ATA’s Webinar “How Media Can Grow Bowhunting” Inspires Outdoor Communicators

Kenyon encouraged media members to consider and understand their audience. He said MeatEater sometimes uses different clips and footage from the same story for different channels to ensure specific audiences relate to what’s happening and understand it.

“It’s more appropriate to share that video and message on a channel with serious hunters,” Kenyon said. “Sharing it broadly on Facebook where anyone can see it? That’s where you can get into trouble. We must be careful about where we put things.”

Strickland agreed and said good content entertains hunters without turning off nonhunters. “We have to build a story for both people,” he said. “We owe that to the 300 million people in the middle (who don’t hunt).”

Only about 4% of Americans hunt, but over 84% of Americans approve of hunting. Therefore, it’s almost more important to create content for those who are curious about bowhunting but have never tried it, Strickland said. Hunters, after all, rely on nonhunters’ support to survive.

The panelists said outdoor media must strive to share good, honest representations of hunters and hunting to create allies, advocates and active participants. They encouraged influencers to be inclusive, provide context, and represent nontraditional audiences when producing hunting content.

They also stressed the importance of …

– including women, children and minorities in marketing materials.
- creating content for beginning hunters who need advice and support.
- explaining all parts of the story, including scouting, field-dressing and cooking wild game meat; not just the shot or kill.
- realizing the media’s vital role in changing minds and perspectives, so they must take their role as influencers seriously.

The nearly two-hour webinar ended with a call to action: Mentor a newcomer and lead by example.

“We need to build energy about mentoring,” Kenyon said. “If you want people to mentor, they need to see us do it first. We need to walk the walk (because) people do what we do. They look to us for leadership. We need to stop telling people what to do and do it ourselves.”