The International Science Council, the ISC Regional Focal Point for Asia and the Pacific and the Australian Science Media Centre invite Early and Mid-Career Scientists to a workshop exploring how young researchers can promote and communicate their work in a creative, memorable and accessible way and build relationships with trusted journalists and media.
Telling the stories of science can be a challenge, because research often doesn’t fit neatly into the format of the short ‘news story’. In addition, some of the lessons scientists are taught about communicating with their peers and colleagues can, unfortunately, get in the way of effective communication with a broad lay audience. We’ll look at how young scientists can bring storytelling in their science communication activities and access the relevant tools for building long-lasting relationships with the media.
Agenda
- Science storytelling – considering the audience
- What can we learn from journalists?
- Strategies for explaining new, complex and potentially scary research to an audience with no science background
- Why should scientists be in the media?
- Scientific literacy among the general public
- Understanding the global embargo system for science news
- Avoiding overly formalised, stuffy delivery and passive voice
- Translating your jargon to help the audience understand
- Using imagery and analogy to ‘paint a mental picture’
- How news is structured – a useful template for punchy delivery
- Dumbing it down? How about ‘making it accessible’?
- Journalist Q&A
Speaker: Joe Milton
Dr Joe Milton is an evolutionary biologist who, after studying plants for ten years at various Scottish universities, made a move into journalism.
Since then, he has worked as the Assistant Editor of a pair of scientific journals for the Royal Society of Biology, and written for the Financial Times, Nature and New Scientist, among others.
Joe joined the London Science Media Centre in 2010, where he was Senior Press Officer for Mental Health, before taking up the position of Senior Media Officer at the Australian Science Media Centre in 2012.
Joe is a regular guest on ABC Weekend Nightlife, on ABC NSW & ACT Evenings, and on ABC Radio Darwin Mornings. And for 10 years, Joe was one of ABC Radio National’s ‘research filters’, chatting science on the Drive show with hosts Waleed Ali, Patricia Karvelas, and Andy Park.
Photo by Jason Goodman on Unsplash