Presentation on Oct. 28, 2011, to KBS faculty, grad students, post docs on communicating their science research.

1. Getting Your Science
Message Out
Oct. 28, 2011
Kellogg Biological Station
By Michael Steger, CAE
Communications Manager
MSU College of Natural Science

2. Sci. Americ blog post

3. Scientific Literacy

4. Your Message
&
The Media

5. Know your audience

6. It’s Not Your Peers
(That is why they publish the journals).

7. General public
These people don’t read Science, Nature or
Cell. They have no idea what acronyms like
PNAS or AAAS stand for.

8. Let’s Borrow the Formula
from the News Media

9. Elements of News
Who
What
Where
When
Why
How

10. News Values
• Timeliness
• Proximity
• Impact
• Prominence
• Conflict
• Emotion
• Oddity
• Magnitude

11. Weights Vary for
Each Value
Weights Change

12. Combine the Strongest Values
with the Elements

13. Explain it
from
here
to
here

14. Tip:
Keep it Short

15. Avoid:
Proper Nouns
& Attaboys

16. What is it?
Why is it important?

17. The Inverted Pyramid
Get Attention.
Most Important.
Additional Data
Ancillary backup points
worth noting
Stuff Most People Don’t Care
About But You Ought to Include

18. Turn Offs:
- Clichés
- Jargon
- Plugs

19. The Media

20. What makes the news?
Something new
Something unusual
Something controversial
Something timely
Something close to home
Something that elicits a
response

21. Planning is critical.

22. Embargo doesn’t
mean
you cannot plan

23. Media Relations

24. Your Role

25. Be prepared to talk, show, discuss

26. Share With Your Personal Network

27. Once the timeliness is gone…
find more
reasons and
milestones to
keep the
conversation
going

28. Be Visible.
[ Insert Elements & Values Here]

29. The Unofficial Social Media Rulebook

30. It is easier today than ever before to use
your content to become a resource

31. Thank you!
stegerm@msu.edu