And the media needs you because they want new, fresh stories that no one else has. It is what fills newspapers and newscasts. You have the story - they have the venue for telling it.
Over the last 2 weeks, I have attended several Media and Public Relations meetings and workshops that would have proven useful to any researcher looking to get a little attention for their project. It has included a Crisis Communications meeting, a Lunch and Learn on how to do a media interview, a breakfast with Robert Cribb ( at least I’m well fed ! ) and the Painless Publicity event that I’ve already written about.

If there were some common elements to the presentations and what I have learned from my own experiences they would include:

• use non-technical jargon,
•  be clear about what’s in it for the audience
• be open.
   

You can’t set out with the goal of being a teacher with the hope that the audience walks away knowing the minutiae of your work. Instead you need to give them a quick and clear insight into what you’re doing, how you’re doing it and most importantly WHY you’re doing it. And I do mean quick. If you’re really lucky you get a longer feature interview in radio or an in-depth piece in a magazine. More likely though you’ll be looking at a one or two minute T.V piece, a 30 to sixty second radio hit, or a couple of quotes in a newspaper. Take a look at the February 4^th MacLean’s magazine for the article on the joint Genome B.C and Genome Alberta project to study the Mountain Pine Beetle problem. After a lengthy phone interview our CEO David Bailey is edited down to a couple of quotes.
Make you feel a bit ripped off about taking the time and effort only to end up with a few words ? Not at all I hope. You get the column space or the airtime and that sets you apart from everyone who didn’t get the coverage. It also brings home the lesson about how you have to practice, and practice some more to get your points down to something manageable and understandable.
Don’t worry that you can’t offer up a cure for the common cold or have discovered how a certain gene works. Maybe your time will come and you can have that day in the sun. Until then, find the small stories and the bits of information that will make people sit back in amazement at what they just learned. And of course check out the Mountain Pine Beetle story in MacLean’s magazine while you're waiting for the big discovery.