The Activist's Media Handbook

Lessons from Fifty Years as a Progressive Agitator

By: David Fenton

Narrated by: Jonathan Davis

Length: 8 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Activist and public relations thought leader David Fenton shares lessons on how to organize successful media campaigns, cultivated from more than half a century working within some of history’s most impactful social movements.

In an extraordinary career David Fenton has learned firsthand what to do—and not to do—to propel progressive causes into the public eye and create real, impactful, lasting change.

A visionary activist, Fenton has been the driving force behind some of the most important and history-making campaigns of the last 50 years, from the No-Nukes concerts with Bruce Springsteen in 1979, to the campaigns to free Nelson Mandela and end apartheid in the late 1980s, exposing the dangers of toxic chemicals in our food, the long battle to legalize marijuana and end racist drug laws, the misinformation in Washington during the Bush era in the 2000s, and recent campaigns that successfully banned fracking in New York and alerted the public to the climate crisis, including the environmental impact of Bitcoin.

Reflecting on his life, with tales of living in a commune, photographing riots and rock stars, working at Rolling Stone and High Times magazines rabble-rousing with Abbie Hoffman, and collaborating with presidents and celebrities, David tells the fascinating story of how he developed the strategies and tactics that have made him a successful media agitator. David then shows how these tools can be used by anyone to advance their cause.

Part roller-coaster memoir, part practical guide, The Activist's Media Handbook provides an essential toolkit for today’s activists for organizing to win: how to tell your story, captivate audiences, and inspire them to join the cause.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 David Fenton (P)2023 Audible, Inc.

Worth reading, and more importantly, implementing

In this book, David Fenton shares a lifetime of experience on how to message effectively for political and activist campaigns. The author is brutally candid about his own failures, both career and personal—this lack of pretentiousness makes his advice on promoting causes more fully credible. It is indeed a handbook for successful media campaigns that is worth reading, and more importantly, implementing.

Fenton notes how right wing media outlets and think tanks have attacked him, using their usual bugaboos referring to socialism or radicalism and his association with activists outside the mainstream. You likely will sense that what Fenton says is common sense—although clearly a progressive, he also offers scathing criticisms of some of his fellow travelers on the left (especially of their actions that hurt their causes).

Throughout the book, Fenton promotes and follows the advice of cognitive linguist George Lakoff of the FrameLab project as an authority for effective messaging techniques. Lakoff has pointed out that the Right Wing propaganda establishment has hacked into the conservative brain—blinding Trump's followers to the reality that he has nothing you value: no self-control, no loyalty, no tolerance for ambiguity or dissent, no expertise, and no respect for others' autonomy. You wouldn’t want Trump's gaudy lifestyle, trashy friends, or his bevy of supplicating vipers. To counter that, Lakoff advises to message Double Trump Haters and Reluctant Democrats about the MAGA agenda and then convince them that Trump will actually execute this agenda. Dr. Lakoff also noted that “There are certain things that strict fathers cannot be: A Loser, Corrupt, and especially not a Betrayer of Trust.” Exposing these qualities in Trump is an almost surefire way to turn off those with right-leaning brains or the many biconceptuals who have strict father tendencies. To win over those with more progressive brains, Lakoff advises to emphasize Trump’s corruption and show how he has already betrayed the people who buy into his scams-using his power to fleece you to pay off himself, his cronies, and his billionaire donors is all he cares about. Fenton is right to present Lakoff as a skilled and effective mentor for anyone who is serious about communicating their causes.

It's essential to take a long term perspective, and stay focused on the strategic task of advancing our common humanity—regardless of the current circumstances (whether favorable or unfavorable). As Conservative Yuval Levin has said in Yascha Mounk's Persuasion publication, there are new things they could say to new voters, and figure out how to make new friends and keep the old. In this book David Fenton shows the way-read it and you will know what to do. Now, let's get to work.