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Newsletter April 2008 Getting your science in the news Explaining your science to the media Print journalists versus TV and radio news Grabs – 3 seconds, 9 words, choose carefully We have trained thousands of scientists and those involved in science in how to talk with the media about their work. We bring working journalists into our workshops so that the scientists can experience what its like to be interviewed by print, television and radio journalists. In February 2008, Toss Gascoigne, co-presenter of our media and presentation skills workshops, spoke to the Australian Academy of Science on this topic. In the articles below, we have pulled out some of the important points from his talk. You can also read the full transcript of Toss’s engaging talk and the subsequent Q&A session. Regards, Jenni Metcalfe, Michelle Riedlinger, Mary O’Callaghan, Melanie McKenzie, Michelle Burton and Adriana Velez |
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Explaining your science to the media By Mary O'Callaghan One of the things that people discover during our media skills workshop—and it is a deep, deep disappointment to many scientists—is that TV and radio news journalists are generally not very interested in the science. What they are interested in is the implications for the TV watcher or the radio listener. They want to know what the science means to the ordinary punter. A journalist from Channel 9 News in Sydney said he thinks about ‘Betty from Blacktown’ when he reads a media release. It is Betty who watches Channel 9, drives the ratings up, brings in advertising revenue and pays his salary. So the journalist wants to know:
The implications for scientists are huge. Rather than talking about how you got to where you got with your science, you need to be thinking about what it means to the ordinary punter:
If you can’t explain your science in those terms, you are
going to have difficulty getting any TV station interested
in it. |
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Print journalists versus TV and radio news By Mary O'Callaghan News journalists in the electronic media (radio and television news) and most print media journalists are generalists. They will do a flower show opening one day, an election story the next, a bomb blast the day after that, and then they will do your story. Their last study of science may have been in Grade 10 at high school and was probably biology. So you are going to have to adjust your language. Print journalists, on the other hand, while they may not have formal science qualifications, may have been working on a specialist science ‘round’ for a while— environment, medical, rural or technology. Journalists such as Leigh Dayton, Rosslyn Beeby, Deb Smith and Justine Ferrari have experience and understand the issues.
Be clear in your mind about which type of journalist you
are talking to so that you can explain your science at
the appropriate level. |
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Grabs – 3 seconds, 9 words, choose carefully By Mary O'Callaghan In a television or radio interview, you may get as little as 3 seconds to get your message across in what is known as a ‘grab’ or ‘sound bite’. A 3-second grab is about nine words. You may get as much as 9 seconds but, even then, you need to distil your story into, probably, a single idea.
Be careful—remember the grab that
got Paul Keating into trouble: ‘This
- is - the - recession - we - had -
to - have.’ |
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Anne Enright is addicted to them; Jonathan Franzen loves a good one; Kurt Vonnegut says, ‘All they do is show you've been to college’. Read more in The Guardian online at (4 April 2008) |
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Quotation of the monthJournalism largely consists of saying 'Lord Jones is Dead' to people who never knew that Lord Jones was alive. GK Chesterton (1874–1936) |
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Feel free to reproduce articles from our newsletter as long as you acknowledge Econnect Communication Pty Ltd as the source. |
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