NEWS AND VIEWS
Our community and the press: showcasing our strengths
by Alexander B. Kuzma
The recently convened Ukrainian World Congress adopted the slogan "A Strong Diaspora - A Strong Nation." If taken literally, the slogan seems to miss the mark. Neither Ukraine nor the diaspora are nearly as strong as we would like to see them become. Still, the vision of a strong nation and a strong diaspora is something we urgently need to cultivate. Instead of lamenting the degree to which Ukraine and we ourselves have fallen short of our loftiest dreams and expectations, the congress challenged us to keep the dream alive, to defy our nagging fatalism, to see our glass as half full, but not empty or bereft of promise.
At a time when too many of our traditional leaders seem resigned to an inevitable decline in our community institutions, the Ukrainian World Congress and last year's The Year 2020 Conference in New Jersey encouraged us to take a fresh look at our potential, to recognize our strengths, to build on those strengths, and to articulate a vision for the future.
A critical element that typically is absent from our community life is the development of an effective media strategy. We would love to see the world acknowledge the beauty of Ukrainian art and culture, to know more about the Terror-Famine, about Chornobyl, about the valor of our national martyrs and the heroism of our forefathers. We would love to see the media give proper credit to the contributions Ukrainians have made in the fields of science, literature and business. But for some infuriating reason, we think it's the media's job to find us rather than our job to reach out to the media and make sure that our story gets told. Nothing betrays the diaspora's low self-esteem as much as its failure to aggressively pursue outside media coverage of its activities.
The seventh conclave of the Ukrainian World Congress was a glaring case in point. According to several organizers with whom I spoke, there was never any attempt made to attract the Canadian or international newsmedia to the December congress. For the life of me, I can't understand why.
The Ukrainian World Congress was a golden opportunity to draw attention to the Ukrainian diaspora, to showcase its diversity, its resiliency, its valiant effort to overcome centuries of oppression by keeping its heritage and culture alive. At its height, there were over 500 delegates from 13 countries around the world - some from as far away as Argentina, Brazil and Australia.
Multiculturalism is a hot topic in Canada these days, and for journalists and feature writers looking for some new "angle" to cover, here was a treasure trove of fascinating subtexts to explore:
1) the changing role of the diaspora in supporting an independent Ukraine;
2) the common bonds and the contrast among persons of Ukrainian origin living in Canada, Brazil, Poland and Russia;
3) exposure of discriminatory policies and persecution inflicted upon ethnic Ukrainians in Russia, Poland and Slovakia (coupled with a sidebar on religious and ethnic tolerance, which is prevalent in Ukraine today);
4) the efforts of Ukrainian women's organizations to combat international sex slave trafficking and to elevate the status of women in post-Soviet society (this would have tied in perfectly with an article that ran in the Toronto Sunday Star on the final day of the Congress);
5) the impressive variety and potential impact of humanitarian aid and technical assistance programs marshalled by Ukrainian organizations around the globe;
6) the challenges facing our community in attracting younger, more professional cadres to our ranks.
The list goes on.
There were human interest stories galore: Ivan Drach, Yaroslava Stetsko, people at the center of Ukraine's struggle for a political and cultural renaissance.
Even on the most parochial level, the Ukrainian World Congress could have exploited the "local angle" by appealing to the pride of Toronto's business elite and its media who rightly boast that Toronto has become one of North America's most urban cities. Here was Toronto proving once again that its reputation as an international mecca is well-deserved, as it hosted an important gathering of Ukrainians from around the world to discuss the fate of Europe's cornerstone nation.
Surely, this was a newsworthy event for someone other than The Ukrainian Weekly. The Weekly is a precious source of information for our community, but it cannot be expected to reach the millions of Canadians who read the Toronto Globe and Mail. Yet five days went by with no press conference or press release to alert the rest of the world that such a congress was under way. As far as the Canadian public and news services were concerned, the congress never happened! It was utterly and inexcusably invisible.
There are those who enjoy blaming the press for its failure to cover our community events when we have only ourselves to blame. With thousands of potential news stories vying for the attention of assignment editors each day, we cannot expect our programs to get automatic coverage. We must take the initiative to go out and "make the story happen." Even in the absence of a sophisticated press strategy, there is a simple set of mechanical steps we can follow to achieve at least modest success:
There is a fourth principle that should be adhered to: Ukrainian organizations need to get into the habit of cultivating relationships with individual reporters and even editors in their local communities, testing their receptiveness to various news stories. As we enter into an ongoing dialogue and gain a better understanding of editors' priorities, we will learn how to express our concerns and articulate our vision from their perspective.
