Reframing Guidelines: A Step-by-Step Approach to Building a Narrative Change Campaign

Introduction

This set of guidelines targets progressive campaigners and advocates wishing to better engage the middle sections of society in order to push back the mainstreaming of populist narratives and put diversity and inclusion back on the agenda. 

The approach at the heart of the toolkit is based on established theory and international practice of narrative change campaigns built around a reframing approach. In emotionally charged discussions such as the current migration debate, the values, concerns and emotional investment of stakeholders become an important gateway to real dialogue and engagement. Such an emotionally smart, narrative change/reframing approach usually involves the following elements:  

• Acknowledging the legitimate concerns of the target audience;
• Building the campaign on shared, positive, unifying values;
• Leading with solution-oriented, resonant messages that engage the audience, and trigger feelings of familiarity and warmth; followed by:
• Adding an element that challenges audiences to think differently, i.e. an element of dissonance. This is the opening that the approach creates.
• Listening, asking open questions in a reasonable and civil manner that allows for a constructive dialogue on the issues, opening the door for a clear and engaging defence of progressive positions.

The power of a reframing approach is that you build your appeals on community-owned stories and values that easily resonate and from there, through an open and inclusive process of listening to each other’s conversations, you can quite forcefully challenge populist views.

“The Movable Middle”

Campaigners need to be strategic in deploying the reframing approach with a group that you can win over, and also at a scale where winning can tip the balance in the public discussion. This is why our focus in the toolkit is on the so-called ‘movable middle’. In most European countries, this is 60% to 70% of the population who are not that involved, informed or engaged in the issue, but are susceptible to mainstream media agendas, i.e. they are movable.

Of course, for campaigners this means having a much more complicated understanding of those outside their normal supporter group and a willingness to engage this group in campaigning efforts.

This approach may not be suitable for all, but the minimum campaigners need is understanding and support for those who choose this path and recognition that this is a key part of the fight. 

Below is a summary of the campaign planning steps. Click on the links to dive deeper.

Campaign Planning Steps

1. Find a Focus

Find a focus & opening – in this first stage, the focus is on developing a campaign strategy. This
includes the following:

• Target middle segment(s) & current frames/positions
  Identify a specific sector of the middle to engage in the campaign and their current frames/positions in the debate.
  • What is the profile of the middle segments in the migration debate in your context?
  • What names would you give to the various segments of the middle? Does research already exist to support that?
  • What kinds of lives do people in the middle segments live? Do you personally know people who are in these segments? Work to develop a more human profile of those in the middle.
  • What are the main themes or arguments that those in the middle use in the migration debate? What are the values behind these positions?
  • Which segment(s) of the middle are the best target audience for your campaign?
• Positive value map
  Map out the positive values that the target audience sees themselves promoting or defending in their views/positions.
  • Which positive values can you identify for your target segment, i.e. that they would say they are prompting or defending in their migration positions? Use this self-aspirational list of values to prompt thinking if you wish. 
  • Can you group these values and label each category? 
  • Can you initially see a potential value overlap with those identified in the positive-self mapping of your target segment(s)? 
• Narrative space for your campaign
  Identify an overlap between the values of the target segment and the value and narrative space you are willing to message into.
  • What are the core values underpinning your migration work?
  • What values do you think you could build a message on when you look over the self-positive value map of your target segment(s)? Look back at your original list from element 1.2.
  • Which value appeals would you/your organization/coalition be happy to campaign on, and talk about in-depth, as part of the campaign? 
  • How do you think your supporters, members and partners will respond? Will they understand and support your messaging choice/value appeal to social conservatives?
• Opportunity or opening
  Choose an upcoming event, debate or opportunity that allow you to will reach and engage the target middle segment(s).
  • Are you responding to a particular issue, situation or decision-making process? If yes, the timing is clear for your intervention.
  • If not, what kinds of events or debates that are coming up will more naturally attract large portions of the target middle segments? Check the calendar of city/state events to give you ideas.
  • Which event or occasion would allow you to have the kind of debate or discussion you what to have?
  • Will you consider creating your own event as part of the campaign? If so what are the advantages in doing do over using an existing event? And what kind of reach would you expect to have from your own event? Do carefully consider feasibility and resources required for this option.
  • Which of the list of value appeals overlapping with the target segments that you are comfortable messaging into, are also the best fit with your chosen target event or debate?
• Feasible campaign objectives
  Develop a set of feasible objectives for your campaign.
  • What specifically are you trying to achieve in your campaign? Think in terms of call to action and your theory of change.
  • What are your top five campaign objectives? Try to as specific, focused and outcome oriented as possible.
  • Are the objectives you listed feasible given the time, resources and level of expected acceptance of your message? If not, revise them to reflect more realistic targets.

