Now Available!Move Our Message: How to Get America's Ear
Move Our Message: How to Get America's Ear
BACK COVER COPY
TABLE OF CONTENTS
NEW READER COMMENTS
TWO REVIEWS
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BACK COVER:
Politics/Current Affairs
Make Change Happen!
Move Our Message: How to Get America’s Ear is
packed with practical guidance on:
• “Speaking American” about your issue
• Connecting deeply with your audience
• Framing political messages that spread
“The Metaphor Project has been a terrific resource for us!”—Richard Reid, CityWatch Activist, Salem, Oregon
“We will be working with your model as we address national and local issues here.”—Melissa De Haan, Instructor, Colorado Mountain College
“I so appreciate your insights on language.”—Andres Edwards, Author, Thriving Beyond Sustainability.
“Thanks for your always useful pointers.” ---Michael
Nagler, Author, The Search for a Nonviolent Future
Susan C. Strong, Ph.D., founder of The Metaphor Project, has been helping progressive and liberal activists mainstream their messages since 1997.
Published by The Metaphor Project
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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION
PART I: AMERICAN FRAMING GETS AMERICA’S EAR
CHAPTER 1: Why American Framing Gets America’s Ear
CHAPTER 2: American Stories You Can Use
CHAPTER 3: More Answers for Critics, Rebels, and the Confused
CHAPTER 4: Some Mighty Metaphors and How They Happened
PART II: MORE AMERICAN FRAMES THAT STUCK
INTRODUCTION TO PART II
CHAPTER 5: On Framing American Politics
Countering the Right’s “American” Con
Cards on the Table!
American “Truth Bites”
The Story That Works
Our One Big Family Frame
CHAPTER 6: On Framing Peace:
Framing Obama’s Biggest AfPak Mistake
Re Iran: The 'Cool It' Option
Talking About Iraq
U.S. Moral Integrity Demands Crime Metaphor
CHAPTER 7: On Framing the Environment and Sustainability
Framing Earthgate After Copenhagen
An 11th Hour Sequel
Framing Sustainability for the American
Mainstream
CHAPTER 8: On Framing Social and Economic Justice
Say “Rules,” Not “Regulation”
The Grass Roots Stimulus Story
Talking Opportunity in America
PART III: HOW TO FRAME IT AMERICAN
INTRODUCTION TO PART III
CHAPTER 9: American Framing Tools that Add Oomph!
CHAPTER 10: The American Framing Steps: Our Secret
CHAPTER 11: More American Framing Tools
CONCLUSION
RESOURCES
American Studies
Metaphor and Social Change
Framing and Cognitive Rhetoric
Language and Media Work
APPENDIX I: Frames, Framing, and Metaphor Today
APPENDIX II: Some Metaphor Project Workshop Results
Metaphor Project Eco-Workshop Examples 1997-2002
Results of a Metaphor Project Workshop on Fair Trade
6.19.2001
APPENDIX III: Hot Issues in Framing
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE METAPHOR PROJECT
ABOUT SUSAN C. STRONG
ENDNOTES
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New Comments on Move Our Message
Move Our Message is the framing/messaging handbook for organizers. This book will help you write and speak Americanese to those audiences you want to reach. Try it, you'll love it. I use its ideas when I speak to audiences who have just watched my film.
--Donald Goldmacher, MD, Producer, www.Heist-themovie.com
Congratulations on the book. I did pick up a copy, and I think it's a great resource.
--Patrick Reinsborough, Co-Director, smartMeme/Center for Story-Based Strategy
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I found your book very, very interesting.
--Jim Cason, Associate Executive Secretary for Campaigns, FCNL [Friends Committee on National Legislation], (Washington, D.C.)
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Worth re-reading
I was at a MoveOn Council meeting last Sunday, and both of the members who had been at Susan’s American Framing workshop in Dublin, CA brought their copies of Move Our Message to hold up and tell people how valuable it was. One of them said he was about to start reading it for the second time.
--Cilla Raughley, Regional MoveOn Council Leader (Palo Alto, CA)
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This book teaches speaking to the heart.
Susan Strong's new book Move Our Message: How to Get America's Ear is filled with information to help you get your point across effectively. Although rooted in scientific knowledge about human communication, the book follows its own principles by not belaboring the reader with pages of dry verbiage. Instead, the book gives brief and clear explanations and examples--lists--of words that work and why. This book will be valuable to anyone who wants to write effective letters to the editor or messages to elected officials or to give pithy presentations in public meetings. It can help you learn how to speak to the listener’s heart, which is the surest way to get through to your audience. With this kind of guidance, we progressives and liberals can get over our old habit of avoiding the very thing that works best.
--Judy Bertelsen, M.D., Activist, (Berkeley, CA)
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'I'm learning a lot from your book.'
--Phoebe Sorgen, Activist Leader and Political Candidate, (Berkeley, CA)
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This book is a Must Read!
With today's world situation teetering on the edge chaos we need all the help we can get.
This is such an important book, that it should be read by every high school, college student and anyone interested in finding some REAL solutions. Insightful, practical, thoughtful, and doable. I can't recommend this one enough! Thanks, Ms. Strong.
--Ann Riley, Activist, (El Cerrito, CA United States)
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Every progressive should read this book!
