Bridging the divide between the media and research: building trust in better communication webinar

Media interest in research has never been greater due to the global impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and Climate Change, among other topics. How research is communicated varies from an international scale down to local level, as also reflected in the quality of coverage from in-depth news features to poorly referenced, click-bait churnalism. Join us for this online seminar.

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Programme

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Summary

Societal and media interest in research has never been greater due to the global impact of Covid-19 and Climate Change, among other topics. How research is communicated should be of the greatest importance to academics, their organisations, funders and publishers.

The relationship between journalists and researchers is an important one, but they are not the only stakeholders invested in this process. How research is communicated varies in quality and scale from international to local coverage. The quality of research-related news also varies in the quality of coverage from in-depth news features to poorly referenced, click-bait churnalism. Join us to hear from experts as to how research is being shared and what can be done to improve that process.

Those working in the publishing, media communications, library and journalism sectors share common ground and there are benefits for attendees in gaining a greater understanding of how each part of this communication cycle works and how they can collaborate better.

Librarians and journalists both work to analyse and deliver factual and timely information, yet that can be undermined by missing out key components that can underpin a news story, such as a research article or funder link. Academics looking to capture pathways to impact miss out on evidence if there is no audit trail relating to the coverage due to the lack of proper media coverage.

The lack of substantial evidence within a news story has the potential to generate fake or poorly reported news, which can have a damaging impact on the reputation of research. This seminar will highlight good examples of working practice as well as explore what more can be done to improve this ever-changing ecosystem.

Who should attend?

This seminar is aimed at journalists, research managers and administrators, librarians, publishers and communications professionals in universities and publishing.