Dealing With the Media

In a world of news driven by sensational headlines for social media to drive clickbait there appears to be little interest in the media to the issue of the long-term impact on individuals’ health due to third hand exposure to methamphetamine contamination (THEM syndrome).

In conversations with people affected by THEM syndrome or those who wish to raise public awareness of the issue of Methamphetamine contamination of properties it appears that “tell the media about it” is actually now a waste of time.

The experiences detailed to us by those affected who have tried the media is as follows. Listed below, in the priority of highest to lowest, is the attention the story may receive from the media and the chances of that interest generating a comprehensive story:

1.      A landlord may garner the media’s attention if there can be an aspect of the story about hardship caused to them by drug using tenants damaging their property or their rental property was used as a clan lab etc.

2.      A purchaser who finds the property they have just bought is contaminated may also get a hearing from the media. However most new purchases do not wish to disclose they have bought a contaminated property as this will immediately devalue the property and they may even wish to on sell quickly, which they could not do if the media and public knew of the history of the property.

3.      A tenant in public housing may get a story in the media if the news organisation wishes to embarrass the state government or the housing authority over the poor handling of a contaminated property which is affecting the tenant’s health.

4.      For private rental tenants it really has to be something sensational.  From accounts detailed to the authors when the media representative finds out you are a private rental tenant, they quickly lose interest.

On the whole most media outlets are generally dismissive of tenants both public and private and for any of the above groups quite often the response from the media when approached is along the lines of “We did a similar story last year, so we are not interested.” When really the response should be “yes we are interested, the more stories the better to raise awareness”. However, think about it, many in the media are investors or homeowners and may not really want the issue raised in public. Some in the media might even be drug users or drug dealers themselves and definitely don’t want the issue raised.

If you do get to be interviewed, be cautious. 

With print media (paper and electronic) the journalist may want to record the interview. If you agree to this, you should also ask if they are willing for you to record the conversation, so you have your own record of the interview. Then you can compare what is printed with what you said. Also, just because they agree to interview you don’t automatically think they are interested in you as a person, when they may only be interested in creating a sensational story or worse still slanting the story to make you the villain.

The other tip is do not read the social media feeds of the story.  The appalling comments that are generally made by trolls are not worth knowing and will cause distress. Some media outlets just allow the trolls to say what they want when really, they should be deleting such disgusting comments, but it’s called ‘freedom of speech’.

With live radio remember you are on air and any curve ball question may be thrown at you.

With a television interview you are at the mercy of the editor whether the story will suit the agenda of the particular program, and you may take part in the story being recorded only to find out that it never goes to air.

One important aspect for tenants to consider is if you participate in a media event detailing what happened to you then the news item will come up in a web search of your name for many years to come. This can harm your reputation as some people will not see you as the victim of abuse but might even think you perpetrated the contamination. It can also lead to you being ‘denied’ a rental in the future as you will be considered a troublemaker.

On the whole the media are not interested in the issue of third hand exposure to methamphetamine contamination. The big question however is ‘WHY are they not interested’ when it is such a major public health issue and one that is growing daily.