The Tyee asked James for his thoughts on what makes or breaks media appearances, and what to expect from his upcoming class on Saturday, November 7.
Read moreToolkit for Change: How Messages Can Mobilize
Ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi in 1979 coined the phrase 'Labour isn't working' for Margaret Thatcher's 1979 election campaign. Photo by Wikimedia Commons.
Well-crafted messages have the power to cut through the noise and mobilize target audiences -- as the most effective agents of social change (progressive and regressive) know. Maggie Thatcher did, for better or for worse.
Read moreHow to Frame Your Message
A high-profile spokesperson, such as Olympian Clara Hughes, pictured, can help drive home your message. Flickr photo: by Beverley Carson-Bader.
How, in a few weeks and on a modest budget, a disparate coalition comprised of environmentalists, human rights activists, unions and First Nations helped win a political battle and advance its arguments illustrates how non-profits and citizens can use strategic framing effectively -- even, on occasion, to challenge powerful governments and corporations.
Read moreHow Surprising Coalitions Trigger Social Shifts
'Borgen' is an addictive Danish drama about coalition politics (really!).
Done properly, coalitions can become much greater than the sum of their partners, wrong-foot their opponents, galvanize public attention -- even change the world.
Read moreTurn a PR Pickle into a "Crisitunity"
Today's accelerated news cycle and chatty social media demand that social change-makers anticipate communications crises. Photo: Shutterstock.
A "crisitunity" triggered by a Christian pastor ended up playing in the favour of promising new methods of harm reduction.
Read moreInsights from the hard-fought PR battle on Burnaby Mountain
Protesters against the Trans Mountain pipeline captured headlines last December on Burnaby Mountain. Photo: Jackie Dives
In this first column of my series, Tools for Change, for the award-winning on-line news magazine The Tyee, I discuss how good public demonstrations can, without money or much organization, change the way their participants and millions see the world, obliterating the costly public relations’ strategies of big industries and bad governments.
Read moreYou're the envy of your 'green bloc.' But you hide a secret. Just sweep it under the rug?
Writer Jim Boothroyd with the kitchen scale his family uses to measure out their eco footprint impact, ounce-by-ounce.
Though I religiously enter my measurements in the Green Bloc survey each night, the real footprint ledger I am keeping is a secret one, with columns headed Pride – and its flipside, Shame.
Read moreGlobe and Mail news story
Here is one of many news stories (seen in the Globe and Mail) that quoted James Boothroyd as spokesman and communications manager for the controversial $8 million Canadian Institutes of Health Research North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI, prescribed heroin clinical trial).