The basic idea

No more publication. Focus instead on promoting pacifist and radical nonviolence opinions in the mainstream and independent media. This proposal is inspired by the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA), founded in the US in 1997 with a two-year $100,000-a-year grant from the Stern Family Fund. The IPA ‘increases the reach and capacity of progressive and grassroots organizations (at no cost to them) to address public policy by getting them and their ideas into the mainstream media’, by putting out news releases that address breaking news stories – to a constantly-updated database of producers, commentators, and journalists at media institutions across the US. The IPA is currently funded by over a dozen trusts and foundations.

1) What are the main things we would do, if we chose this option?

We would recruit speakers, authors and organisers who have a nonviolent, anti-war and/or pacifist agenda, and log their areas of expertise and/or relevant lived experience. We would compile and update lists of local and national media organisations (both mainstream and independent). We would monitor the news and the upcoming news agenda. We would contact relevant ‘voices’ when news was breaking or an event/anniversary was approaching, to see if they were willing to be interviewed by the media. We would then put out press releases to relevant media organisations featuring the ‘voices’ and their messages on the current and upcoming news agenda.

2) What are the main needs the project is serving?

The focus of this project would be on boosting the presence of pacifist, anti-war and radical nonviolence voices in the mainstream media, as well as in independent media. There could be an emphasis on promoting the voices of working-class people, people of colour, women, disabled people, and queer and gender-nonconforming people.

3) What is the hole that this project is filling? (Are we sure somebody else isn’t already doing this? How much would we be adding?)

There are media workers in peace organisations already. Some are paid, some are full-time. This project would focus on boosting voices that would not be put forward by those organisations. Sometimes, it would mean co-operating with those peace organisations to strengthen and diversify their impact.

4) How would we define the ‘success’ of this project?

There could be a baseline metric of how often peace/nonviolent/pacifist voices got into selected mainstream media outlets before the project got going, and then there could be a target of increasing this by, say, 10 percent in five years.

5) What are some of the main pros and cons of adopting this option?

Pros:

• PN has connections to a lot of pacifist/anti-war/radical nonviolence folk, and to radical publishers, to help develop the contact list
• PN staff have experience of both maintaining media databases and writing and putting out press releases

Cons:

• it is very difficult to break into the mainstream media

6) How does what is happening in the world, right now and over the next five years or so, support or work against the success of this project?

There is a lot of war and violence on the global stage, and a lot of conflict and violence in the UK itself. Therefore, there are lots of opportunities to get alternative, sensible voices into the discussion of these conflicts.

7) Which kind(s) of people is the project focused on/prioritising?

It could focus on lifting up the voices of marginalised people: people from a working class background, people of colour, women, disabled people, and queer and gender-nonconforming people. It would definitely focus on people willing to put out a pacifist/anti-war/radical nonviolence perspective – authors, organisers, activists, people with relevant lived experience.

8) Which organised group(s) could we partner with to help deliver this project?

• Peace Pledge Union
• CND
• Lots of other peace groups, including grassroots and local organisations
• Pluto Press
• Verso Books
• Real Media (https://realmedia.press)
• Red Pepper
• Independent Media Association (https://www.ima.press)

9) What skills/qualities/experience will be needed to deliver this project?

• People skills
• Media skills
• Fundraising skills

10) What seems to be the minimum budget needed to deliver this project?

The smallest budget could look like this (because PNT provides a free office):

Expenses

PN organising staff £15,000

Admin/office costs £5,000

Total expenses £20,000

If PNT could cover this amount annually, in a sustainable way, then this would be a Core Work project. If PNT could not cover this amount annually, then it starts becoming an Ambitious Project. A full-time professionally-trained staffer would be needed to do this work justice, which would increase costs considerably. A Senior Communications and Engagement Officer post at War on Want was advertised in 2023 for £42,800.