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Media Outreach Toolkit
Spreading the Word About Responsible Fatherhood
One of the most effective ways to fight father absence and renew responsible fatherhood in your community is to work with your local media to get NFI public service announcements "on the air".
Your local media can play a critical role in getting the message out about why responsible fatherhood is so important for families, children, and your community.
The Media Outreach Toolkit presented in this section is designed to help you mobilize local media and to help them understand the importance of promoting responsible fatherhood.
Use the following NFI Father Facts and simple tips on building relationships with media representatives to make a positive impact in your community!
Background on NFI PSAs
You can view the PSAs by clicking here
Your local media can play a critical role in promoting responsible fatherhood. If you want to make an impact in your community and spread the word about fatherhood, work with the people that can help make this happen in a big way – your local media.
The secret to getting good media coverage and donated airtime is simple. All you have to do is:
- Be willing to meet media representatives face-to-face and build lasting relationships
- Be ready to educate media contacts using NFI’s Selected Father Facts and Talking Points, and
- Have a real passion for helping children by promoting responsible fatherhood
NFI’s Media Outreach Kit provides guidance for creating partnerships with media representatives and talking points that you can use to secure better airtime and media coverage. The kit includes:
- NFI’s Selected Father Facts
- Talking Points on Responsible Fatherhood
- Tips for Working with the Media
- Links to NFI’s Public Service Announcements
This kit was developed with information from the Ad Council and is sure to help you become more skilled at reaching the media and promoting fatherhood as a key issue in your community.
The National Fatherhood Initiative has partnered with the Ad Council to develop award winning PSAs. Our TV, radio, and billboard PSAs are effective tools for raising awareness about responsible fatherhood and the positive impact it has on children, families, and communities.
NFI’s campaigns effectively highlight the fact that fathers play a unique and irreplaceable role in their children’s lives and that our society needs to support and encourage men to be committed fathers.
NFI’s PSAs are developed by some of the nation’s leading ad agencies, and include contributions from respected entertainers like James Earl Jones, Tim McGraw, and Tom Selleck.
NFI’s ads are fun and effective and are consistently amongst the top Ad Council campaigns in total donated airtime.
You can view NFI's PSAs here.
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Selected Father Facts
The following information is a selection of data from NFI’s Father Facts IV.
- 24 million children (34 percent) live absent their biological father.
- Nearly 20 million children (27 percent) live in single-parent homes.
- 1.35 million births (33 percent of all births) in 2000 occurred out of wedlock.
- 43 percent of first marriages dissolve within fifteen years; about 60 percent of divorcing couples have children; and approximately one million children each year experience the divorce of their parents.
- Over 3.3 million children live with an unmarried parent and the parent's cohabiting partner. The number of cohabiting couples with children has nearly doubled since 1990, from 891,000 to 1.7 million today.
- Fathers who live with their children are more likely to have a close, enduring relationship with their children than those who do not. The best predictor of father presence is marital status.
- Compared to children born within marriage, children born to cohabiting parents are three times as likely to experience father absence, and children born to unmarried, non-cohabiting parents are four times as likely to live in a father-absent home.
- About 40 percent of children in father-absent homes have not seen their father at all during the past year; 26 percent of absent fathers live in a different state than their children; and 50 percent of children living absent their father have never set foot in their father's home.
- Children who live absent their biological fathers are, on average, at least two to three times more likely to be poor, to use drugs, to experience educational, health, emotional and behavioral problems, to be victims of child abuse, and to engage in criminal behavior than their peers who live with their married, biological (or adoptive) parents.
- From 1960 to 1995, the proportion of children living in single-parent homes tripled, from 9 percent to 27 percent, and the proportion of children living with married parents declined. However, from 1995 to 2000, the proportion of children living in single-parent homes slightly declined, while the proportion of children living with two married parents remained stable.
- Children with involved, loving fathers are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social behavior, and avoid high-risk behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity compared to children who have uninvolved fathers.
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Talking Points on Responsible Fatherhood
These talking points will help you effectively demonstrate the connection between responsible fatherhood and your community.
Importance of Father Love for Child Well-Being
In an analysis of nearly 100 studies on parent-child relationships, father love (measured by children's perceptions of paternal acceptance/rejection, affection/indifference) was as important as mother love in predicting the social, emotional, and cognitive development and functioning of children and young adults:
- Having a loving and nurturing father was as important for a child's happiness, well-being, and social and academic success as having a loving and nurturing mother.
- Withdrawal of love by either the father or the mother was equally influential in predicting a child's emotional instability, lack of self-esteem, depression, social withdrawal, and level of aggression.
- In some studies, father love was actually a better predictor than mother love for certain outcomes, including delinquency and conduct problems, substance abuse, and overall mental health and well-being.
- Other studies found that, after controlling for mother love, father love was the sole significant predictor for certain outcomes, such as psychological adjustment problems, conduct problems, and substance abuse.
