Education Nation: What happens when it’s over?
“See you next year.”
-Brian Williams, Education Nation Town Hall
I’m not going to say that Education Nation does a horrible job of highlighting education’s positives and negatives, but it’s always been a personal mission of mine to move away from the “education news cycle.” As educators, sometimes we’ll take any positive stories about education, no matter how little and far between they seem to be.
Last Spring I hosted Rob Elgas of NBC Chicago, along with reporters and anchors from other big news outlets here in Chicago. We talked about the frustration that educators feel about how they are are portrayed in the media.
We agreed that Education Nation was a good first step to elevating education in the media, as well as other social media efforts like www.whatisyoureduwin.com. The big question is: How do you make education relevant in people’s minds every day?
I shared with the audience and anchors the graphic below.
This is what happens to the site traffic on EducationNation after this week is over:
In fact, last February, we checked the website, and after the Education Nation events were over, NBC literally stopped posting to the website after one post in October, as if the education news cycle didn’t demand it anymore because the “Back to School” campaigns had died.
We have to break this.
This is what EdReach was created for. We created a platform to make education relevant to people every day. We have to create a new culture in the Main Stream Media, one that fosters positive stories. Reporting news can be so much more than reacting to tornadoes and chasing ambulances. In order to break that behavior, you have to cultivate positive stories- that last more than a week, and aren’t then shuffled to the weekend news or the last 2 minutes of the Evening News.
So, EdReach, and hopefully you, will help to continue to put out those positive stories about education- the other 51 weeks throughout the year.
You can always share a positive story about education at www.whatisyoureduwin.com.
Maybe this is the year, they’ll start taking notice.
