Here's some of those methods:
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Key things to remember: refer to the 2015 disaster as a BLOWOUT, and use Northern San Fernando Valley to indicate the affected area. Above all, don't libel anyone.
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1. News tips: by phone, email, online forms, tweets. Remember the 5W's: Who, Where, When, Why, Which, and, don't forget the How.
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2. LTE's: Letters to the Editor are an important way to respond to published articles. Usually the maximum limit is 150 words. Always check the newpaper or magazine's guidelines for length, as well as the required info to include (your full name, address, phone number, and email address -- your name and city will be published, unless there's an option to request your name to be withheld).
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In a LTE, you refer to the article you are responding to, and explain why you agree or disagree. Give some facts: we are still getting sick, SoCalGas is using ancient wells, SoCalGas refuses to list what toxic chemicals came out of SS-25, there's still leaking.
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End with a call to action: Governor Brown needs to shut it down, etc.
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3. For longer pieces (usually about 500 to 800 words), you can submit a op-ed piece or guest commentary. Again, refer to the guidelines for the publications you are interested in. Some, such as the New York Times, will ask for an exclusive submission. In those cases, allow for a week or so, and if you haven't heard from the opinion editor, then send your piece to other pubs.
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4. Use twitter to interest the outlets into your idea. With tweets, you can attach jpegs and links to other articles. Consider a layered tweet: compose a main tweet, and then retweet it to various handles. This is a great way to get around that 140 character limit, and still say what you want. Use hashtags such as #AlisoCanyon #ShutItAllDown #ShutDownAlisoCanyon.
One piece of advice I found out recently: When you start a tweet with an @username, only people who are following both you and @username will see your tweet. If you want more people to see it, just put a period or other marker in front of the username. Or you can always just rephrase your sentence.
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Guard against Twitter putting you in the "Twitter Doghouse" for spamming, by not sending multiple tweets in a short time to a specific account. And space out similar tweets--don't send out a tweet to several accounts in a short time.
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5. For more immediate responses, consider commenting directly on articles that have a comment section on the outlet's website or Facebook page. Often there isn't a word limit. But often some papers suspend the comment section for articles after so many months. The best action is to also write up and submit a LTE.
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See the following pages for examples of LTEs and longer pieces that have been published.
Getting News Coverage
In a busy news market, we are competing with many other issues and events to get reporters to our area. But nowadays, there's different methods we can use to get our story told.
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The more residents contacting the media, the more likely we succeed.