It’s a primer for getting the message out and fighting the force-fed fear environment we live in. Progressives need this book to recapture the message from the Republican owned media. A good read.
--Lou Kent, (East Bay, CA, U.S.)
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Help is on the way!
We liberals and progressives need real guidance about how to fight back against those who hijack our way of life with deceptive language. We deserve concrete, practical help with finding language that tells the truth and works too. This book provides all of that and more; I felt very empowered and encouraged by Move Our Message!
--Dale Zola, Activist, (Oakland, CA) _______________________________________________________________
Practical advice on progressive messaging!
This book is awesome for progressives who want to implement the views of George Lakoff (the Don't Think of an Elephant guy.) It contains concrete metaphors related to today's issues. The author also talks about the importance of speaking American, meaning invoking cherished American stories about who we are as a people. Our country is drowning in propaganda, and progressives need to use language to espouse our truths and values. This book is an important tool.
--Eloise Hamann, Ph.D., Activist, (Dublin, CA)
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and ecological sustainability by Shelley Tanenbaum QEW Steering Committee Clerk
REVIEW #1
Talking to the ‘mainstream’ about peace, justice,
http://www.quakerearthcare.org/Publications/BeFriendingCreation/BFCArchive/BFC-PDF/BFC2503lowrez.pdf
HAVE YOU EVER TRIED to have a serious political
discussion with family members, friends, or co-workers
who have world views or opinions different from
your own, only to rapidly descend into name-calling
and raised voices? Have you ever written an op-ed
piece or given a talk, only to be wildly misinterpreted
and find yourself under attack?
Susan Strong of Strawberry Creek (Calif.) Friends
Meeting has written Move Our Message: How to
Get America’s Ear* as a guidebook for those of us
who call ourselves liberals or progressives and who
often feel that communication is impossible with
people who don’t wear that label.
Susan has been helping progressives and liberals
mainstream their messages since 1997, via her nonprofit
organization, The Metaphor Project. Susan has
led workshops on “Friendly Persuasion” and has written
two articles for Quaker Eco-Bulletin.**
By “mainstreaming” she means translating our
messages into commonly understood language that
evokes the best American values, the ones we share.
She is not suggesting that we water down or change
what we want to say. However, she shows us how to
deliver a message that can be heard by someone other
than those who already agree with us.
The best way to achieve that goal, Susan says, is to
use language and succinct phrases that are commonly
used, are easy to understand, and pack a lot of information
in a small amount of words. Susan sees the use
of metaphors and “speaking American” as a way to
communicate complexity without requiring the listener
to read multiple volumes or engage in lengthy
study to get to the point. She emphasizes that we can
do this and keep our integrity, because we are simply
telling the truth in a more accessible way. Further, such care with
our words—empathizing with the listener so
that we can understandhow they are hearing
our words before we use them—will allow us to
communicate at a deep level. Only after we can
make that heart-to-heart connection will there be
an audience for our talking points and the nuances
they may express.
Move Our Message: How to Get America’s
Ear is full of practical guidance on how to connect
with mainstream American audiences. The book includes
a wealth of examples of how to talk about
peace, justice, and ecological sustainability. It outlines
how to run a workshop for creating messages
that will get your point across successfully.
Of course, Susan has found that some people just
do not want to alter the wording of their messages in
any way, nor do they want to do anything that feels
like actively trying to persuade others. Susan answers,
“If we progressives want our vision of a better world to
come true, we need to pay more attention to what
works for the general public. To get the best possible
results, we would be wise to translate our message into
colorful, story-evoking language or images. If we really
care about our issues, we’ll make the effort to persuade
others in the most effective way possible.”
KNOWING SUSAN PERSONALLY, I can attest that
she is promoting effective communication, not false
or misleading communication. She wants us to empathize
with our listeners and find common ground using
stories and metaphors that are easily understood by
all of us:
“To evoke shared values we need stories, and to
convey stories quickly we need to use the familiar
cultural language that reminds people of them,”
Susan says. “That’s what Occupy Wall Street did last
fall, with ‘they’re the 1%’ and ‘we’re the 99%’ slogans.
Those simple but meaningful phrases changed
the political narrative in this country. They were
short, punchy, and had the power to stick and transform.
As 2012 and the years to come unfold, we will
need to be able to say a lot more things like that to
help the cause of peace, justice, and Earthcare.”
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*The Metaphor Project, 2012, 172 pp., trade paperback,
$10, is available from <www.metaphorproject.org>.
** “Eco-Friendly Persuasion” was published in the
July-Aug 2004 edition of QEB and is available at
www.quakerearthcare.org/Publications/
QuakerEcoBulletin/QEBArchive/QEB-PDF/QEB4-4-
ecopersuasion.pdf.
The Jan-Feb edition of QEB, including Susan’s article,
“Challenging the Have More’s 2010 Con Job,” is available
at <www.quakerearthcare.org/Publications/
QuakerEcoBulletin/QEBArchive/QEB-PDF/QEB-11-
1Right-Goldman-Sachs-web.pdf>.
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Review #2
Mainstreaming the Progressive Message in 2012
by Sarah Hawthorne, with James Hosley
http://readersupportednews.org/pm-section/78-78/13507-mainstreaming-the-progressive-message-in-2012
from WritingforGodot, ReaderSupportedNews.org
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