Overview
The New Media Advocacy Project is pioneering new ways to win the toughest cases and campaigns.
We help human rights lawyers, social justice advocates, and social entrepreneurs integrate video and social media into their advocacy toolbox. Unlike a production studio or Web marketing firm, we think like advocates because we are advocates.
N-Map brings fresh eyes to your most important cases and projects. We transform your clients’, communities’, and customers’ experiences into moving and persuasive visual stories. We craft those stories for specific audiences, from judges, juries, and legislators, to the public at large.
Our approach is creative and flexible, but also rigorous and tactical—we create messages and media to support litigation, campaigns, legislative advocacy, community organizing and education. Unlike a conventional video or media studio, we don’t just produce movies—we create movies that are an inherent part of your strategy, and we help you shape your strategy to take maximum advantage of new technology.
Although each of these categories of “advocacy tools” is described separately here, the vast majority of our projects involve creating media for multiple audiences into one integrated campaign.
Litigation
When the gears of litigation have ground to a standstill, or if the odds are long, N-Map produces media designed to tip the balance.
As attorneys, we understand the litigation process as well as the audience. We produce videos to be used in the courtroom, in domestic or international litigation or arbitration, for settlement negotiation and mediation, or outside the courtroom, to pressure an opponent to settle or mobilize outside support.
We work with attorneys to tell their clients’ stories visually. Our media is compelling, emotionally charged, and effective, and can be designed to present the human side of your case to judges, the opposition, a jury, or the media.
We can also consult on the legal issues that arise—such as privilege, admissibility, defamation, and intellectual property—when making and using video and social media in and out of the courtroom. We know how to structure projects to minimize the legal risks to attorneys and their clients.
Services include: case analysis, strategic and messaging consulting, video production, and legal analysis of video advocacy strategy.
Here are a few examples of litigation videos:
Defending the Right to Counsel in the United States
In 1963, the Supreme Court, in Gideon v Wainwright, ruled that every criminal defendant is entitled to a lawyer. 50 years later, the United States has not lived up to the great promise of the Gideon case. Although there are many dedicated, talented, and tireless defense lawyers working heroically in challenging conditions, the overall system has failed profoundly to provide adequate counsel for many defendants.
N-Map produced this short documentary for our wonderful client, the Constitution Project, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gideon and to illuminate the current state of public defender systems. The goal of the piece is to commemorate Gideon’s case, and show the long road ahead in fixing our broken criminal justice system. The film had its first screening at the Department of Justice, introduced by Attorney General Eric Holder, and will be screened at numerous venues around the country.
The Gender Justice Uncovered Awards 2013
Billions of women around the world are still fighting for equal rights. Women’s Link Worldwide’s Gender Justice Uncovered Awards highlights the fact that in every country, regardless of its political system, culture or religion, what judges say has a tremendous influence on the day-to-day lives of people. Whether focused on reproductive rights, gender violence or discrimination, the Awards raise awareness about the influence court decisions have on women and their families and communities, and enable average citizens to help in promoting human rights.
In 2013, N-Map produced a short video to promote the Awards using animated storytelling to expose the importance of judicial decisions, and to encourage discussion and public participation in nominating and voting on cases. The Gender Justice Uncovered Awards tells every court, in every country, that we are watching.
Wheelchair Accessibility on Public Transportation in Tbilisi
We produced two videos to support a disability rights organization in their advocacy for wheelchair accessibility in Tbilisi, Georgia. The goal of this video is to persuade the Mayor of Tbilisi to launch a pilot program of disability access on 10 public bus lines. This piece is notable as it is N-Map’s first narrative video/social ad, which is being used in conjunction with a documentary video to campaign for increased access and other benefits for Georgian citizens in wheelchairs.
Campaigns/ Public Advocacy
We believe real human stories make the most compelling advocacy. A lot of organizations make campaign videos. We believe it can be done better.
