Writing to the papers and commenting on websites

We had a lot of press coverage to begin with. Our story is important, but it has recently disappeared from the pages of the press. One way to get us back into the news is by getting our many supporters to write letters to papers and to comment on websites that mention our story.

And to comment on blogs, including emailing supportive bloggers, such as this supporter. There are more and more blogs that carry our news, some of them devoted to the Crisis at London Met or parts of it. Link on their comments section to our blog here, if they haven't already found us.

Some tips on writing letters to newspapers:

• Keep your letter short (approx 200 wds max)
• Stick to the point. Keep to just one or two points.
  
• Reference the article you are responding to.
  
• Write it straight away, while it's fresh in your mind. You'll meet the deadline for publishing letters and be the first into their inbox.
• Include your name and address, tell them what you do and don't want published eg your full address, real name, etc.
  
• Mark you letter clearly 'for publication' in the subject header.
  
• Call up the paper if they haven't published it, ask them (politely) why not.

Some tips on commenting on websites and blogs:

Much the same applies, except you're automatically publishing yourself. But remember:

• Don't rant.
• Keep to the facts.
• Don't make it personal, don't let people wind you up and get into abuse.
• Link to this site for reference. The more people coming to this site the more people likely to take action to support our case.
• Consider using a webname - London Met staff might want to avoid using their real names for fear of victimisation at work. It won't be the first time it's happened, so it's advisable to think of an original name and stick to it.
  
• Don't get bogged down in circular arguments. You've made your point, now move on to getting that letter to Gordon Brown finished...
  

Some more letter writing tips coming soon (suggestions welcome). There are two great letters you can use on our website as examples. One here, and another here. More to follow.

Become a fully active media watch campaigner:

If you've started leaving comments on blogs and written letters to your MP, the Government, the editor of all the papers and everyone else you can think of, keep an eye out for more stories online. To become a media watch campaigner, you need to know every time there is an article about us online so you can leave a comment or write to the paper. Follow these steps:

1. Do a Google search for "London Metropolitan University" in the 'news' part of google, like this
2. At the bottom of the page, click on Create an email alert for London Metropolitan University
3. Fill in your email and select your preference (eg everyday, every week).
4. Click on 'Create Alert'.

You will now get reglular updates on news articles online about London Met sent to your email. If it's about the cuts, then click on it read it and leave a quick comment or write to the paper.

Send any links to good articles or letters to us so we can post them up. We may have missed them. Or put a link to those stories in to the comments section of this blog, below.

Finally, get your friends, students or staff, workmates and family members to do the same. Pass this on to them by clicking on the envelope symbol below to email this post... spread the word. We need to win the war of words, so get writing.