Messaging This Moment Communications Guide
We were excited to stumble across this “handbook for progressive communicators” last week. Although very focused on the American context, this guide puts “base building” front and center. It is an easy to read, chock full of examples and clear instructions, and very focused on helping us making our messages intelligible and inspiring. Here’s a little excerpt:
“Instead of leading off with problems, narratives that first link to shared values have proven much more effective at shifting opinions toward progressive policy solutions. Leading with values also reminds us that we need to challenge our entrenched beliefs about what we can and can’t say in service of a progressive agenda. For too long the right has succeeded in mobilizing what they came to label “values voters” using cuddly words like “family” to cloak their anti-woman, anti-LGBT agenda. This has been so effective that progressives routinely reject messaging around family and freedom as somehow inherently conservative. We need to confront those fears with the truth. Conservatives get crushed in values centered debates. Marriage equality won out precisely because LGBT people made the debate about values of commitment and family. When they stopped talking “rights” and started talking “love,” the tide turned. The immigrant rights movement made headway when they made the debate about families, the American Dream, and the freedom to be who you are and go where you need to go.”
How can you see this tool being useful to Quebec community groups and nonprofits, and especially to small organizations? Let us know!