Source: Rohner, Ronald P., and Robert A. Veneziano. "The Importance of Father Love: History and Contemporary Evidence." Review of General Psychology 5.4 (December 2001): 382-405.
Consequences of Divorce on Father-Child Relationships
In a longitudinal study of 2,500 children of divorce, twenty years after the divorce less than one-third of boys and one-quarter of girls reported having close relationships with their fathers. In contrast, seventy percent of youths from the comparison group of intact families reported feeling close to their fathers.
Source: Hetherington, E. Mavis, and John Kelly. For Better or For Worse: Divorce Reconsidered. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2002: 231.
"Fragile Families" Findings
Preliminary survey data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a longitudinal study of 2,670 unmarried couples with children, suggests that most unwed fathers are highly involved shortly after the child's birth:
- 50% of unmarried parents were living together at the time of the child's birth, and another 33% were romantically involved but living apart.
- 80% of the fathers were involved in helping the baby's mother during the pregnancy, either financially or in other ways (such as transportation).
- 73% of mothers reported that the chances that they will marry the baby's father are "fifty-fifty" or greater; 88% of fathers reported that the odds of marrying the mother of their child are "fifty-fifty" or greater.
- 64% of the mothers and 75% of the fathers agreed with the statement, "it is better for children if their parents are married."
- 90% of unmarried mothers rated "husband having a steady job" and "emotional maturity" as very important qualities for a successful marriage.
- 37% of the mothers and 34% of the fathers lack a high school degree, and less than a third had any education beyond high school.
- 30% of the fathers were unemployed in the week before their child was born.
- Compared to a nearly perfect response rate from mothers, only 75 percent of fathers responded to the survey, resulting in a selection effect that most likely inflates the above percentages for fathers.
Source: McLanahan, Sara, Irwin Garfinkel, Nancy E. Reichman, Julien Teitler, Marcia Carlson, and Christian Norland Audigier. The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study Baseline Report. The Center for Research on Child Wellbeing (Princeton University) and the Social Indicators Survey Center (Columbia University), August 2001.
Child Abuse
The rate of child abuse in single-parent families is nearly twice the rate of child abuse in two-parent households.
Source: America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being. Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics. Washington, DC: GPO, 1997.
Crime
Even after controlling for family background variables such as mother's education level, race, family income, and number of siblings, as well as neighborhood variables such as unemployment rates and median income, boys who grew up outside of intact marriages were, on average, more than twice as likely as other boys to end up in jail.
Source: Harper, Cynthia C., and Sara S. McLanahan. "Father Absence and Youth Incarceration." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, CA, August 1998.
Drug and Alcohol Use
Even after controlling for the effects of gender, age, race-ethnicity, family income, and residential mobility, teens in single-parent and stepparent families were 2 times more likely to use illegal drugs compared to teens in intact, two-parent married families.
Source: Hoffmann, John P., and Robert A. Johnson. "A National Portrait of Family Structure and Adolescent Drug Use." Journal of Marriage and the Family 60(August 1998): 633-645.
Education
Even after controlling for differences in income, children who were born out of wedlock and either remained in a single-parent family or whose mother subsequently married had significantly poorer math and reading scores and lower levels of academic performance than children from continuously married households.
Source: Cooksey, Elizabeth C. "Consequences of Young Mothers' Marital Histories for Children's Cognitive Development." Journal of Marriage and the Family 59(May 1997): 245-261.
Poverty
Single-parent families are five times as likely to be poor as married-couple families. In 1999, 6.3 percent of married-couple families with children were living in poverty, compared to 31.8 percent of single-parent families with children.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau. Current Population Survey.
Want even more great "father facts" to support your argument? Order "Father Facts, Fourth Edition" from NFI's National Fatherhood Clearinghouse and Resource Center online Bookstore.
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Tips for Working with the Media and Sample Letter to Send to Media Contacts
The following tips will give you a basic understanding of how PSAs are managed and how you can encourage the media to air our PSAs in your community.
PSAs at a Glance
Public Service Announcements (PSAs) are any form of advertising that are placed in donated media airtime or ad space.
PSAs generally seek to educate the public on important social and public health issues. PSAs are generally designed to send messages that strive to better our society or improve our well-being.
Media outlets are required to donate airtime for PSAs. Many stations have PSA Directors who are in charge of placing ads on the air and determine if and when they will be aired.
Most PSA Directors look for ads that will make a difference in their community, so it is critical that you use the talking points and fathers facts to demonstrate how responsible fatherhood affects your community.
Hundreds of new PSAs are distributed to media outlets every month, so securing donated airtime can be a challenge. But you can be very successful at getting donated airtime by following these easy steps.
Who to Contact
| Media Type |
Description |
Who to Contact |
Television
|
Be sure to copntact
the local affiliate of the major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS,
Fox) in your area and not the national office. |
Public Affairs Director,
Community Affairs Director,
General Manager |
| Cable |
Use your cable
billa s a guide to who to call. Cable stations often have
ample time to air PSAs. |
Advertising
Director,
Marketing Director,
General Manger |
| Radio |
Pay attention
to the specific audience that a staion is trying to reach.
