Here is a short summary of what NAG is doing about misrepresentation of Naturism in the Press & Media
How often have you read something about naturism in the ‘textile’ press or media, which has left you with steam coming out of your ears because it is inaccurate, biased, ignorant or just plain daft? This is no rarity, and it is not just annoying, it can be damaging to the progress of acceptance of naturism and the normalisation of nudity. So NAG has decided to do something about it.
At the end of 2017, NAG asked its supporters to volunteer to form a panel to approach this problem in a long term project to try to re-educate the world of journalism. Six volunteers with suitable backgrounds in both naturism and journalism came forward, and despite a few hiccups with the IT in getting started, are now underway. The approach is two pronged. The panel scans the press, media and internet for items dealing with naturism or nudity in general, and identifies items which need correcting in some way. The most suitable volunteer then contacts the journalist or editor involved, explains what is wrong and offers advice on how to correct it, and hopefully do better next time. This is not wholly negative, and where good, accurate writing is encountered congratulations and encouragement are given.
The second prong of the campaign is the proactive education of journalists. The mainstay of this is NAG’s “Guidance for Journalists”, (see separate thread in this forum) which explains the problem, and suggests solutions and ways to approach the subject properly. The full text of this document is elsewhere on this website . Here’s a small extract:
“ What’s wrong.
The most common fault is to assume that nudity always means sex. In some contexts it might, but this would be an extreme rarity when the nudity is part of a story about naturism, as naturism is a lifestyle involving non-sexual nudity. Sex is often implied or injected into a story in order to try to get readers or editors interested in something which has little other appeal. Naturism is a minority lifestyle, albeit a substantial and growing one. So it is unusual, and sometimes attracts attention for that reason alone. As most of society has little experience of nudity outside of the bedroom or bathroom, the vocabulary used to describe it often resorts to silly euphemisms about the body, childish language, jokes and puns; which are often in bad taste and used merely to get a laugh. The problem is that this trivialises the subject, insults naturists and encourages the reader to treat it superficially; and this can reflect on how the writer is viewed also. Put simply, it seems that faced with nudity, too many journalists seem to either turn into Frankie Howerd impersonators (…..ooh er, Missus!), or recreate the mock horror of the now departed News of the World….”
The Guidance is being sent not only to journalists contacted arising from press items, but also proactively to as many organisations involved in training and regulating journalists as possible. It is a big task and will take some time to complete, but a start has been made, and early feedback is good. Two notable successes already have been a correction about the law and naturism being published, and an invitation to one of our panel to write a short piece on naturism (including legal aspects).
NAG has found with its other campaigns (such as The London Question, Hampstead Heath, The Police & CPS and Naturism and Psychological studies) that success comes from sustained long term, positive engagement, and usually by small incremental amounts rather than sudden breakthroughs. We will know when journalists are becoming educated about naturism when we stop having to correct them. In the meantime, NAG is on the case.
However, why leave it all to NAG? The more people who write to let journalists know what they think the better. Journalists actually like reader feedback, even criticism so long as it is polite and constructive, because at least it lets them know that someone is reading what they write! You can do this off your own bat, or if you are really keen, contact Duncan Heenan at NAG through this website ( naturistactiongroup.co.uk ) , and ask about joining our panel.
We have had considerable success, marked not least by the fewer 'stupid' press stories lately. But there's always more to do, so the project continues!
