Hello everyone - can you help?

[Jackman]

Hello guys and girls,

My name is Jack and I have not posted anything up until now. I'm a reporter based in London and I have a great interest in the UK prepping movement.

I really want to write a feature on prepping and the myriad reasons it has become more popular over the last few years. Ideally I'd like to speak with someone who has been involved in prepping for some time, who is experienced in the various methods and techniques employed by serious preppers and who would be willing to explain why they took an interest in it.

I would want my subject to be someone who understands prepping in depth, not just someone with a passing interest in it. If possible the person and his/her family should also be knowledgable about preparedness.

This would be a feature for a UK national newspaper and possibly magazine. The company I work for, Barcroft Media, also produce documentaries for the likes of Channel 4, National Geographic and Discovery Channel, and I think there is great potential to explore the prepping movement in more depth as a television programme.

If you are interested, or know someone who might be, you can contact me on jack.mckay@barcroftmedia.com or call me on 0845 370 2233/ 07745639670.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Jack

[the-gnole]

I don't think you will get many takers, most if not all preppers have an embedded dread of "journo's" because what they say will be produced as an article rarely is, we have seen it before and it has been mentioned on a number of forums.

What rates are you paying for the article, nothing in life is free, do you have a few thousand to pay as an advance? say £10,000 up front and another £10,000 on publication might get you a short interview, and will I get to have full say what you will be printing before it goes to press, not before it goes to you editor?

If you can say yess to all of the above I may be able to find something to say, if the answer is no to any of the points then it may be best for you to move along as I for one will have nothing to say

[preppingsu]

I'm glad you have an interest in prepping and I hope that whilst on this site you have, and will, learn many new things that you will put into practice in your own life for whatever 'circumstance' you might find yourself in.
However, us preppers are a shy bunch we tend to keep our preps to ourselves. We wouldn't want to become know as 'that nutter who stores lots of food', just to be targeted by the locals when they don't have enough.
Please share any experiences you have as you go along building your knowledge and maybe becoming a 'nutter' prepper too.

[counsellor]

Hi
Maybe something to consider Jack, is that there are many degrees of prepping and people engage in prepping for many and varied reasons.
We are not a sub-species, a cult or bunch of wieldo’s, (except from the sub-species wieldo’s and crazy among us.)Ha Ha

But a trend that seems to present, is that they either see a need to

1) protect themselves and families
or/and
2) They have lost faith in the ability our government / society to operate with due care and consideration in the event of uncontrollable circumstances.
Or/and
3) They take self-responsibility and self-reliance as serious aspect of their lives
Or/and
4) As a stimulating activity

I would suggest that many preppers have a good sense of self-preservation and to go public would be in direct conflict with that innate and well established mind-set. After all you then leave yourself open to ridicule, attack and hostility.

You may find a self-promoting person here, however you may wish too question their motives. Because, what’s the benefit of showing off to the world, that as a prepper we consider potential threat, risks and dangers that other people may wish to ignore.

Maybe Darwinian theory suggest that it is those that can survive sudden changes are those that should prevail. So to be prepared, could be an evolutionary advantage.
So good luck with your writing, but beware you may get a story but not integrity.

[itsybitsy]

Hi
Maybe something to consider Jack, is that there are many degrees of prepping and people engage in prepping for many and varied reasons.
We are not a sub-species, a cult or bunch of wieldo’s, (except from the sub-species wieldo’s and crazy among us.)Ha Ha

But a trend that seems to present, is that they either see a need to

1) protect themselves and families
or/and
2) They have lost faith in the ability our government / society to operate with due care and consideration in the event of uncontrollable circumstances.
Or/and
3) They take self-responsibility and self-reliance as serious aspect of their lives
Or/and
4) As a stimulating activity

I would suggest that many preppers have a good sense of self-preservation and to go public would be in direct conflict with that innate and well established mind-set. After all you then leave yourself open to ridicule, attack and hostility.

You may find a self-promoting person here, however you may wish too question their motives. Because, what’s the benefit of showing off to the world, that as a prepper we consider potential threat, risks and dangers that other people may wish to ignore.

Maybe Darwinian theory suggest that it is those that can survive sudden changes are those that should prevail. So to be prepared, could be an evolutionary advantage.
So good luck with your writing, but beware you may get a story but not integrity.

Great post, Counsellor!

Jack, hello and welcome. And what he said...

[Ian]

I must concur with the above. I would not speak to anyone about prepping (especially a journalist, once bitten, twice shy) until I knew them fairly well. Post here, let us get a feel for your mindset, motivation and integrity and in a few months someone might put their head above the parapet.

I regard prepping simply as insurance, something to let me proceed as normal if things go wrong. I insure my car and pay extra to have an equivalent replacement during its repair should there be an accident and even its complete replacement should it be destroyed. The same with my home and other property.

Prepping is the same. Should there be any problem, flood, storm, strike, etc. etc. I wish to carry on as normal, having jam and butter on my bread, being able to cook, keeping warm, be entertained and so on, whatever happens around me.

My prepping entails formally identifying risks to me and my family, quantifying those risks and installing mitigation for the significant risks. I am not too interested in zombie invasion!

I also, before retiring, was involved professionally in Emergency Planning so there is the added interest of applying knowledge and techniques from communities to families and vice versa.

I believe most of the population in the UK do this to some extent. (I will take the umbrella today in case it rains) but we as a group take it further and consciously examine the processes. There are worse, more time consuming and more expensive hobbies.

Edited to add:
If you Google Barcroft Media they are getting a lot of criticism.

[itsybitsy]

Edited to add:
If you Google Barcroft Media they are getting a lot of criticism.

Is that REALLY necessary? Google any company you choose and you'll find somebody who's unhappy about them, somewhere.

[bulldogeagle]

i've already made my position clear on this and have nothing to say to any "Journo".

[Jackman]

Thanks for your replies guys, much appreciated.

I completely understand the reluctance on the part of some people to step forward. Rest assured any article would only go ahead with the complete confidence and compliance of its subject, I'm not in the business of trying and talk anyone into doing something they don't want to do.

counsellor - thanks for your insightful post. I think you may onto something with that, however, for my sake I hope there are preppers out there who also want to spread the word and perhaps even introduce newbies to the cause.

preppingsu - thanks for the warm welcome. I don't think any of you come across as being nutters! I'm really very inspired and intrigued by what you're doing.

the-gnole - of course! Do you accept cheques?

Keep up the good work!

Jackman

[scoobie]

Hey Jackman,

First of all, welcome to UKP.

It's a bit of a paradox really, for both sides. Any prepper who has been around for a while would generally shy away from speaking to *any* media about the why's and wherefores of prepping. Then you get the types that would happily speak to the media, now this doesnt necessarily hold true for any/all media-friendly preppers, but as we have all seen preppers and the 'survivalists' before have more often than not been painted by the media as 'whack-jobs'.

To overcome this stigma of prepping and the negative connotations, we (the royal we) need sensible media pieces about being prepared for many eventualities (job loss, illness, severe weather, strikes, industrial action, etc) However, because of being portrayed as a nutter, or 'OPSEC' concerns you won't get any takers from the kind of people you actually want/need to talk to!

Now, if your feature didnt focus on the individuals themselves and portrayed the prepping ethos in a positive way, including scenarios many prep for and the ways in which these are done and the considerations we make in every day life this would benefit all in my humblest of opinions.

How about another idea. If you are so interested in prepping, and are so keen on writing a feature on it, as an idea, embrace the prepping ethos, become a prepper yourself and document your journey. You might then understand the paradox from a personal perspective!

Anyway, welcome to the forum and best of luck!

Scoobie.