Sports stations may be a good taget for fatherhood ads. |
Public
Affairs Director,
Community Affairs Director,
General Manager |
| Print |
Newspapers
are tough. Try to relate the ads to currents events and local
news to make them attractive to the editors. |
Director
of Advertising,
Editor-in-Chief |
Watch, Read and Listen to Local Media
Become a major consumer of public service advertisements. Listen for PSAs on local TV and radio stations. Look for PSAs posted on billboards and other outdoor advertising.
Knowing the types of PSAs your local media prefer will give you an important frame of reference when asking them to place NFI PSAs.
Good Timing is Key
Certain times of the year may be better than others to approach media about running PSAs. For example, the holiday season is a busy time for sober driving campaigns, and February is commonly filled with American Heart Association PSAs. You’ll find that getting airtime in certain times of the year can be very competitive.
Father’s Day is a great time to promote fatherhood. But it is very important to stress that fatherhood has no “season” and that children need their fathers every day of the year.
Provide your media contacts with statistics on father absence in your community so that the issue becomes more personal to them.
Build Relationships
Making a personal call to media representatives (like PSA Directors and News Editors) is the most effective way to boost your media exposure.
Make a list of stations and other local media outlets and identify the decision-maker at each outlet. Then schedule a face-to-face meeting so you can show them your passion for promoting responsible fatherhood.
Be Prepared
Ideally you should strive to promote the positive impact that involved, responsible, and committed fatherhood has on children, families, and communities.
Sometimes it might be necessary to also raise awareness on the negative impacts of father absence. So before you plan an introductory meeting, be sure you can speak to both sides of this issue.
Prepare for your first meeting by reviewing the Selected Father Facts and talking points. You should also be ready to answer these questions:
What are the key points I want to make?
What specific action do I want from the media?
It is also very important that you stress that this issue is about children and not a political issue. Sometimes people associate social issues with political affiliations. Be sure to explain that NFI is a non-profit group that is working to raise the proportion of children growing up with involved, responsible, and committed fathers.
Make it Easy to Follow Through
You have a better chance at getting donated airtime if you make it easy for the media outlet to follow through.
Let them know that they can order our award winning PSAs from the Ad Council with one phone call.
All they have to do is call the Ad Council at 1-800-933-7727 to place an order. Just ask to order National Fatherhood Initiative's PSAs (in whatever format you need) for use in whatever media applies. (i.e. need the radio spots for use on WXYZ radio). It’s that simple!
Plan Your Next Steps
Get a solid commitment from your media representative and ask them to send you verification of when the PSAs will be aired.
If you cannot get a commitment to run the PSAs, find out why. Many stations may be unable to commit because their available airtime is filled or because they are currently running other campaigns.
If this is the case, ask if the PSA can be placed in line until the current campaigns rotate off of their schedule.
Say Thank You and Stay Connected
The more contact you maintain with your media representative, the better your chances will be in securing airtime in the future. This will also help you to monitor when ads are aired and keep pace of when new ad space becomes available.
Always be sure to express your appreciation for their time by sending them a handwritten thank you letter!
Maintaining personal contact will go a long way in building a long-lasting relationship with your media representative.
Sample Letter
If you choose to initiate contact with the media that you are interested in working with by letter, you can use this sample as a guide. Be sure to adapt the letter based on the media format that you are reaching (tv, radio, print, etc.), and emphasize the impact the issue has on your locality/state/county (download MS Word doc of letter).
Date
Name
Title
Station/Media Name
Street Address
City, State ZIP
Dear (Personalize for each Public Service Director):
The widespread absence of fathers from the lives of children is the most consequential social problem of our time. On almost every measure of child well-being – drug use, crime, poverty, education – children who grow up without fathers have poorer outcomes, on average, than children who have involved, responsible, and committed fathers in their lives. Father absence effects people of all incomes, races, and backgrounds in all communities, including ours. In fact, (insert statistic, i.e., 40% of children in "X County" live in father absent homes.) Almost daily, headlines in the (Insert local newspapers, i.e., Philadelphia Inquirer) show how communities suffer because of the plague of fatherless homes in the community.
What can you do to help?
By airing National Fatherhood Initiative’s public service announcements, you can help spread the message that we can all do something to end father absence in (Insert City). We need to change our attitudes about responsible fatherhood, because children need their dads. Through public education, your (station, channel, newspaper) will have an impact on the way we think about fathers and children. Please (air/print) National Fatherhood Initiative’s PSAs to send a message that fathers need to be involved in their children's lives, and that our culture appreciates the unique and irreplaceable role good fathers play.
Please call The Advertising Council’s fulfillment center at 1-800-933-PSAS, to request a copy of these PSAs in the format you prefer.
With your help, (Insert City) can become a place where all children will get the childhood they deserve - one where they grow up with the love, nurturance, and guidance of both their father and mother.
Thank you,
(Your Name)
(Your Title)
(Your Organization)
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