Media seminars for researchers 2013-2014

Purpose and goal

The aim is to inspire researchers to participate in public dialogue. The objective is to give researchers better insight into how the media works and how to work with journalists and their university press officers. In total 200 participants attended the three seminars. Videos of the speakers´ presentations have been viewed 700 times. In the evaluation questionnaires, 86% of participants in Stockholm and 96% in both Umeå and Lund believe they will put what they have learnt into practice.

Results and expected effects

It is hoped that more researchers will want to, be able to and feel comfortable with taking part in media activities. 74% of participants in Stockholm, 82% in Umeå and 92% in Lund rated the seminar programme 4 or 5 (on a scale of 1-5). A very large majority answered yes to the question whether they think that other researchers would benefit from participation in similar seminars. Any long-term impacts of the seminars cannot be seen yet.

Approach and implementation

The seminars lasted 3½-4 hours. A representative from the research councils started by explaining why it is important for researchers to be involved in the media. This was followed by 2 media-savvy researchers, 2-3 journalists from different media and 1-2 press officers. Finally, there was a general discussion. The speakers in Stockholm received an average rating of 4 (on a scale of 1-5), in Umeå 4.14 and in Gothenburg 4.48. The venues and documentation also got an average rating of around 4.