Most family planning programs, for their part, have made little effort to encourage informative, accurate news coverage. Effective news media relations has many benefits, complementing other communication efforts. What people read, see, or hear in news coverage can lend credibility to family planning and help to make it a legitimate and familiar topic for public discussion. News coverage can inform people about family planning choices and help them ask providers appropriate questions. Skill in media relations can help avoid or dispel rumors, respond to criticism, defuse controversy, and even turn adversity to advantage.
News coverage is crucial to engaging policymakers' attention and earning opinion leaders' support.
Also, because the news media pay distribution costs, helping journalists cover family planning is a cost-effective way to communicate. By building a news media relations program, staffed by professionals with support from senior management, that becomes an integral part of the organization's outreach. An effective program links the family planning organization with journalists, and it represents the interests of each to the other. Providing accurate and newsworthy information builds credibility and trust, which leads to better coverage. Like other communication efforts, working with the news media is done best when it is based on a strategy and follows a systematic process.