N-Map combines a skilled lawyer’s awareness of advocacy tactics and strategic pitfalls with a documentary filmmaker’s focus on story and visual beauty. Instead of generalized “awareness” videos or generic ads, we craft multi-audience video projects to move campaigns forward in concrete ways. We may produce one video to persuade or educate a specific legislator about an issue and make another—with a completely different look and message—for a wider audience to apply pressure to that legislature.
Services Include: messaging consulting, audience analysis, media production, and distribution.
Here are a few examples of campaign/public advocacy videos:
Defending the Right to Counsel in the United States
In 1963, the Supreme Court, in Gideon v Wainwright, ruled that every criminal defendant is entitled to a lawyer. 50 years later, the United States has not lived up to the great promise of the Gideon case. Although there are many dedicated, talented, and tireless defense lawyers working heroically in challenging conditions, the overall system has failed profoundly to provide adequate counsel for many defendants.
N-Map produced this short documentary for our wonderful client, the Constitution Project, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gideon and to illuminate the current state of public defender systems. The goal of the piece is to commemorate Gideon’s case, and show the long road ahead in fixing our broken criminal justice system. The film had its first screening at the Department of Justice, introduced by Attorney General Eric Holder, and will be screened at numerous venues around the country.
The Gender Justice Uncovered Awards 2013
Billions of women around the world are still fighting for equal rights. Women’s Link Worldwide’s Gender Justice Uncovered Awards highlights the fact that in every country, regardless of its political system, culture or religion, what judges say has a tremendous influence on the day-to-day lives of people. Whether focused on reproductive rights, gender violence or discrimination, the Awards raise awareness about the influence court decisions have on women and their families and communities, and enable average citizens to help in promoting human rights.
In 2013, N-Map produced a short video to promote the Awards using animated storytelling to expose the importance of judicial decisions, and to encourage discussion and public participation in nominating and voting on cases. The Gender Justice Uncovered Awards tells every court, in every country, that we are watching.
Wheelchair Accessibility on Public Transportation in Tbilisi
We produced two videos to support a disability rights organization in their advocacy for wheelchair accessibility in Tbilisi, Georgia. The goal of this video is to persuade the Mayor of Tbilisi to launch a pilot program of disability access on 10 public bus lines. This piece is notable as it is N-Map’s first narrative video/social ad, which is being used in conjunction with a documentary video to campaign for increased access and other benefits for Georgian citizens in wheelchairs.
Legislative Advocacy
Most legislators and their staffs are still accustomed to communicating ideas on paper. Furthermore, they are often insulated from the problems of underserved communities, because those communities do not have the resources to reach them—either through lobbyists, or in person.
The New Media Advocacy Project crafts media designed specifically for legislative advocacy. We pursue a variety of strategies—from videos to persuade or pressure a single legislator or staffer, to complex multi-audience strategies to convince legislators to act.
Services include: messaging consulting, audience analysis, media production, and distribution
Here are a few examples of legislative advocacy videos:
Defending the Right to Counsel in the United States
In 1963, the Supreme Court, in Gideon v Wainwright, ruled that every criminal defendant is entitled to a lawyer. 50 years later, the United States has not lived up to the great promise of the Gideon case. Although there are many dedicated, talented, and tireless defense lawyers working heroically in challenging conditions, the overall system has failed profoundly to provide adequate counsel for many defendants.
N-Map produced this short documentary for our wonderful client, the Constitution Project, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Gideon and to illuminate the current state of public defender systems. The goal of the piece is to commemorate Gideon’s case, and show the long road ahead in fixing our broken criminal justice system. The film had its first screening at the Department of Justice, introduced by Attorney General Eric Holder, and will be screened at numerous venues around the country.
Breaking the Wall of Impunity
N-Map and the Center for Justice and International Law (CEJIL) co-produced two videos to advocate for reopening cases related to crimes committed under the military dictatorship in Uruguay (1973- 1985) and bring truth and justice for families of the disappeared, as well as victims of torture and rape.
This video, called Breaking Down the Wall of Impunity, is an 11-minute piece which provides an analysis of the existing barriers to truth and justice in Uruguay. It includes interviews with leading politicians, academics, journalists, family members and victims themselves.
These videos hope to encourage the entire nation to confront its past for the possibility of a better future.
