Feature: NORML Does Berkeley | Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
An especially illuminating panel took place Friday afternoon, with former NORML head and MarijuanaNews.com founder Richard Cowan moderating a panel on the press that included NORML’s Paul Armentano, MPP direction of communications Bruce Mirken, Oregon activist and XM talk radio host “Radical” Russ Belville, and long-time pot beat reporter Ann Harrison. “We’ve been lied to and lied about,” snorted Cowan, as he prepared to get out of the way and let the panelists explain how and why.Armentano shone with a dissection of press coverage of the results of scientific studies on marijuana. “Less than 5% of cannabis studies are reported at all by the mainstream media,” he noted, citing hard numbers from last year, “and those the media does focus on are the studies that focus on the dangers. Studies with health findings that do not support the dangers of cannabis are typically ignored,” he added, listing a number of studies and how and with what frequency they were reported.
Armentano also created a typology of marijuana reporting in the mainstream press. “News reports must have alarmist headlines,” he enumerated. “They must be based on press releases prior to publication of the actual research. They must be highly selective. And they must make no reference to earlier contradictory data.”
Belville echoed Armentano’s analysis of marijuana story types, presenting a list of common pot stories: “It’s not your mother’s marijuana,” “Medical Marijuana Can Cause Adverse Effects, Researchers Say,” “Teen Marijuana Use Linked to Later Illness.”
Citing the work of political theorist George Lakoff, Belville then explained how such headlines fit into a “frame,” or pre-designed narrative form in which marijuana is associated with vice and filthy hippies. “We have to change the frame,” he said in his finest radio announcer voice. “Say cannabis instead of marijuana — it doesn’t have all the bad associations.”
Although Ann Harrison has now moved to working on human rights issues, the veteran reporter had plenty of advice for journalists continuing to cover the marijuana. “There was a surge in 2007 marijuana arrests in California,” she noted. “What are the costs? How much are the feds paying? That’s what reporters need to be asking.” But reporters need to find that human angle, she reminded. “Stories run on emotion,” Harrison said.
MPP’s Mirken had advice on how to influence the media, especially when unhappy with its coverage of the marijuana issue. “Start with the reporter, be polite, take a positive approach, and be specific and factual with your complaint,” he said. “Perhaps he will make a retraction or positively update the story, perhaps not. But the idea is to start establishing relationships” that can guide the reporter in the right direction, he said.
I’ll be adding that entire panel discussion to the Berkeley Archive as soon as I process it. Thanks to DRCNet for such a nice write-up of our panel, and please click the link to read the rest of their review of NORML CON.
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