LEARN HOW TO...

Welcome to the "How To" Page

This page is designed to point you towards the many resources that our network holds to get you the skills you need. We hope you'll share yours!

Please click on the list below or scroll down to begin doing it yourself

Run a press campaign for your organization

  • Pitch a story to the press

  • Write a protest letter to critique media coverage

  • Write a letter to the editor

  • Get your message across when speaking to the press

  • Find video production training

    • Fundraise for your grassroots media project

  • Fundraise for your low power radio station

  • Learn how to write a grant proposal

    • Media Production
    Radio

  • Start a low power fm station

  • Check out successful low power fm organizing structures

    • Video/Television

  • Define your audience

  • Download Curriculum for making your own PSA

  • Download "Video for Change: A Guide for Advocacy and Activism”

  • Learn how to use and operate a video camera

  • Watch a video on video production tips and techniques

  • Download a curricula for teaching video production

  • Download a guide to setting up a Copwatch in your community

  • Distribute your own video

  • Find video distribution outlets

  • Create your own video blog

    • Print Media

    Visual Art

  • Download a guide to creating street art

  • Learn about the history of graffiti

  • Learn how to silkscreen a poster from start to finish

    • Creative Resistance

  • Be a Radical Cheerleader

  • Be a Billionaire for Bush

  • Be a Missile Dick Chick

  • Hold a retail intervention with Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping

    • Please click on the list below or scroll down to begin "Doing It Yourself"

    How to run a press campaign for your organization

  • Visit Medianet, a complete online tutorial on how to run a press campaign for your non-profit organization. This website is packed with tutorials like: What’s newsworthy? Some sample “hooks” your organization can use, How to get and keep press attention,
    How to build relationships with reporters, How to get people to your website, marketing techniques and more.
  • How to pitch a story to press by SPIN project
  • How to Write a Protest Letter to Critique Media Coverage Click above to read Women in Media & News' Jennifer Pozner in "Bitch" Magazine for some tips that will grab attention and make the powers that be think (or at least we can try.)

  • How to write a letter to the editor

  • Don't get choked up when the corporate media calls you for a quote. Read some tips for staying on message, speaking in 'sound bites' and more.
  • Visit our local**** Media Organization Directory**** to access the names, phone numbers and contacts of people who can help you develop your own media production capacity. (coming soon)
  • Ask the MNN Youth Channel to help your youth organization by offering a training in video production.

    • Fundraise For Your Alternative Media Project

    • Read the step by step guide from Philadelphia's Prometheus Radio Project on running a fundraising campaign for your local radio station.
    • Take a quick (and free) online course in how to write grant proposals from the The Foundation Center

    Media Production


    Radio

    Start Your Own Radio Station

    • Prometheus Radio Project shows you the first steps, getting you on your way to your own Low Power FM station. Click here to go to the lesson plan
    • Learn how to organize your radio station. Creating a community-based low-power radio station takes more than engineering expertise, it takes grassroots and political organizing, the ability to work with different types of people, fundraising savy, and a sensible organizational.Read through and study some successful models of community radio stations. structure.

    Video/TV

    Video Production

  • Start a Copwatch Program In Your Community

    • Download the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Guide to Copwatching

    Distribute Your Own Video

    • A step by step lesson from the good folks at Mediarights.org.
      Click here to go to the lesson plan
    • Not sure what to do with your video after it's done? Visit our "Distribution Outlets" page for a list of public access stations, local film and video festivals and where to find national distribution opportunities.
  • Learn how to publish your video for free online in a Video Blog.


    • Print Media


    Visual Art

    Create Your Own Street Art


    Web-based


    Creative Resistance

    • Be A Radical Cheerleader
    • Click here to learn cheers from the NYC Radical Cheerleaders
    • Be a "Billionaire for Bush"
      Billionaires for Bush is a do-it-yourself grassroots media campaign using humor and street theater to expose politicians who support corporate interests at the expense of everyday Americans.
      Now you too can join the ranks of the filthy rich with the brand new edition of the Billionaires for Bush Do-It-Yourself Manual. Full of action ideas, organizing tips, materials and more, this kit contains everything you need to become a billionaire in no time!
    • Be a Missile Dick Chick

      • A dance troupe of 'republican housewives from Crawford Texas' their form of creative protest teaches folks a thing or two while they're laughing too hard to notice. Learn their show-stopping song and dance numbers to make folks on the street think twice before refilling their SUV's with gas. Their hot number: "Shop in the Name of War" is a fun one for protests.

    • Confess your capitalist sins to Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping. Hold a "retail intervention" at a Starbucks or Walmart near you.