For three days now I have seen the complaints that the mainstream media didn’t cover the March for Life. As a journalist, that sentiment bothers me because it is not exactly true. Type ‘March for Life’ into Google News this morning and you will be able to read 1,428 related articles.  Some of those articles are from small-town publications, but a large amount are from the mainstream media. (Besides the New York Times, which is a whole different thing.)

The thing we are really disappointed about is the type of coverage the event gets. You know the type; pictures pitting the pro-life and pro-abortion protestors against each other or articles that only pull actual quotes from the abortion advocates. I’m tired of seeing pictures of people kneeling in a nearly catatonic state or yelling in a vulgar unbecoming way. What happened to the crowd shots? And what about the pictures of the peaceful attendees carrying banners with creative slogans?

I give a lot of new media presentations and in all of them there is one common message – you can make a difference through your use of the internet. The March for Life is a key moment when that becomes true. We need to use our love for the internet and our understanding of new media to make a difference; because when it comes right down to it media outlets care about covering what people will read because that means greater revenue.

So what can we do today?

• Go to NYTimes.com and search on the site for ‘March for Life,’ ‘pro-life rally,’ and whatever other phrase you can think of to describe Monday’s event. You will come up with nothing, but the NYT will see the mass of people who searched for that and maybe, hopefully, think twice about ignoring the event next year.  The same can be done for any publication that didn’t cover the event and should have.
• Write the paper. Whether you want to submit an editorial about your experience or write a letter to the editor about the paper’s coverage of the event – it doesn’t matter but you need to speak up. If you don’t send the letter who will?
• Read the articles that are out there about the march. To send the message you want to see more of this kind of reporting, you need to vote with your clicks. Websites track the number of hits an article gets and then make reporting decisions based on that.
• Leave comments on articles and blog posts. And for heaven’s sake don’t leave angry bitter fighting comments. Leave well thought-out meaningful ones that contribute to the conversation and show that we, the pro-life generation, are level-headed individuals. Websites also track the articles that garner the most amount of comments.
• Share the good. If you find a good article out there spread the love. Submit it to stumble, like it on Facebook, tweet it to your followers, email it to your friends.

Katie Hinderer is a freelance journalist and fashion blogger. She has written for a number of publications on a wide variety of topics including business, real estate, lifestyle, entertainment, fashion, style, and beauty. She blogs at ModlyChic.com and MercatorNet.org/TigerPrint