Whether our press releases are ignored or not, we need to constantly remind the media that Ukraine is one of the most important countries in the world. Some of the most respected foreign policy gurus, from Henry Kissinger to Zbigniew Brzezinski have called it "the strategic lynchpin" of the former Soviet Union. Ukraine's position in world politics makes the Ukrainian diaspora arguably one of the most important ethnic groups in North America. We have a strong case to make for increased press coverage of all things Ukrainian. Our people's history, our survival of genocide, our struggle for freedom is relevant to everyone who cares about human rights; our music and art are gorgeous, and the Ukrainian community (even in temporary decline) remains a wonderful and intriguing phenomenon.
Contrary to popular myth, it does not take a professional "spin-meister" to generate effective news coverage. A few years ago in my home state of Connecticut, we were frustrated by the local news media's failure to cover a major event in the Ukrainian community. We could have stewed in our disappointment for years (accomplishing nothing), but the mild-mannered director of our local Ukrainian studies school took the initiative. Myron Melnyk arranged a meeting with one of the editors of the New Haven Register to raise the issue of the 10th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear accident and other issues of concern to Ukrainian Americans.
Since then, the Register has published more than a dozen articles on the activities of the local Ukrainian community, including three front-page stories, two page-three headliners, an editorial, two features on Ukrainian music, numerous letters to the editor, an essay on the heroism of Andrey Sheptytsky and a music review - all favorable to the Ukrainian cause. The ripple effect did not stop there, as a stringer picked up the memo and wrote a full-page story on the Ukrainian community in the Connecticut section of The New York Times.
We cannot expect this kind of success in every case, but the pro-active attitude exemplified by Mr. Melnyk proves that it is worth making the effort, and if we keep refining our approach, the possibilities are endless.
Approaching the media for the first time can be intimidating, but we have some very experienced and talented individuals in the Ukrainian community who have collectively generated hundreds of sympathetic news articles in the mainstream American or Canadian press.
The entire editorial board of The Ukrainian Weekly is a wonderful sounding board and resource that can provide valuable insights. Besides Roma Hadzewycz and Irene Jarosewich, a number of veteran organizers and first-rate publicity coordinators come to mind: Marta Baziuk (Boston), Laryssa Chopivsky (Washington), Tom Hawrylko (Clifton, N.J.), Mike Matiash (Hartford, Conn.), Valentyna Makohon (Rochester, N.Y.), Halyna Kurylo (Binghamton), Dr. Taras Mahlay (Cleveland), Bill Loznycky (San Diego), Olenka Bodnarskyj (Buffalo). Many of these are individuals who operate quietly, behind the scenes, and they are not counted among the recognized leaders of the community. But they have made dramatic strides in getting the media to focus on the very best our community has to offer. It is also worth noting that nearly all these press coordinators and organizers are under the age of 50. This is not a coincidence.
Effective outreach to the non-Ukrainian press can become a key catalyst in drawing younger cadres back into our community institutions. Press work does not require fluency in Ukrainian. It cannot be easily usurped by the old guard that tends to shy away from the English-language media.
Most importantly, as news stories about the Ukrainian community begin to surface with greater frequency in the non-Ukrainian press, our young people will begin to see that the Ukrainian community may not be the hopeless dinosaur they once abandoned. Painful as it is to acknowledge, our youth has left the community in droves because in this commercialized, conformist society, they wanted desperately to be part of "the mainstream." They will not come back and join community institutions unless those institutions can show that they are deemed relevant and important (i.e., newsworthy) in the eyes of their American peers.
This is not to say that our youth is shallow and self-centered, but it is rarely moved by the same spirit of self-sacrifice and devotion that moved their parents to champion what seemed for decades like a lost cause. For better or for worse, the young generation has adopted the corporate, professional mindset that demands the ratification that comes with "relevance," stature and a sense of accomplishment.
What is the stature of the diaspora in the grand scheme of things? Where is it visible? If the diaspora truly cares about youth involvement, it has to show that it is capable of swimming and flourishing in the mainstream of American life. We cannot prove this as long as we conduct our business in a state of self-imposed media blackout.
Press coverage is essential. It is objective validation of our existence. It literally shows that our community is "happening," thriving, not dying in obscurity.
Alexander B. Kuzma is director of development for the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund.
Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 17, 1999, No. 3, Vol. LXVII
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