Homework #2

Rationale: Last time there was a regional strike on 27 June, the broadcast media chose to largely ignore it, treating it as a regional news story, rather than as the start of historic joint action between the NUT and NASUWT.  This time the action is larger and the Tory Party conference is on which may make us more difficult to ignore. But today they ignored an NHS demo of 50,000 people and we want to be sure!

That’s why we’re asking you to bombard the main broadcast news outlets with emails telling them that you expect the strike to be covered, and that you want it covered in a fair and balanced way.  We’re starting this on Sunday night as it will be during the day on Monday that the news broadcast agendas for the next day are set and camera crews allocated.  
Emails

Here’s an example email:

Dear BBC News/ITV News, Sky News, Channel 4 News etc* *delete as appropriate

As you’re aware the largest teacher strike in decades will happen this Tuesday 1 October.

I’m writing to let you know that I expect you to cover the strike, and to do it in a fair and balanced way.  Here are some points I would like to see you make.

·         Teachers’ pensions are not “gold-plated”, they are fair and affordable. £46billion more has been paid in than has ever been paid out!

·         If private sector pensions aren’t as good then they need to be made better – please don’t pit private against public

·         Teachers have had a significant pay cut in real terms over the past few years – will be 15% by April 2014

·         Teachers are being asked to pay more, work longer and get less for their pension – we need you to report this

·         Teachers cannot physically work until 68

·         Working conditions for teachers have deteriorated under this government

·         The working conditions of teachers are the learning conditions of children

·         The new pay structure being introduced by Michael Gove pits teachers against each other. This is not the way teachers want to work

·         Striking is a last resort. We don’t want children to miss a day of school or to inconvenience parents, but we are fighting for a better education system and Michael Gove has refused to negotiate leaving us no other choice

I look forward to seeing a fair and balanced coverage of Tuesday’s teacher strike on your news programme.

With thanks and best wishes,

Name

Please feel free to copy the above email, tweak it, or write your own.

Here are the email addresses of the major broadcast news outlets. Please send your email to all of them if possible. Please also copy in teacherroar@gmail.com

1.       itvplanning@itn.co.uk

2.       news@channel4.com

3.       news@sky.com

4.       emma.westcott@channel5.com 

5.       BBC – annoyingly we can’t find an email address for the BBC. Please email them using the form at the bottom of this pagehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10725415