Traditional media can be leveraged to communicate your research to a wider audience and to encourage public engagement. As a strategic tool it can improve engagement with industry, government and the general public. Traditional media includes television, radio, print or online publications.
With the advent of social media there is an increased pressure on traditional news outlets to increase coverage across the day in the form of increased bulletins and updates, on-line and in studio interviews and specialist/opinion spots. This means there are more opportunities to share your story as long as you are well prepared, can tell your story well, match it to the right audience and are willing to adapt your schedule to fit with deadlines.
All Curtin staff should have undertaken media training before speaking with the media. Please refer to Curtin Media Information for Staff.
To start developing your traditional media profile, follow these steps:
Update your Curtin staff profile: log in to the Staff Portal and update your staff profile to ensure it clearly communicates your areas of expertise and interest.
Register as an expert with the Curtin Media Relations team. Curtin’s Find an expert database is targeted at journalists.
Create or update your profile for websites such as LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Google Scholar,and Curtin Expert Guide, so you appear in the search results when media look for expertise. Check out the Social media and digital footprint thing to learn more.
Tips:
Consider: Who are your key research end-users? What are your identified goals?
Traditional media is a fast-paced world. Journalists are under time pressure and need succinct and prompt sources. They need the story complete whether you are available or not. The story conveyed is at the mercy of editors, competing news, and ever-changing priorities.
Traditional media together with social media is a powerful combination for increasing engagement.
Use social media to participate in discussions about news stories:
Both traditional and social media contribute to your digital footprint and require forethought and strategic planning.
Enrol in Curtin’s Media Training for researchers to acquire skills and knowledge in policy, interview techniques, media writing, and more. Training sessions are approximately 3 hours.
Take a look at this list of tips from journalists at the Australian Science Media Centre [PDF, 234kB] on working with the media and how to talk about your research.
Register for The Conversation daily newsletter to learn how other researchers use this media platform.
Consider: How can you best convey the context and importance of your research to a general audience, making it both engaging and relevant to their lives?
Writing for The Conversation is an excellent platform for bringing attention to your research. It is one of Australia’s largest independent news and commentary sites with significant readership and sources articles from the academic and research community.
Articles published in The Conversation are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence, allowing other news outlets to republish your article with attribution, which may increase the exposure of you and your works exponentially.
The Conversation promotes authors through their own Research expert database of more than 30,000 academics.
To start writing for The Conversation :
Enrol in Curtin’s The Conversation Media Training.
Become an author by registering your details with The Conversation. The author dashboard provides metrics on your content’s reads, comments, and re-publication on other sites.
Consider: