comstrat 383 sample 2

Loren Hagstrom Sample

ASSIGNMENT TEMPLATE: A5 Media Relations & Story Pitch

STEP ONE: Idea Development PITCH OUTLINE

Characters – who is the story/series about?

Minority student groups on campus

Location, setting, historical moments

Pullman, WA

Incidents or event – in simple terms, what is the story or series about

A recent altercation at an IFC Fraternity sparked the movement.

Situation and relationships IFC, ASWSU, multicultural community and minority groups

Information areas, subject areas

Racism, classism, sexism, ableism, gender and religious discrimination, WSU student culture and community relations

Abstract ideas or philosophical questions

Why did the IFC fraternity member make the comments, what does it say about race relations within the Greek community, etc.

Objectives of the story/series – what are you hoping to achieve, convey or otherwise accomplish?

Raise awareness about the campaign – why it’s happening, what their strategies are, etc. Also to get across the importance of the movement and get more people involved.

What makes the story unique? Why would anyone care?

It’s a student generated movement on the WSU campus, which is where most of our audience lives or goes daily. It’s something new to WSU and takes advantage of the mass reach of social media. People would care because it’s affecting their peers and the area that they live.

What is the “hook” of the story? What will draw readers in? What will appeal to your target medium and/or reporter

The situation that sparked the movement and what they’re doing to promote the movement/resolve the situation. Also how ASWSU candidates are taking angles on it for their campaigns. The appeal would be that it’s happening on our audience’s campus involving their peers and possibly people they know. They’re still debating expulsion of the individual and the fraternity.

Who are your contacts – people you can interview to further develop the story and get quotes?

Student leaders, administration, victims etc.

What is the local angle? How is this relevant to the Moscow/Pullman region or WSU campus?

The campaign started as a result of a situation involving WSU students and the demonstrations have taken place on the WSU campus, making it relevant to WSU students because it is something they see and hear about very often.

Format of the pitch – what is most appropriate for your medium

Media advisory to send to Cable8

Loren Hagstrom Sample

Related links http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_cc8cb9f8-be13-11e4-aba1-c363bba47595.html

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_88c2a6b8-be1f-11e4-8b3f-0fcf5b024562.html http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_5da7d53c-bd5e-11e4-b2be-5b4b68f9cccc.html http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_3cca4466-c228-11e4-a937-03ba10f94862.html https://twitter.com/wakeupwsu http://blackmillennials.com/2015/03/03/wakeupandhearme/ http://jessikachi.com/2015/03/03/students-from-wakeupandhearme-to-administrators-we-see-you/ https://www.facebook.com/Wakeupwsu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81aruRjMO_A http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_ead4997e-c3c9-11e4-bd53-f71e77fae7f9.html https://www.tumblr.com/search/wakeupwsu http://media.spokesman.com/documents/2015/03/Racial_slurs_at_WSU_spark_protests.pdf

Loren Hagstrom Sample

Related multimedia – exists or will need to be captured? Detail the ideal scene or settings – be specific on the imagery and emotions you want to evoke.

Loren Hagstrom Sample

QUICK SUMMARY

Wake Up WSU is a non-violent student movement on Washington State University’s campus to promote inequality and raise awareness of the underrepresentation of minority student groups. Our angle is to inform and give facts. This story should be covered because it is a wide-spread event on campus and the leaders want to raise awareness of this important issue. This movement is a great representation of the power of the student voice.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_cc8cb9f8-be13-11e4-aba1-c363bba47595.html

STEP TWO: Character Development Create a character profile for each character in your story. “Character” is defined as a person. This is where you will provide a human element to your story.

Character 1: An active member of the #WakeUpWSU movement

STEP THREE: “Loglines” “A LOGLINE is a summary of your entire concept captured in 1-3 well-formed sentences that tells your readers WHO the main character is, WHAT the main character’s OBJECTIVE is, and what ACTION the main character might use to get it, what OBSTACLE might be encountered that creates CONFLICT, and what emotional need will be fulfilled or not if the main character succeeds. It is written in beginning-middle-end format, and shorter is better.”

Wake Up WSU is a non-violent student movement on Washington State University’s campus to promote inequality and raise awareness of the underrepresentation of minority student groups. Students have formed a group to make a change by protesting in a non-violent manor. Currently there are no obstacles as most faculty and students are not bothered by the movement.

Audience – who are you really talking to with the story?

