Punch actions, investigation… The methods of NGOs to influence public opinion

On July 28, you may have heard the media announcing the occurrence of “overshoot day”. This is the date when humans have used up all the resources the Earth can produce in a year. Almost every year since the 1970s, this day comes earlier, which would tend to show the growing excesses of the productivist growth model. The indicator is calculated by an American NGO, Global Footprint Network. A model of influence operation: through this well-constructed concept, the organization manages to make its message audible and understandable by journalists, who relay it to the general public. “It is thanks to the media that NGOs become pressure groups powerful enough to move the lines,” analyzes journalist Marc Lomazzi, author ofUltra Ecologicus (Flammarion), an in-depth investigation into the milieus of radical ecology. By taking up the work of certain associations, the press popularizes and lends credibility to their action. French NGOs know this well, they have developed strategies to disseminate their vision of the world. The study carried out by Plead in partnership with L’Express shows that there are different ways of taking public opinion to witness.

According to Plead, the League for the Protection of Birds (LPO) is the most influential French NGO in the media. This position is mainly explained by the success of the LPO in the local press, in which it is quoted three times more than any other NGO. “We are close to the field, we offer very concrete and participatory actions, which the journalists of the local press appreciate”, interprets Yves Vérilhac, the director general of the LPO, who cites in particular the “counts” of cash, to which the league associates volunteers. According to Sophie Nick, coordinator of Com4Dev, an association that designs communication strategies for NGOs, it is this ability to talk about biodiversity without dividing lines that makes the success of the LPO: “Their communication is positive, they do a lot of environmental education and getting people involved is effective because it empowers them.”

In July 2022 alone, the LPO was favored by almost all the titles of the regional daily press, South West at The voice of the NorthPassing by The New Republic, The Journal of Haute-Marne, Nice morning, The union, The Republican East Where The Midi Dispatch. In West France Where Progress, the organization is even mentioned in a dozen articles in one month. Among the subjects that arouse the most interest, the review of the species that settle in or desert the territories. “Our expertise is recognized because we work with many scientists”, explains Yves Vérilhac; who specifies: “We are militant but respectful. The virulent fight on social networks is not our thing.”

Unlike the LPO, Extinction Rebellion (XR) opted for maximum radicalism. The organization, an offshoot of the movement founded in the United Kingdom in 2019, calls for “carbon neutrality by 2025” and defends “non-violent civil disobedience”. Its mode of action? The blocking of roads and the occupation of places, such as the surroundings of McDonald’s on rue Saint-Denis, in Paris, prevented access on Sunday April 17. “The specificity of Extinction Rebellion is these illegal actions punch”, describes Marc Lomazzi. Actions broadcast live on social networks. Proof that the collective is interested in the media impact of its initiatives, even if their relations with journalists remain distant. “In their minds, the traditional media are more part of the problem than the solution,” says Marc Lomazzi. XR nevertheless reached the tenth rank of the most influential NGOs in the media.

Its methods renew the genre popularized by Greenpeace in the 1980s. At that time, the NGO founded in Canada multiplied direct actions, often accompanied by journalists. The sabotage of his ship, the rainbow warrior, by the French secret services, in 1985, will contribute to its fame. Today, the modes of action of Greenpeace (first NGO in the general ranking and n°2 in the media) have diversified – the association, for example, is increasing its legal recourse. But agitprop continues to be part of the arsenal. On March 31, seven Greenpeace activists were arrested after entering the Flamanville nuclear power plant site. “When we carry out this type of action, what is interesting is to create discussion in society. Little by little, the lines are moving,” says Laurence Veyne, the NGO’s communications director. Last May, Greenpeace was also part of the collective of associations that disrupted the General Meeting of Shareholders of TotalEnergies by directly challenging small shareholders of the multinational. “Targeting large companies is something that has often worked. We have won a lot of victories”, slips Laurence Veyne.

In October 2015, L214 made a name for itself by posting videos of the slaughterhouse in Alès (Gard) on social networks, showing mistreated horses, pigs and cattle. A turning point in the life of this small association which then claimed 4,300 members and continued to grow, until it now has… more than 52,000 members. A turning point also in the world of influence: for the first time, a French NGO dispensed with traditional media to broadcast its investigations directly on the Internet. “We started publishing videos on the force-feeding of geese in 2005, remembers Brigitte Gothière, co-founder and spokesperson for the NGO. At the beginning, we turned to the media and we had no got that much attention. When Facebook came along, it became clear that we had to use this channel.” The strength of such images, according to the activist? “This allows us to convey a message that is not necessarily heard when we show figures. Because we perceive the emotions of animals, and that affects us.” L214 reaches the eighth place of the most influential NGOs in the media and its success inspires other organizations: Greenpeace now has two employees in charge of the investigation and publishes its own investigations – only against – such as a four-part documentary on Total , airing Spring 2021.

NGOs seek to validate their beliefs through thorough and indisputable research. Hence the proliferation of quantified studies, on the model of “overshoot day”, relayed in France by WWF, the second most influential NGO in the country. Greenpeace, L214 or Friends of the Earth (eighth overall) publish reports with the help of researchers, which give their work a form of legitimacy. The NGO that best masters this mode of communication is undoubtedly Oxfam (fourth in the general ranking), whose annual report on inequalities in the world largely feeds the public debate. “Inequality contributes to the death of at least 21,300 people every day”, concludes this year the association, the fourth most influential NGO in France, in a study taken up by TF1, The worldFrance News, Release Where Le Figaro.

The use of data from the World Bank, Credit Suisse or the magazine Forbes gives credibility to the work of the organization. This does not prevent certain laboratories of ideas from criticizing, not the figures used by Oxfam, but its reasoning and its conclusions. Thus the Molinari Institute, liberal, believes that the NGO “is mistaken in preferring redistribution to enrichment”. “There is probably no link between reducing poverty and reducing inequalities. It is even likely that we have to choose our fight, as the reduction of poverty can be accompanied by an increase in inequalities”, underlines Nicolas Marques, its managing director, based on other figures.