[debatewisegypcc] FAO Nadia Siddiqi and anyone else who's interested re press releases
- From: "Rosie Charalambous" <caracal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <debatewisegypcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 8 Dec 2009 14:43:57 +0200
They won't reply Nadia - you just need to send out a press release, and I
suggest not too many links - that takes up a busy journalist's time!
Below is the one I sent, just change bits to suit your country details if you
like. :)
Rosie
Press Release
GLOBAL YOUTH PANEL TO DEBATE CLIMATE CHANGE
Cyprus represented by 11 young people
Cyprus is participating in the Global Youth Panel debates, discussing decisions
of the ‘COP15’ Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference.
Outcomes from the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which runs
from
December 7-18, will be closely scrutinised and debated by more than 1,000
members of the Debatewise Global Youth Panel. The group of 15–25 year-olds from
140 different countries will raise their arguments about the pros and cons of
the Conference using Google Wave, the new real-time communication and
collaboration tool launched earlier this year.
The Debatewise Global Youth Panel delivers the views of those who will be most
affected by the outcomes of COP15. The panel is motivated, not by global
economic and politics, but by real fears and concerns about how climate change
is affecting their lives and futures. Their debate will represent a unique
perspective on what the Danish government describes as ‘The
Crucial Conference – the last chance to reach an agreement that can be approved
and ratified in time to come into force when the first commitment period of the
Kyoto Protocol expires in
2012’.
The Debatewise Global Youth Panel is being locally coordinated in each of the
140 countries involved. The Panel covers just about every ethnic and social
group, and consists of a mix including those who have registered out of
self-motivated concern, and invited participants who are already active on
climate change issues. The debate will also give voice to a vital age group in
some of the world’s poorest countries.
Overview
Debatewise will organise a series of online debates to coincide with the
Copenhagen climate change conference which starts on 7th December. As
moderators of the debates, Debatewise will table the motions while various pro
and con arguments for each debate will be created by volunteers from the 1,000
strong Global Youth Panel. Some members of the panel will create the debates,
others will vote on the debates. In this way we will measure of how young
people around the world think about events from the conference.
After the conference we will contact group panel members by country and ask
them to debate how they will be impacted by the decisions the conference comes
to. Brazil, for example, may wish to make a case against deforestation
restrictions whilst the rest of the world may argue that they should suffer for
the greater good. In this way, the decisions taken at Copenhagen will be given
a personal and truly local context which we believe no-one else is providing.
The Debatewise Global Youth Panel debate begins on 7th December and will carry
on in real time throughout the United Nations Climate Change Conference, which
ends on 18th December.
The Cyprus co-ordinator is Rosie Charalambous, who can be contacted on
22-781828/99-666011.
She can put you in touch with Cyprus panellists if you would like to interview
them.
Global organiser David Crane can be contacted:
Tel: 020 3393 7223
Mobile: 07956 292 567
http://debatewise.org
dc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
What is Debatewise?
Debatewise is a not-for-profit organisation. It was started by David Crane with
the help of funding from Open Society Institute – whose chairman and founder is
George Soros.
Debatewise was created to support people who like making informed decisions;
for people who would rather not trust one source of information, but instead
try to obtain a rounded view – which these days often means visiting forums and
blogs. But making sense of different opinions can be time-consuming and
imprecise, involving visiting a number of sites, reading often long threads,
working out who to trust, picking the gold from their posts – and then
searching again for secondary validation.
Debatewise was created to provide a place where the best possible arguments for
one side are listed next to the best possible arguments against. These
arguments aren't created by one person, but by like-minded individuals
collaborating to form the strongest case. This allows people both to easily
compare the pros and cons, and come to a decision safe in the knowledge that
it’s based upon the best information to hand.
Debatewise aims to be the first place people think of when they want to make up
their minds; it also aims to provide an environment where people can explore
both sides of an argument or issue, and leave better informed. It’s also hoped
that they’ll share their knowledge, to better inform others.
For more information on the Cyprus participation contact Rosie Charalambous,
caracal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx tel: 22-781828/99-666011
----- Original Message -----
From: nadia siddiqi
To: debatewisegypcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2009 2:07 PM
Subject: [debatewisegypcc] Re: Fw: It all starts tomorrow
I can't see the attachment, I wrote to a bunch of newspapers, put in lots of
links and none of them have replied,yet.
N
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Date: Sun, 6 Dec 2009 21:02:58 +0000
Subject: [debatewisegypcc] Re: Fw: It all starts tomorrow
From: dc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
To: debatewisegypcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Rosie made a very good point about sending the press release out. Try and
personalise it as much as you can. Add a paragraph talking about your
panellists, why they're involved, what obstacles they've had to overcome to
take part - and so on.
