‘Words To Win By’ probes narrative switches that led to Ireland’s lifting of it’s abortion ban, Jacinda Ardern’s election, and more
Formerly known as “Brave New Words,” the podcast “Words To Win By” is back for a second season of victories. Follow communications researcher and campaign advisor Anat Shenker-Osorio around the globe as she looks at how underdogs managed to shift the narrative to their favor and walk away with victories. Across America, to Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and more, “Words To Win By” is looking at wins for human rights, equality and justice that goes beyond just politics.
Shenker-Osorio says at the start of every episode, “The job of a good message isn’t to say what’s popular, it’s to make popular what we need said.” With her notable background in all things communications, she is looking at what messages resonate where others falter through people’s underlying assumptions and perceptions.
She stops by Minnesota, where Hillary Clinton won the historically liberal-leaning state by a slim margin, to see what messaging worked in 2018 for progressives to gain even farther ground, confirming it blue for the 2020 election. GOP operatives in the state had seen Clinton’s slim victory (just two points, the slimmest electoral victory in the state since 1992) as a chance to turn the state red. Money poured in, Republicans betting on a racial polarisation strategy that became more apparent after the 2016 election.
Particularly, Muslim immigrants were targeted by messages of fear from the Republican side. With all of Minnesota’s executive officers up for election as well as all the seats in the Minnesota House of Representatives, several judicial seats, two United States Senate seats, and Minnesota’s eight seats in the United States House of Representatives, it was a big election. The Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party had to come up with a message strong enough to counter the fear-mongering. So, “Words To Win By” dug deep into what they came up with.
Shenker-Osorio consulted with the DFL during this time. They ran many tests and polls to try to figure out what messaging they would use when the opposition came, and what short slogan would be catchy and memorable enough to turn people towards the polls. What they found in their research is that economic appeals can’t penetrate when race goes unnamed, because the GOP also won’t stop talking about it.
The progressives won their races across Minnesota. They held both U.S. Senate seats and won the gubernatorial vote. The Minnesota House of Representatives held at five Democrats and three Republicans.
But it’s not just Democrats and Republicans, “Words To Win By” goes beyond America’s political climate to far bigger victories around the world. Shenker-Osorio unpacks how Ireland went from a total abortion ban to massive public acceptance, eventually overturning the ban in the vastly Catholic country. She travels to New Zealand where Jacinda Ardern became the world’s youngest woman to be head of state in 2017 despite all the polls leaning towards the conservative National Party. To the turn against Big Pharma in the United States, to police reform in Washington, “Words To Win By” is asking what strategies were implemented to persuade people to look beyond parties.
Check out the new season of “Words To Win By,” which dropped on November 9.
Discover
