For researchers:

Introduction to media skills workshop

Microphone ready for interview

Mainstream broadcast media coverage can be an effective route to impact, delivering important messages direct to new audiences, raising the profile of your research and positioning your expertise.

This practical media training workshop will give hands-on experience of what’s involved, and of how to prepare and conduct radio interviews with confidence.

Delivered in small groups, it will help academics understand and find the angle in their research that will be interesting and exciting to journalists and to the audiences they serve.

COURSE LENGTH

3.5 hours

NUMBER OF DELEGATES

This course is designed to run with a maximum of eight delegates

Who should attend?

  • Those looking to gain experience of broadcast media interviews or improve their interview technique.

  • Those willing to look at their work from the ‘outside in’ and to find the potential in it for reaching a non-academic audience beyond the campus.

  • Researchers from PhD level onwards.

What to expect

  • An overview of what journalists are looking for in an ‘academic’ story

  • A discussion of your research and of what elements will be interesting to a lay audience

  • Advice on choosing your key messages

  • Tips on how to modify the angle you take, or the language you use, to make your research more accessible

  • A discussion of interview techniques and pitfalls to avoid

  • Practical experience of a one-to-one interview on your research, with feedback.

What you’ll learn

  • How journalists interpret stories for given demographics and audiences

  • What’s involved behind the scenes at radio stations

  • How to spot the media potential in a project, publication or event

  • What questions are likely to be asked – and what is likely to be overlooked, ignored or cut

  • How to prepare for, and conduct, a radio interview

  • The pros and cons of live versus pre-recorded interviews

  • Tips to ensure your key messages aren’t lost

  • How to improve your presentation and delivery for media interviews

  • How to have fun being a “go-to expert” on your specialism.

Our workshops can be delivered online or face-to-face

  • Very practical and challenging advice on how to start off in this game of writing for non-academics.

    DELEGATE ON OUR WRITING FOR LAY AUDIENCES WORKSHOP