Also, if a journalist could talk to a panellist so much the better - do get
their permisison first though.
Remember, this is a big story - the media will want to cover it. You just
need to let them know it's going on.
Dave
2009/12/6 Rosie Charalambous <caracal@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
DOH! now with attachment!
Rosie
----- Original Message -----
From: Rosie Charalambous
To: David Crane
Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2009 8:43 PM
Subject: Re: [debatewisegypcc] It all starts tomorrow
Hi David,
good advice re media contacts .. For Cyprus I have reworked the press
release slightly (attached for your perusal) emphasising the local aspect
(that's what will sell it here - and I suspect in many other countries).
Media reps will tend to phone a local number (the CC to start with) and
then they can be persuaded to follow up with panellists themselves and
hopefully you as organiser.
We've had good coverage so far in the English press here - confess I have
been rather too busy to check the Greek press - but hopefully we can build on
it this week.
My suggestion to CCs is to TELEPHONE newspapers, radio/TV stations and ask
for contact names .. they all get so much mail it may go straight into spam ..
personal addy has much better chance of follow up. Media advisory today, and
press release in 2 or 3 days (with some early results of debates) may be a good
strategy.
I think CCs need to say they can put reporters in touch with panellists --
that's who many will want to speak to (why are they doing it etc), so maybe
they should check with panellists that it's OK to pass on contact info to
journalists.
Hope that helps,
Rosie
----- Original Message -----
From: David Crane
To: debatewisegypcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Sunday, December 06, 2009 5:23 PM
Subject: [debatewisegypcc] It all starts tomorrow
Hi all,
Thank you for all your hard work over the past month. You’ve done
brilliantly recruiting the panel and getting them on to Wave. All this effort
will start to reap its rewards tomorrow and I wanted to let you know the
process from here.
There are three key tasks during the conference:
*Task 1*
Try to get as many of your panellists to take part in the debates. They
may need encouraging, supporting or helping with the technology. We’ll be
publishing documents and screencasts later today that should help everyone get
used to the environment. But people will still need to lean on you for support.
In turn, you can lean on us, we’re here to help you. So let us know if
you encounter problems, if there are things that need explaining, if you need
more Wave invites (I take it everyone has distributed theirs now?) or anything
else besides. If you’ve got spare invites let us know too.
If we don’t have the Wave addresses of your panellists they will not be
able to take part in the debates. From now on, if anyone tells you what their
Google Wave address is please forward it to us urgently.
We’ll let you know where you can find the debates and how you start
debating later today or early tomorrow.
*Task 2*
Our launch press release is attached. Feel free to distribute this to
journalists, bloggers or anyone in the media who may be interested in what
we’re doing. I’ve also attached a publicity manual which should help you
understand how to contact the media and what to say to them. Perhaps our
resident media star Rosie could add her own tips?
We’ll be creating press releases daily from here and all will be
available on www.debatewise.info/press. You can either point people to this
page or, preferably, download the press release and email it to journalists
directly.
The more publicity we get for this the more everyone benefits. We want
to make more and more noise as the conference goes on. Let’s have a
competition to see who can get the most press coverage! Winner gets, oh I
don't know, the overwhelming praise and gratitude of the rest of us?
*Task 3*
This is for the dedicated only. I realise we’re asking a lot of you but
just in case you’re interested:
1) Tweet as much as you can. Remember to use the hashtag #GYP in all
Tweets. Your first one might be something like: #GYP 1000 young-people, 100
different countries, debating Copenhagen http://bit.ly/6C3guC please RT support
2) Go on Faceboook and other social networking sites. Find groups
(environmental, young-people, debating, celebrity), invite them to join our
group (http://www.facebook.com/#/group.php?gid=188288991949) and ask them to
retweet the above message
3) Find environmental blogs and post messages on them – tell them what
you’re doing and ask for their support. Later this week we’ll have a widget
which will allow them to show the latest five debates and their voting totals –
they can put this on their site if they like.
Thank you again for all your hard work. You are doing a hugely important
job and giving young people all over the world a voice on this critical issue.
Our Iranian and Burmese team are having to overcome all kinds of internet
restrictions to post. Our Cambodian team were living on the street a few years
ago. We have people all over Asia, the Americas, Africa, Oceania and Europe
taking part. This is the biggest single gathering of young people debating
climate change anywhere in the world. Let’s pull out all the stops to make it
a huge success.
Dave
--
www.debatewise.org
020 3393 7223 | 07956 292 567
Wave: david23crane@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
--
www.debatewise.org
020 3393 7223 | 07956 292 567
Wave: david23crane@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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