Brainstorming

Alex Osborn, the father of brainstorming, found that people who followed his rules didn’t stare at each other in embarrassment or run out of the room screaming during a brainstorming session – instead, they generated a lot more ideas. He also found that more ideas...

Writing a media release

Designing your main message Often it’s not the quality of the science, but the way you ‘package’ your story that gains media coverage. Ask yourself these 3 questions and use your answers to formulate your main message: What are the main points you want to get across?...

What makes a good news story?

With hundreds of media releases crossing a journalist’s desk every day, your media release has to have immediate impact to avoid being ‘filed’ straight into the bin. What makes news? No-one really knows what news is. Experienced people can smell it but they...

Doing a television interview

Television is the most powerful and demanding form of media. It’s also the most time consuming to produce. You can help the crew get the best footage by having good visuals ready and briefing your ‘talent’ (the interviewee) on what constitutes a good quote. If...

Media release checklist – the 20 ‘must haves’

The headline is catchy. The first sentence contains the story angle. The first sentence does not reference the name of a person or organisation. The first 2–3 sentences answer who, what, where, why, when and how. The first paragraph is bright, direct, simple and...