2. Build Out the Elements

Build out the elements – Based on the strategy you defined for your campaign, the next step is to build out the elements needed that go together to trigger a positive response in your target segment. This includes the development of:

• Messages
  Write down the core ideas you wish to convey in the campaign in simple sentences.
  • What are the core ideas you want to communicate to your target segment? Write them down in two to five simple sentences and negotiate them with your campaign team.
  • How to you think your target middle audiences will react to these messages? Will they create a warm response? Do the messages have the right balance of being engaging and thought provoking?
  • Are the messages easy to remember and retell?
  • What is the reaction of others outside the campaign team to the messages? Get feedback on your draft messages.
• Stories
  Develop stories to illustrate the points you are making and humanise the focus of the campaign.
  • What kind of story can you use to humanise the points you are trying to make? Does someone, an organisation or community immediately come to your mind?
  • Is the story engaging for the audiences? Does it include some element of drama? 
  • Do you think the story can be easily be retold?
  • Do you want to go for a more emotional story or a more measured approach?
  • Does the story effectively support your messages?
  • What is the reaction to your story from those outside your campaign team?
• Slogans & hashtags
  Develop a set of short memorable phrases or hashtags you can use across the campaign materials.
• Evidence
  Put together the key facts and data you need to support and defend your messages.
  • What is the key evidence you need to back up your messages?
  • What message(s) do you think will be challenged? What evidence do you need to back these points up?
  • Should the evidence be a prominent part of the campaign or used more as a backup in the story?
• Visuals
  Develop the set of images, videos & memes needed to drive the campaign.
  • What images are you considering using in your campaign? Collect the options and don’t limit yourself at the early stages.
  • Do your images have the power to engage and challenge the audience? 
  • What are your selected images triggering? Ask people outside the campaign team to give you their first impressions.
  • Are the images you have chosen supporting your intended messages?
  • Do you think your images have the potential to be widely shared on social media?
• Messengers & supporters
  Make plans to put together the team of spokespeople and supporters that are trusted voices for the target segment(s).
  • Who are your intended spokespeople for the campaign? Do they have the legitimacy to be believed by your middle target audiences?
  • Do your planned spokespeople have the communication skills needed?
  • What other support can you get from people who are trusted by the audience?
  • Does your choice of spokesperson and supporters serve to support and reinforce the campaign message?
• Threshold forum/publication
  Map the forum or publication you are targeting and use it to guide the build out.
  • What are the valued online or newspaper forums of the target segment? See if you can access a media mapping or conduct one yourself.
  • Which journalists/writers/spokespeople are the most valued? Which may be open to discussing a more positive view of migration?
  • What kinds of frames and arguments do they use in the discussion of migration? Are there studies available on this? Or people who could advise you in this area?
  • Are there any examples of more positive coverage of migration in the publication/forum? What was the message there?
  • Who can you begin talking to on this issue in the forum? Do you have connections in your network to begin this conversation?
• Action plan
  Draw up a detailed plan of activities, communication tools and resources needed to engage your audience enough to achieve your objectives.
  • What are your campaign objectives?
  • How much engagement with your target audiences will it take to reach those aims?
  • What kind of communication tools and activities do you need to catalyse and mediate the discussion you want to have to reach those aims?
  • What can you afford to produce in terms or manpower and money available?
  • Are there opportunities in the debate or events that you can leverage to reach a wider audience with a small amount of resources?
  • Are there potential obstacles in the political or policy process that could hinder your campaign goals?

3. Preparing for Responses & Engagement

Preparing for Responses and Engagement – After building out the campaign elements, you need to prepare the team for the campaign and consider the expected responses. This includes the following steps:

• Test & adapt campaign elements
  Test the messages and other key campaign elements with a target audience sample and adapt based on responses.
  • Pre-testing:
    • Which campaign elements and/or approaches do you need to test?
    • What testing options are available and which are most suitable for you and your budget?
  • Post-testing:
    • How did the test go? What were the responses to the campaign elements?
    • What did you learn about your target segments?
    • How will you adapt your campaign after the feedback?
• Develop talking points
  Develop a full set of campaign talking points (how to move through discussions, what to avoid and dealing with challenging questions).
  • Who in the team needs a set of talking points? 
  • Will one set be enough or will you have to prepare specific sets for different spokespeople or campaigners?
  • What are the core campaign messages?
  • What are the stories you want campaigners to tell?
  • What key questions will campaigners be asked? What should they answer and what should be avoided?
  • How will you prepare spokespeople and campaigners to become very familiar with the talking points and stay on message?
• Prepare the team
  Get the team ready to deliver the planned campaign and engage in challenging exchanges.
  • Are your team onboard with the need to take a constructive, dialogue-centred approach based on the principle of civility in this campaign?
  • How are you going to expose your team to the arguments and prejudices they will face in the campaign exchanges and so, build their emotional armor? 
  • How are the team going to become proficient in this dialogue-centred approach?

