Using The Media For My Own Purposes

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Using The Media For My Own Purposes

• Professor Bente Træen
• University of Tromsø
• Norway

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A Common Experience of Scientists Is To Feel Used
By The Media...

• Victimization and disempowerment
• When in the media - who is the scientist talking
  to?
• The memory of the audience is disappointingly
  short! In 3 days (max) you are forgotten.

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To Use The Media For Own Purposes...

• Reasons for going to the media
• Focus the attention to own research
• Focus on political issues related to research
• Success is achieved when having learnt to think
  like a journalist

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Teaching Scientists To Use The Media Rather Than
Being Used By The Media
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Using The Media Choosing The Medium

• TV
• National
• Local
• Radio
• National
• Local
• News papers
• National
• Local
• Magazines and the Internet

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When Interviewed By A Newspaper Journalist...

• Always read the article the journalist has
  written
• Always tell the journalist specifically what I
  like about the article before I criticise. This
  is the foundation for a fruitful cooperation
• I accept that all buts and modifications cannot
  be met!

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The Photographer Comes!

• Take your time to prepare. Put on some make up if
  you feel like it.
• Dont feel pressured to pose in ways you are
  uncomfortable with
• Watch out for compromising postures

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How Does The Journalist Think?

• What is The News?
• The journalists task is to sell newspapers,
  spread news and inform the readers/viewers/listene
  rs
• Journalists have a little bit of knowledge about
  many topics, whereas the scientists has a lot of
  knowledge about a limited area... Respect and
  recognise each others profession
• Critical journalism
• The hottest thing the journalist as detective
  and social watch dog
• Feature
• Weekend newspapers

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An Newspaper In Print...

• The journalist does not decide the headline. The
  desk does!
• You can, however, demand to see it!
• The desk decides if the article needs to be cut
  down.
• Therefore, choose maximum 3 messages, and make
  sure the most important message is presented
  first.
• Reasons
• Most newspaper readers only reads the headline,
  or also the ingress
• The desk cuts the article backwards

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To Write In The Newspaper

• Debate
• Chronicle
• Follow instruction for authors
• Put a lot of effort into the first sentence
• Write the most important issue first the
  desk/the editor cuts the chronicle by paragraphs
  backwards

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Press Release

• What do you want to achieve?
• Do you want the attention or are you acting
  because you have to?
• If you want the attention
• Think in headlines
• What is the news?
• Make it short the competition for attention is
  hard
• Follow up with a phone call
• Where do you send the press release?
• Deadline

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Finding New Friends...

• Find a suitable newspaper (or other medium)
• Find a journalist you admire and trust
• Send her/him your research report
• Give her/him a tip on interesting news
• Give her/him exclusivity to the report

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Radio and TV

• The role of the journalist
• To present the news
• To pose critical questions on behalf of the
  viewers/listeners
• The role of the scientist
• To communicate scientific knowledge in a way that
  is understandable to the audience
• To select the pieces of information that is
  important to communicate to the audience

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What Kind Of Program To Participate In?

• Type of program
• Live or taped?
• News
• Documentary/culture
• Entertainment
• Debate
• Know what kind of a program you will participate
  in and say no to what you don't like
• Why am I invited and who else is invited?

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The Scientist Talks In The Media...

• I know what message I want to reach out to people
  with
• If I am asked irrelevant questions I turn the
  focus in the direction I want by for instance
  saying
• Yes, that is of course an interesting question
  we could have talked a lot about, but in this
  connection I think it is much better to direct
  the attention towards You see, as it is..
• Initiate conversation and keep the attention

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The Scientist Talks In The Media...

• Controlling the media and the situation I often
  use the interviewers name and I flirt
• I do not focus my attention on who and how many
  that are watching me
• I dont care about what my colleagues think about
  my performance
• I focus on the person who interviews me in studio
  
• I am aware that the person who did research prior
  to the program is not the interviewer
• Time - 3 minutes is a long time
• Positive focus and self instructions

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What Kind Of Guests Do The Producers Want?

• Guests who ...
• Have a good and interesting case!
• Talk easily and are well articulated
• Have a message that the communicate clearly,
  enthusiastic and preferably with humour and body
  language
• That the camera likes or who understand the
  media
• That supply the program with professional
  competence and thereby contributes to
  legitimise the program itself

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The New Trend In the eyes of the audience, who
are experts and why?
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Bentet_at_psyk.uit.no