Making Television Matter
Project Manager and Edited by Karen M. Hirsch
© 2000 Benton Foundation

Below are chapter descriptions to help you navigate to the sections that are of most interest to you from this valuable, free guide.

Introduction
By Pat Aufderheide

Chapter 1
A High Impact Television First: The Getting to The Heart of the Matter Campaign
By Melaine Piersol
This chapter chronologically details the outreach campaign for The Heart of the Matter, an hour-long documentary on HIV/AIDS, by examining the film's initial outreach conception, strategies, and impact on viewers.

Chapter 2
The Television Race Initiative: Sparking Dialogue That Can Lead to Action
By Carole Ashkinaze
A successful project using television programming to spark dialogue leading to action, the POV/The American Documentary's "Television Race Initiative" shows stations how they can create relationships with local organizations to facilitate problem solving around the issue of race relations.

Chapter 3
Take this Heart: A Coalition Model
By Jackie Conciatore
The outreach campaign for Take the Heart demonstrates the potential for collaboration between funders, filmmakers, television stations, and community organizations.

Chapter 4
Positive: Life with HIV: When a Film Doesn't Receive a National PBS Broadcast
By Janet Cole
The outreach campaign for Positive: Life with HIV is detailed, recognizing both the obstacles between independent filmmakers and public television and proposes new ways to overcome them.

Chapter 5
Filmmakers with Purpose: An Interview with the Filmmakers of The Heart of the Matter
By Catherine Gund
The authors outline the challenges of defining a film's target audience and the creation of an outreach strategy that is flexible but goal-oriented.

Chapter 6
From the Broadcaster's Corner: A Success Story in Coalition Outreach
By Kristi Laguzza-Boosman
Coalition outreach campaigns are not only good mediums for strengthening the impact of a film's message, but a successful coalition engages all community members to give a common voice to a project.

Chapter 7
Nonprofits on Using Media to Reach Constituents
The American Red Cross by Darlene Sparks Washington and The Greater Hartford AIDS Fund by Beverly Boyle are case studies showing how nonprofits can have a greater impact in their community by getting involved.

Chapter 8
Grantmakers on Funding Social Issue Media Projects
The Ford Foundation by Victoria Rodriguez Thiessen and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation by Raymond Rigoglioso write on the importance of outreach campaigns and the need to cultivate partnerships with local organizations, from the viewpoint of funders of social media.

Chapter 9
Making the Media Your Partner
By Geoffrey Knox
Focus on the challenge producers, activists, nonprofits, and public television stations face in developing media interest on local social issues, and how to respond to different obstacles outreach campaigns you may run into.

Chapter 10
Evaluating Your Outreach Efforts
By Ellen Schneider and Melaine Piersol
Ellen Schneider and Melaine Piersol discuss the importance of outreach campaign evaluations. They move past the primary successes and failures of projects to the reassessment of how filmmakers and outreach coordinators develop new programs and redefine goals and objectives.

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