Wheelchair Accessibility on Public Transportation in Tbilisi
We produced two videos to support a disability rights organization in their advocacy for wheelchair accessibility in Tbilisi, Georgia. The goal of this video is to persuade the Mayor of Tbilisi to launch a pilot program of disability access on 10 public bus lines. This piece is notable as it is N-Map’s first narrative video/social ad, which is being used in conjunction with a documentary video to campaign for increased access and other benefits for Georgian citizens in wheelchairs.
Community Mobilization & Education
An engaged and educated community or constituency is essential to achieving long-term social change. Litigation victories or legislative success will be harder to achieve without communities support, and implementation of the high-level change may be impossible.
N-Map works with advocates, lawyers, campaigners, and social businesses to educate and mobilize their communities. N-Map is keenly aware that messages designed for communities often look very different from those for other kinds of advocacy. We spend time learning the particular perspectives and experiences of the community audience, and involve community members in the design of the media and messaging, to ensure that the messages strike home.
Services include: messaging consulting, audience analysis, media production, and distribution
Here are a few examples of community mobilization and education videos:
Equal Access to Healthcare in New York
N-Map assisted New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and their clients, Bronx Health REACH on a very challenging and complex legislative campaign on the segregation of healthcare services in New York City.
Many large private hospitals in New York City accept money from the state and federal government, and are thus required to treat Medicaid patients as well as patients with private health insurance. Many of these hospitals have two separate systems: one for patients with private insurance and one for patients on Medicaid. These two systems are wildly different in quality, and end up unintentionally discriminating on the basis of race. N-Map produced two versions of this video – once designed for the community, which directly invoked the memory of segregation to demonstrate the severity of the problem, and another for Albany, which took a more “softball” approach, focusing on the benefits of full inclusion in one system.
Protecting Slum Communities in Lagos
The Social and Economic Rights Action Center has become famous in Nigeria and around the world (including winning a MacArthur organizational “genius” award) for its unique human rights advocacy model, which focuses on long-term community mobilization and education. We produced this video to help SERAC spread its model throughout Africa.
Of particular importance is the second chapter of the video (standalone can been seen here), which tells the story of a successful negotiation between the Lagos government, Chinese investors, and Nigerian villages, over the taking of the villagers’ land for a massive development project. Instead of simply painting the government officials as evil, this video targets other government officials in Africa to legitimize the idea that government officials can negotiate in good faith with poor communities.
Organizing Victims of Demolitions in Lagos
The Social and Economic Rights Action Center has become famous in Nigeria and around the world (including winning a MacArthur organizational “genius” award) for its unique human rights advocacy model, which focus on long-term community mobilization and education.
This video tells the story of one of SERAC’s long-standing client communities – the people of Maroko, a town in Lagos that was illegally demolished by the Lagos State government over 20 years ago. The case languished in court for over a decade before SERAC finally took the case to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. This video was produced to continue to pressure the Lagos and Nigerian governments to settle the case, and to demonstrate the power of the Maroko people’s community organizing. We anticipate parts of the movie will be used as evidence before the African Commission and Court.
Training & Capacity Building
We train our organizational partners, law firms and social enterprises, and student groups, to use video and new media to support human rights advocacy efforts.
We can conduct discussions and workshops to review what styles of media might be most effective for a given advocacy context. We can also integrate our clients into our production team in order to provide hands on training and experience.
By the time the project is completed, clients will have increased capacity to formulate messaging, reflect upon their other stories they have to tell and work towards producing future videos.
Services include: short workshops on media advocacy, video production for advocates, and strategic messaging; full day or multi-day custom workshops; and experiential learning.
Equal Access to Healthcare in New York
N-Map assisted New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and their clients, Bronx Health REACH on a very challenging and complex legislative campaign on the segregation of healthcare services in New York City.
