Hi all,
Wanted to post about the extraordinary press coverage of the Riven story over the last few days as there's been a bit of speculation about what happened and not all of it accurate.
It's a fact that for the press to get excited about an issue they need a human interest angle (with pictures). Riven's post on Mumsnet was ideal but when it came to engagement with the media, Riven's clear intention throughout was to raise the issue of respite care for all and to shy away from her own story. Of course the press pretty much ignored her because if it hadn't had a dramatic personal angle there would have been no story - it simply wouldn't have made the papers. If Riven hadn't already met David Cameron, it wouldn't have made the front page. It was a perfect storm of a story for a press looking for human interest, evidence of cuts causing hardship and a David Cameron angle to boot.
The extent of our own involvement was to pass on the enormous number of media requests of which, as far as I know, Riven only actually responded to only 2 or 3 and one of those (the Mirror) was because they doorstepped her. I also suggested and drafted her statement post the Mirror piece as she was upset the morning after that they'd skewed what she said to turn it into an NHS cuts story. Once it had appeared in the Guardian and the Mirror as front page news it was lifted plus picture by almost every other broadcaster/paper.
The press found out about the story both because there are plenty of journalists who are MNetters and because Twitter and Facebook were alight with it - and as it turned out, the story was exactly what the media was looking for.
For the record we think Riven and those who got behind her to make a noise about carers should feel proud of what they've achieved in the last few days. I've got no doubt that the Government will tread more carefully around provision of care for those with SN than they did before as a direct result of their action. The feedback we've had from the major charities involved is that they've never had so much press interest in the issue and that they are thrilled that it has at last entered the public consciousness. We've also had tonnes of emails from carers thanking Riven/MNetters for raising the issue.
The intention of this post is to give a clearer understanding of how things evolved and were played out. Please feel free to discuss the issues raised here but we will delete posts that pick over Riven's personal situation because we really don't think that's on given the bombardment she's been under the last few days.