Engaging the Media in World Summits and Conferences

• Provide support to grantees that already work well with media, and make training and technical assistance available to those who need it.
• Help grantees to reach out to journalists early in the preparation stage.
• Find out which elements of the press corps will be attending, and help grantees to reach out to diverse media representatives.
• Support programs to train journalists on key issues. 
• Contract with a freelance writer to provide broad coverage.
• Be creative in thinking about grassroots communications strategies suitable for the host country.
• Try to keep media representatives informed from the beginning — whether directly or through your grantees, or both. “The media will always focus on the most controversial and negative aspect of the conference. It’s important to get out ahead of the spin. Make sure you frame the conference positively early on.” Many grantmakers emphasized the importance of equipping grantees to deal effectively with the media throughout a summit process.