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Help a Reporter: Use Visual Content in Your Media Pitches and Press Releases
- 1. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 1 Help a Reporter: Use Visual Content in Your Media Pitches and Press Releases Meagan Phelan Executive Director, Science Press Package #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 2. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 2 What is the Science Press Package? #prnews @MeaganPhelan • We are a service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science • We provide lay-language Science content to 10,000 reporters weekly • We also provide related multimedia, recruited from and/or built with scientists The New York Times The Wall Street Journal Associated Press Asahi Shimbun The Atlantic The Guardian NPR BBC Le Figaro Xinhua News Agency…
- 3. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 3 Boosting Coverage with Video • The Science Press Package team has talked with reporters at The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, STAT, The Economist & other outlets • Many say having video, in particular, can make the difference in their covering new research • Video that shows the science in action is great • “Talking head” video is not • B-roll video is particularly valuable … #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 4. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 4 What is B-roll Video? • B-roll is supplementary video footage that supports interview footage • It shows the science in action, by capturing a device at work or a procedure as it happens • It makes a video something people will want to watch, start to finish • The more “action” footage you can provide in B-roll submissions, the more “meat” reporters will have to work with, including in their own edited video packages, or even gifs derived from video snippets #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 5. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 5 Examples of B-roll Video at Work • An interview about a new surgical technique, without B-roll: http://bcove.me/lwj9p6yb • Related B-roll: http://bcove.me/q3ca3b98 • A video combining the B-roll with the interview: https://youtu.be/OyqN5u-zKCA #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 6. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 6 Tips for Capturing Good B-roll • Capture a variety of shots • Start wide and move in; pan shots help set the scene • Keep the B-roll relevant to the research, institution/organization and the material covered in the paper • Make sure each shot lasts at least 10 seconds • Filming on an iPhone or Android works! • Film with the phone held horizontally • Film in a well-lit area • Stabilization is key #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 7. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 7 Boosting Coverage with Photos & Audio • Still images are also useful to reporters • Reporters *do not* want headshots, however • As with video, they want shots of the science in action • Audio files also useful; help convey if authors are interview-worthy • Three examples where my team initially received headshots…(next slide) #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 8. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 8 Boosting Coverage with Photos & Audio #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 9. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 9 Infographics Represent Complicated Info; Do Well on Social Media • Infographics are a great way to represent quantitative, complex content • Reporters like to use them on social media • Authors: “Content should be no harder than a 5th grade level. Should be digestible by non-English speakers at a glance.” #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 10. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 10 Infographics Represent Complicated Info; Do Well on Social Media • Below is an infographic representing how to manipulate photosynthesis to increase plants’ light-harvesting ability #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 11. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 11 Visuals Should Serve Beat Reporters AND the Layperson #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 12. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 12 Select Fonts that Complement, Not Distract #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 13. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 13 Fonts Available on Your Computer, and Online
- 14. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 14 Maintain Accuracy of Content, Even As You Simplify • Maintain the accuracy of the content as you simplify • Loop back to the researcher/subject to ensure nothing was misconstrued in the simplification process • It's not only ok, it's exciting to have your creative work checked by others!
- 15. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 15 Accessible Design Tools For Creating Simple, Effective Graphics • Adobe Creative Suite • Piktochart • Infogr.am • Canva #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 16. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 16 Cultivate Relationships On Twitter • 62% of U.S. adults overall now get news on social media sites like Twitter (Pew 2016 State of the News Media Report) • Most science reporters are on Twitter, so it's a great place to develop relationships "Twitter has become basically another major newspaper for me.“ -- Robin Lloyd, Scientific American news editor, 2013 EurekAlert! PIO seminar • Seek out reporter handles; recognize them for responsible coverage of your content with tweets incorporating their personal handles #prnews @MeaganPhelan
- 17. Copyright © 2015 American Association for the Advancement of Science 8/26/15 17 Key Takeaways • Create action-packed b-roll video for reporters; you can even do this with your iPhone! • Capture photos of processes in action; if your contact gives you a headshot, ask them to go back and recreate a process shot • Remind your source that infographics are options for particularly dense content; this can allow you to avoid charts/graphs • Maintain the accuracy of your content as you simplify • To build relationships with those who use your content, recognize their responsible coverage of your content on Twitter with their personal handles #prnews @MeaganPhelan
Editor's Notes
- in TV news, A-roll is the talking head interview, and B-roll is footage used to make the final news story more visually interesting and ‘tell a story,’ it also helps cover up any editing points (e.g. the reporter nodding her head in between the interviewee’s sentences, or interviewee walking down the hallway or typing on a computer – that’s ‘b-roll’ covering up an edit)
- Sophie, can I play these videos?
- Influenza virus induced lung epithelial cell death (artistic view).
- The font is called "Caper Comic." It's a font that I had purchased for a video project a while back and have stored in my library. There are many free, public domain fonts online on sites like: http://www.1001fonts.com/ I could have easily pulled a similar comic font from there. For sites like 1001fonts (and there are many, many others like this one!), you can search for a font by style or feel. I would mention that like using an image or music that isn't yours, you should always look at the rights for a free font. Many people allow you to download the font in the public domain and use it however you'd like. Others put restrictions on commercial use (anything that will generate direct or indirect income). That being said, there are many great fonts already included on computers. It's a matter of selecting your preferred style. For the nitrogen infographic (attached) that had a LOT of text, I chose a simple, skinny serif typeface that's included on my Mac - Baskerville. So a quick take away would be: Start with fonts already on your computer. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_typefaces_included_with_macOS#Font_appearances). Keep it clean and simple - you want the font to complement the graphic and the content, not distract from it. If you don't find what you're looking for already on your computer, there are many public domain options online!
- You're not bothering me! The font is called "Caper Comic." It's a font that I had purchased for a video project a while back and have stored in my library. If I remember correctly, I bought it for around $25 from myfonts.com, so I'm not sure I'd specifically recommend it. BUT instead you can mention that there are many free, public domain fonts online on sites like: http://www.1001fonts.com/ I could have easily pulled a similar comic font from there. For sites like 1001fonts (and there are many, many others like this one!), you can search for a font by style or feel. I would mention that like using an image or music that isn't yours, you should always look at the rights for a free font. Many people allow you to download the font in the public domain and use it however you'd like. Others put restrictions on commercial use (anything that will generate direct or indirect income). That being said, there are many great fonts already included on computers. It's a matter of selecting your preferred style. For the nitrogen infographic (attached) that had a LOT of text, I chose a simple, skinny serif typeface that's included on my Mac - Baskerville. So a quick take away would be: Start with fonts already on your computer. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_typefaces_included_with_macOS#Font_appearances). Keep it clean and simple - you want the font to complement the graphic and the content, not distract from it. If you don't find what you're looking for already on your computer, there are many public domain options online!
- My go-to is the Adobe Creative Suite, but that takes time to figure out and you need to be comfortable building up from scratch. These two I've never used personally but came recommended by Gavin. Juan David has used Piktochart and really liked it. And I believe EurekAlert! used Infogr.am for their end of the year trending news graphic from last year. https://piktochart.com/ and https://infogr.am/ I've seen Canva promoted for social media graphic creations. I wonder if Gadi has used it before? https://about.canva.com/