With So Many Demonstrations, It’s Hard to Get Coverage : Protesters in Capital Learn Value of Creativity

Every year since World War II, several hundred Ukrainian Americans have marched in the capital to protest Soviet human rights abuses in their homeland, and, every year, the demonstration has drawn the same general response from official Washington: ho hum.

This year, the Ukrainians once again conducted their traditional march from the White House to the Soviet Embassy. But instead of merely picketing, they dressed themselves in prison garb, and a few managed to get arrested.

The unusual protest drew local television cameras and, for the first time, coverage in the Washington Post. Half a dozen newspapers around the country recorded the event.

Making a Splash

The dramatic change was the result less of the media’s awakening to a cause than the Ukrainians’ realization that, in a city where hardly a day now goes by without a demonstration of some sort, it takes more than a few hundred peaceful pickets to make a splash.

“Protests have become a much more standard form of expression,” said Denise Mitchell, who advises public interest groups and unions on protest strategies.

Mitchell, a partner in the public relations firm of Abernathy & Mitchell, says many groups do not realize just how commonplace demonstrations have become since the Vietnam War first propelled protest rallies onto front pages and the evening news.

“There is . . . an amazing lack of creativity in the protests that are done,” she said. “I’m surprised at the amount of people who think if they go out with a sign, they’ll get noticed.”

Fewer Big Crowds

Gone are the heady days of the 1960s, when a phalanx of 10,000 seemingly could be gathered to protest almost anything. In the year ending this June, according to District of Columbia police, only 12 protests in Washington drew 5,000 supporters or more.

Even so, the number of protests is steadily rising. Police counted more than 350 marches, sit-ins and picketings in the same period--almost one a day.

With more protests, an expanding number of issues and fewer people willing to go on the front lines, competition for attention has heated up.

Some have turned to gimmicks. A group angling to draw new attention to the already highly publicized cause of the homeless had no trouble making the 6 o’clock news after they took a guided tour of the White House and dumped cockroaches on the marble floors.

Others rely on the impact of sheer numbers and celebrities, or simply good timing.

Anti-War Protest

More than 25,000 anti-war protesters grabbed nationwide coverage by tying together handmade banners in a 15-mile-long ribbon around the Pentagon, White House and Capitol earlier this month--a time when the news business is traditionally slow.

But most, like the Ukrainians, have had to rely on a more aggressive and sophisticated approach.

“It’s like politics,” said John Mularoni, who coached the Ukrainians in their most recent protest. “It’s a combination of technique, experience and good looks.”

Matter of Timing

Mularoni, programs director for the nonprofit Center for Public Policy Research, began by convincing the Ukrainians to change their protest date from the traditional Sunday to a Friday. “You and I both know reporters don’t work on Sundays,” he said.

In addition, he urged them to bombard newspapers and television stations with five or six press releases each, instead of just one. “I learned that from the American left,” said Mularoni, who prefers to assist groups on the other end of the political spectrum.

The protesters might spark some interest by attempting to present a petition to the Soviet ambassador, and it would not hurt if some people got arrested, he added.

Finally, Mularoni suggested that the protesters wear prison uniforms and chain themselves together during the march on the embassy to dramatize their cause.

The extra effort required to make a Washington protest visible usually pays off, said Mitchell, whose firm has organized demonstrations for clients in New York, Cleveland and Chicago.

‘Messengers Centered Here’

“I think it’s pretty hard to beat (Washington) as a city that can be a major mouthpiece,” she said. “All the messengers are centered here.”

One of those messengers, City Editor Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post, contends that the increasing sophistication of protest groups has not brought them more coverage overall.

If protesters number in the thousands, if a confrontation between two groups is possible or if the group’s approach is novel, he said, the Post may assign a reporter. Otherwise, forget it.

“We have limited space every day,” Robinson said, “. . . and when you have to decide between a story (about) cable TV and 25 people protesting in an interesting way, you’re going to go with the one that involves more people.”

Jane Mansbridge, a sociology professor at Northwestern University’s Center for Urban Affairs and Public Policy Research, theorizes that today’s protests are smaller than during the 1960s because fewer people believe they can force change. As a result, she says, small protest groups organize for the most part only out of a sense of frustration.

Beth Perry, a spokesman for the Committee in Solidarity With the People of El Salvador, is one of those who think publicity should take second place to making a political statement.

“We don’t protest for the sake of protesting,” she said. “Sometimes I think the issue speaks for itself.”