Many large private hospitals in New York City accept money from the state and federal government, and are thus required to treat Medicaid patients as well as patients with private health insurance. Many of these hospitals have two separate systems: one for patients with private insurance and one for patients on Medicaid. These two systems are wildly different in quality, and end up unintentionally discriminating on the basis of race. N-Map produced two versions of this video – once designed for the community, which directly invoked the memory of segregation to demonstrate the severity of the problem, and another for Albany, which took a more “softball” approach, focusing on the benefits of full inclusion in one system.
Protecting Slum Communities in Lagos
The Social and Economic Rights Action Center has become famous in Nigeria and around the world (including winning a MacArthur organizational “genius” award) for its unique human rights advocacy model, which focuses on long-term community mobilization and education. We produced this video to help SERAC spread its model throughout Africa.
Of particular importance is the second chapter of the video (standalone can been seen here), which tells the story of a successful negotiation between the Lagos government, Chinese investors, and Nigerian villages, over the taking of the villagers’ land for a massive development project. Instead of simply painting the government officials as evil, this video targets other government officials in Africa to legitimize the idea that government officials can negotiate in good faith with poor communities.
Organizing Victims of Demolitions in Lagos
The Social and Economic Rights Action Center has become famous in Nigeria and around the world (including winning a MacArthur organizational “genius” award) for its unique human rights advocacy model, which focus on long-term community mobilization and education.
This video tells the story of one of SERAC’s long-standing client communities – the people of Maroko, a town in Lagos that was illegally demolished by the Lagos State government over 20 years ago. The case languished in court for over a decade before SERAC finally took the case to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. This video was produced to continue to pressure the Lagos and Nigerian governments to settle the case, and to demonstrate the power of the Maroko people’s community organizing. We anticipate parts of the movie will be used as evidence before the African Commission and Court.
Distribution
N-Map designs distribution strategies tailored to the particular needs of a case or campaign. This can involve social media, targeted ad buys, in person screenings or other, more creative or guerilla tactics of distribution.
There are no cookie-cutter distribution strategies. One of the first questions we ask before starting a project is how we are going to ensure that the media is seen by the audiences that need to see it. We craft an individualized and creative distribution plan for every video we produce.
Services include: Strategic consulting, social media development, media distribution
Equal Access to Healthcare in New York
N-Map assisted New York Lawyers for the Public Interest and their clients, Bronx Health REACH on a very challenging and complex legislative campaign on the segregation of healthcare services in New York City.
Many large private hospitals in New York City accept money from the state and federal government, and are thus required to treat Medicaid patients as well as patients with private health insurance. Many of these hospitals have two separate systems: one for patients with private insurance and one for patients on Medicaid. These two systems are wildly different in quality, and end up unintentionally discriminating on the basis of race. N-Map produced two versions of this video – once designed for the community, which directly invoked the memory of segregation to demonstrate the severity of the problem, and another for Albany, which took a more “softball” approach, focusing on the benefits of full inclusion in one system.
Protecting Slum Communities in Lagos
The Social and Economic Rights Action Center has become famous in Nigeria and around the world (including winning a MacArthur organizational “genius” award) for its unique human rights advocacy model, which focuses on long-term community mobilization and education. We produced this video to help SERAC spread its model throughout Africa.
Of particular importance is the second chapter of the video (standalone can been seen here), which tells the story of a successful negotiation between the Lagos government, Chinese investors, and Nigerian villages, over the taking of the villagers’ land for a massive development project. Instead of simply painting the government officials as evil, this video targets other government officials in Africa to legitimize the idea that government officials can negotiate in good faith with poor communities.
Organizing Victims of Demolitions in Lagos
The Social and Economic Rights Action Center has become famous in Nigeria and around the world (including winning a MacArthur organizational “genius” award) for its unique human rights advocacy model, which focus on long-term community mobilization and education.
This video tells the story of one of SERAC’s long-standing client communities – the people of Maroko, a town in Lagos that was illegally demolished by the Lagos State government over 20 years ago. The case languished in court for over a decade before SERAC finally took the case to the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights. This video was produced to continue to pressure the Lagos and Nigerian governments to settle the case, and to demonstrate the power of the Maroko people’s community organizing. We anticipate parts of the movie will be used as evidence before the African Commission and Court.