The Metaphor Project started in 1997 and launched its first website in 2000. Because of this long history, we suggest you see What People Say about The Metaphor Project, Some Groups Served, as well as any brand new items in the Announcements on the home page.
Our 2019-2020 Report:
Dear Metaphor Project Network,
During 2020 The Metaphor Project will continue to emphasize online outreach via our social media pages. I’m on Twitter and Facebook, and we also have the Metaphor Project Facebook page, and a number of other Facebook pages for which I have posting privileges. Any long form blogs I write will continue to appear on my pages at The Daily Kos, OpEdNews, on our website, and also be promoted on all our social media venues. As the saying goes, today “that’s where it’s at.”
Over the last few years we have found that the reach of our social media work actually exceeds the impact of the booth we used to have at Netroots Nation conferences. However, we did have a complimentary Metaphor Project ad in the 2019 Netroots Nation Confe rence brochure. (In the spring of 2019 Netroots staff contacted me, offering us a free ¼ page ad, because they remain so enthusiastic about our work.) One result of this ad was a new outlet for our work: a newspaper editor in Louisville, KY (McConnell country) wrote me asking for permission to include my weekly Tweets with framing suggestions in his paper, Forward Kentucky.
Some notable examples of our 2019 social media outreach include a suggestion to call climate chaos “#ClimateDamage,”because “damage” is a lot more specific than the abstract phrase“chaos.” I’ve also made a concerted effort to stop people using the extremely weak phrase “global or climate warming,” and switch to calling it “#Climate/GlobalOverheating.” Of course I still repeat the “say gun safety, not gun control” and “say carbon fee, not tax” warnings on Twitter as needed. A striking example of how we are being received on social media includes the following: One of our Twitter followers enthusiastically referred people to our website & Twitter feed and even copied our wordgram into their tweet from our site, sending it all to the Twitter feeds of Rep.Swalwell, Senators Warren, Booker, as well as other Senate Dems, re not getting trapped in GOP frames!
In addition, I publicize my long form blogs on all our social media platforms. 2019 examples include: “Springing the GOP Trap, “ “Being Clear About What #TrueAmericanFreedom Means,” “Say: Move America Forward,” and “Use Smart Words to Stop #NukeDoomsday.”
As always, you can help improve progressive framing by spreading awareness about what the Metaphor Project offers via our website, tweets and Facebook posts. Our book, Move Our Message: How to Get America’s Ear is still available in paper and as an e-book (check our website for venues). It would make a good gift any time of the year, now that our political situation has become more critical than ever!
In closing, we deeply appreciate your support in the 22 years the Metaphor Project has been active. We look forward to serving you and the rest of the progressive community with timely and relevant American Political Framing suggestions and training in 2020!
Best wishes for the coming year,
Susan C. Strong
Susan C. Strong
Executive Director
The Metaphor Project
https://metaphorproject.org/.
metaphorproject@earthlink.net