The Greatest Media Impact Comes from Professionals and Consumers Speaking Out not the Pharmaceutical Industry

How to make your voice heard.

In order to make you voice heard, you need to address those who can act on your behalf with a message that expresses your needs in a simple fashion and is repeated by a combined chorus of all our voices.

For example, when you see a story in the media that does a good job, praise the work and acknowledge the balanced reporting. If you see a story that directly contradicts what your experience suggests, speak out and offer constructive criticism for unbalanced reporting.

When writing or talking to the media, use short concise statements or Talking Points, pithy, condensed list of facts or positions on pain issues that that youπll want to convey in your letter, editorial, speech or interview. More than an outline, talking points are facts to be repeated over and over to be sure they get across.

When you deliver talking points verbally on your feet you usually have only a very short time to speak and what you say is sure to be edited down to brief sound bites, so you need to help out the interviewer by preparing and using the sound bites you want him/her to pick up.

When being interviewed by a reporter for newspaper or TV/Radio materials, don’t let yourself be diverted from your talking points by entering into discussions of side issues, always quickly come back to the re-statement of your talking points and point out that they are the reason you are doing the interview.

Read the publications. Watch the television stations. Become familiar with columnists and editorial writers.