4. Run the Campaign

Run the Campaign – Now you are ready to go and roll out the campaign. Taking your plan in hand, there are a number of key aspects and steps to consider:

• Sequence the campaign phases
  Plan the elements
  • What are your step-by-step objectives in the campaign? Break down how you will proceed to get to the final goal.
  • Which objectives can be achieved in the opening/first wave of the campaign? Do you also need subsequent waves to get to your goal?
  • What groups of activities and communication tools are needed to achieve your objectives in the first wave? And for any subsequent waves?
  • How are you connecting the campaign waves to the debate or event that is your focus in the campaign?
  • What will be the order in rolling out the first wave? Schedule and sequence your events, release of communication tools, meetings, media etc.
• Get your ducks in a row & start
  Get ready for the first wave and implement the campaign.
• Monitor as you go
  Keep an eye on the schedule, responses/targets and spending.
  • Is the team ready for the predictable challenges of different kinds? 
    • Team has worked through potential challenges and how to respond
  • Is there a process in place for dealing with the unexpected challenges?
    • Back up team in place for quick response
• Prepare to defend your position
  Be ready to defend against challenges and expect the unexpected!
  • What types of challenges to your narratives do you expect (from constructive to trolling)? And from what sources? Think about the expected sources of challenges.
  • What are your plans to respond to these challenges if they come?
  • What will be your process to formulate a response to unexpected challenges and who will you involve in the process? 

5. Evaluate Reach & Uptake

Evaluate Reach and Uptake – A key element of learning from the campaign experience is to assess the effectiveness of campaigns in reaching your objectives. This stage involves the following:

• Develop an evaluation design
  Flesh out the methods you will use to measure the reach, response and uptake of the campaign.
  • How will you measure the reach, response and uptake for your campaign? 
  • What specific data sources and methods are you going to use to collect data for each level?
  • Which approaches best suit your purpose, budget and data availability?
• Generate an action plan for data collection, analysis and reporting on the campaign
  • Who will be assigned in the role of the monitor or evaluation data recorder for the campaign?
  • What kind of log are you going to use to record the data you collect?
  • How often should media and social media analysis be done? 
  • How will team members share the data generated in the field and through offline activities?
  • In what kind of report will you share the data and reflections based on the data in the evaluation log? Who will you assign to develop it?
  • How are you going to discuss and process the learnings from the campaign evaluation report?

Campaign Rollout Checklist

Campaign Rollout Checklist

Print materials

• Have you completed your texts for the campaign?
  o Press releases
  o Articles and editorials
  o Policy briefs or position papers
  o Letters or petitions
  o Flyers, handouts, leaflets, stickers and other merchandise
• Is the printing/copying of printed material already completed, delivered and in
  hand?
• Is the schedule fixed for the specific release dates for each element?

Visuals

• Have you completed your visuals to the quality level you need?
  o Photos, pictures, diagrams/info-graphics, memes
  o Videos
• Are all visual elements uploaded and ready to share on social media?
• Is the schedule fixed for the specific release dates for each element?

Broader campaign team preparation

• Have you completed your campaign team preparation?
  o Developed and shared talking points for the team
  o Team familiar with the schedule for each wave
  o Team very familiar with the talking points to stay on message and know
  what to avoid
  o Team ready to take an engaging approach in the challenging exchanges
  expected

Campaign team ready for 1st wave

• Are those in various roles in the team ready for the first campaign wave?
  o Main spokespeople
  o Campaigners at other levels (e.g. for events or street campaigns)
  o Other messengers or supporters
  o Team members that are supporting the spokespeople
  o Campaign management and coordination

Campaign team ready for responses

• Is the team ready for the predictable challenges of different kinds?
  • Team has worked through potential challenges and how to respond
• Is there a process in place for dealing with the unexpected challenges?
  o Back up team in place for quick response

Access Resources

• Reframing guidelines: A step-by-step approach to building a narrative change campaign – Website
• Checklist for roll out a Narrative Change Campaign (2 pgs PDF)
• Summary of the steps in the Narrative change campaign plan (3 pgs PDF)

Explore Further

• Public Narrative on Migration: 11 Case Studies
• Measuring Effectiveness of Narrative Change Campaigns
• Safeguarding Civic Space: Harnessing Narrative Change to Restore Public Trust in Civil Society Organisations
• Narrative Change as an Advocacy Approach
• Message Testing Methods for Narrative Change
• Narrative and Storytelling: Training and Planning Tools
• How to Change the Narrative / Story: Guides, Worksheets and Templates