WSU community – specifically students

What does the character want? Choose an objective – a noun considering two components. 1) Physical components of objectives are sensible nouns that your character sense: to hear, see, smell, taste or touch. Also imaginations, fantasies, memories or spoken words. 2) Emotional components of objectives are conceptual nouns that cannot be directly sensed: love, forgiveness, redemption, friendship, trust. All objectives are desirable, give-able and get-able.

The character wants to change the culture of WSU and represent the underrepresented minority groups on campus. Awareness that racial discrimination is still prevalent on campus and wants to reduce that.

Objective: awareness, change

Identify TEN verbs that this character would use in order to obtain the objective. Playable verbs are actions taken to get an objective – but have a metaphorical quality that describe an attitude toward the objective or degree of care as to how they want to get the objective. Playable verbs can be done in more than one physical way. (i.e. to beg, flirt, manipulate, pout, energize)

Promote, protest, to raise awareness, meet, debate, encourage, discuss, inspire, motivate, and change.

List THREE major obstacles that prevents your character from achieving the objective. Obstacles are nouns considering two components. 1) Physically-sensed (door, gun, storm, spider) but do not include fear or emotions (too vague). 2) Behavioral (stubborn-ness, untrustworthy-ness)

1) Campus rules and restrictions regarding protests/movements

2) Getting students to participate (attitude toward movement)

3) Being effective and different than other movements (actually achieving a result)

What are the main events where conflict will occur for your character?

Meetings and debates with other groups, having the majority of the student body accept their ideas and reason for having the movement.

Imagine the consequence of failure and success for your character if he/she reaches the objective – describe what he/she imagines.

Consequence of failure: nothing changes on campus, character feels like they failed or let their group down

Success: character feels like they’ve improved race relations and lessened negative events or discrimination on campus.

Loren Hagstrom Sample

STEP FIVE: Final Pitch

MEDIA ADVISORY March 25, 2014

Contact: Loren Hagstrom Student Murrow College of Communication 509-000-1234

Wake up WSU

WHO: Underrepresented students and groups at Washington State University

WHAT: Non-violent protests via social media and on campus generated by WSU students to create equality.

WHERE: Washington State University

WHEN: Originating incident: Weekend of February 21, 2015 Funeral of Ignorance (Silent Protest): February 25, 2015 Wake up WSU meets with Phi Delta Theta: February 26, 2015 in CUB Senate Room Multicultural debate with ASWSU candidates discussing their dedication to servicing underrepresented students: March 5, 2015 Discussion and plans meeting: March 10, 2015 *On-going via social media and with WSU faculty.

WHY: The purpose of this on-going movement is to promote change in the racial climates of WSU. Students want their voices to be heard and for people to take action in resolving the issue of inequality and underrepresentation of minority students on campus. The movement is occurring due to recent events that received more attention than usual. For students involved, the most recent event of racial slurs being used was the ‘last straw’ for students to keep quiet about this issue. Student groups began to organize movements and protests which naturally caught the media’s attention.

Loren Hagstrom Sample

DETAILS: List any background information on event or your organization, if pertinent. Mention possible photo/video opportunities, other visuals. List web site address. On the weekend of February 21, 2015, 1 IFC fraternity member used inappropriate language toward a guest at a party. Students became aware of the racial slurs that were said and began to post about it on social media. This caused lots of buzz and students began to ban together to create a movement in order to raise awareness of underrepresented students and groups on campus. This movement has been named “Wake Up WSU” and has been continuing on in the past weeks. Students are aiming to get faculty involved to create change. Within recent weeks there have been silent, non-violent protests and meetings with ASWSU to discuss a resolution for the inequality on campus.

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_cc8cb9f8-be13-11e4-aba1-c363bba47595.html

http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_88c2a6b8-be1f-11e4-8b3f-0fcf5b024562.html http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_5da7d53c-bd5e-11e4-b2be-5b4b68f9cccc.html http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_3cca4466-c228-11e4-a937-03ba10f94862.html https://twitter.com/wakeupwsu http://blackmillennials.com/2015/03/03/wakeupandhearme/ http://jessikachi.com/2015/03/03/students-from-wakeupandhearme-to-administrators-we-see-you/ https://www.facebook.com/Wakeupwsu

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81aruRjMO_A http://www.dailyevergreen.com/news/article_ead4997e-c3c9-11e4-bd53-f71e77fae7f9.html https://www.tumblr.com/search/wakeupwsu http://media.spokesman.com/documents/2015/03/Racial_slurs_at_WSU_spark_protests.pdf