be engaged and active and have initiatives to promote. Remember,
events drive politics and also create good communications opportunities.
To create a simple communications plan, write
down your objectives, including what you want to accomplish with
your projects and initiatives. Then think about (and write down)
the various audiences (opinion leaders, political activists in your
district, business leaders, active voters, etc.) you need to reach
to accomplish your objectives. Then write down the key messages
you need to deliver to the audiences. Then think about the delivery
mechanisms, or channels, you can use to deliver the messages. These
channels might include a newsletter to active voters, a press release
to local news media, a white paper to opinion leaders, a speech
to a civic club, a press conference with those you’re trying to
help, a Web log, an appearance on a radio talk show, or a town meeting.
There are lots of ways to deliver the right messages to the right
audiences. Be creative. Be aggressive. Don’t wait for communications
to happen. Be pro-active. Create a communications plan.
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