By finding and supplying journalists with information that fits their criteria for news, you meet their needs and advance your own communication goals (52). Many family planning stories—more than most people think—have potential news value. Here are some examples:

• New people. "Noted physician to head health program."
• New services. "Ministry launches rural health initiative."
• New policies. "Program to provide condoms for youth."
• New contraceptives. "Injectables become available here."
• New hours. "Clinics open weekends to meet rising demand."
• New data. "Number of rural clients sets record."
• New funding or resources. "Leading bank donates mobile vans."
• New trends. "More couples postponing births, survey shows."
• New ideas. "Community discussion groups spark interest in family planning."

While there is no single definition of news, all news stories contain at least one, and usually several, of the following elements—immediacy, proximity, consequence, and human interest—and often deal with trends, important people, and conflict or controversy (9, 13, 28, 40, 52, 56,67).

Immediacy. To be newsworthy, an event must be new. "Old news is no news," as the saying goes. Immediacy probably is the most important element of news (56). One way to give family planning stories immediacy is to link your organization's activities to a prominent current event, such as the visit of a president, the opening of a clinic, the release of a report, or the achievement of a milestone.

Family planning programs can anticipate some events well in advance because they occur on a regular basis—for example, World Population Day, July 11. Others, such as the launch of a new project or service, are within the control of your organization. The release of new survey results or a publication or the introduction of a new contraceptive method also offer immediacy. You can take advantage of these opportunities by being ready—having materials prepared in advance and contacts with the news media well established.

Proximity. People tend to be more interested in events near to them than those that happen far away. "Contraceptive methods, the impact of population growth on society—these are new things," Kenyan journalist Hilary Ng'Weno has observed. "The question is whether you can relate them to topical events within your country and hang them on a peg that makes it possible for journalists to use them" (46).

Because of the news value of proximity, reporters usually are interested in finding a "local angle" to an international story. Thus international conferences convened periodically by the United Nations on such topics as women's status, population and development, and the environment offer opportunities for organizations to relate these far-away events to local circumstances and people. You can find clients or staff members to be interviewed or point to the local impact of a global issue. Journalists need the local angle at the same time that they are covering the international story, however, not the following week (53).

Consequence. The more consequential an event, trend, or issue is to their audience, the more likely journalists are to consider it newsworthy. For example, "if five people in a village migrate to a city, it is hardly news. But if 50 people out of a population of 500 leave their homes in search of greener pastures, it certainly makes a news story" (44). Family planning and population issues often have powerful demographic, economic, social, and environmental consequences that make them newsworthy. Highlight these consequences in a way that people can understand. For example, in the Philippines a major national daily newspaper linked population growth and Manila's traffic congestion in this interesting way:

Why Driving in Metro Manila Is Like Wriggling Through a Sardine Can

Manila. In all the discussions of Metro Manila's traffic problem, one thing is often overlooked by the experts: the basic fact that there are too many people in the metropolis—and too little space to accommodate them. (The Manila Times, February 9, 1995)

Striking statistics can capture consequence. For example, Population Reports drew headlines by pointing to the need for condoms in this graphic way: "By rough estimate, condoms were needed in more than 13 billion acts of sexual intercourse in 1990" (39). A good technique is to reduce statistics to a manageable size, as did The Philippine Journal News:

Manila. Three hundred infants die every day in the Philippines not by starvation, disasters, or wars. The top killers are diarrhea, pneumonia, measles, and other easily prevented or treated diseases. (The Philippine Journal News, February 5, 1995)

Human interest. Few things are as compelling to an audience as the personal experience of someone like them. Journalists will appreciate interviewing family planning clients, program staff, and officials because such interviews generate human interest—for example, a man who has had a vasectomy, a couple who decided to space their next birth to protect their children's health, or a father who decided that it is just as important for his daughter to go to school as for his son.

Trends. Most family planning programs can link their activities to trends in public health, population growth, or the country's social and economic situation. For example, you can show how condom distribution has helped slow the spread of HIV/AIDS, how spacing births has helped to improve children's health, or how a new contraceptive has enabled more women to avoid unintended pregnancies (53).

Release of survey findings offers the opportunity to highlight family planning. The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), for example, reveal new attitudes, knowledge, and practices about family planning when compared with earlier data. The new findings are especially newsworthy when they contradict commonly held beliefs or provide new evidence of major changes in people's lives.

Important people. Big names make news. When a high-level government official takes a public position on family planning, it usually makes the broadcast news and newspaper headlines. When you involve a film star in a program activity, the news media are more likely to cover it.

You also can generate news media coverage by asking public figures—political leaders, traditional chiefs, entertainers, socialites, religious leaders, authors, prominent business executives, and sports stars—to endorse your program or support family planning publicly. To do so, monitor the news media to identify sympathetic public figures, contact them, either directly or through a high-level intermediary, and ask them to help you. Offer to help them prepare for their appearance on your behalf (26).

Conflict and controversy. Whether you like it or not, your organization probably will become embroiled in a public controversy at one time or another. Often, family planning organizations think that such conflict is always bad for them. In fact, sometimes it can promote informed choice by attracting journalists' attention and providing an opportunity for you to tell your side of a story, thus informing the public and gaining a broad audience.