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| Existing
Sources of Advice |
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Your organisation’s Press Office or Publicity department
can provide the best advice on publicising your project, and will
have a good range of contacts in the local and possibly even national
media. Ensure they know of your project – from as early in
the planning stage as possible.
Your other funders may also have specific requirements
or requests regarding publicity, and they should be consulted on
publicity for your project before you start.
The Media Trust
is a charity that aims to help voluntary organisations with their
communications, encouraging media professionals to volunteer their
time and skills, and providing a matching service, courses and online
guides. View the online guides and full details at http://www.mediatrust.org/.
The CSV
Journalist Network also offers the brokering of volunteer time
and skills of media professionals.
For events held in National Science Week (staged during March each
year), the BA, as coordinators of National Science Week, provides
publicity support. All events are included in the National Science
Week programme, and the BA also helps publicise events to the media.
They provide a free publication How to generate publicity for
National Science Week, which includes advice on a wide range
of marketing tactics, for all National Science Week organisers.
The booklet and National Science Week logos are available from the
NSW Organisers section of the BA website at http://www.the-ba.net/nsw
or by email to nationalscienceweek@the-ba.net or telephone 020 7973
3074.
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| Acknowledging
Copus Grants |
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- Logos
- All printed and appropriate publicity, including any website
associated with the project, must carry the Copus
logo. These are available from the Grant holders section of
the Copus Grants website. A variety of sizes, styles and formats
of logo are available, to suit most purposes.
- Notes for Editors
- Copus Grants support must be acknowledged as a Note to Editors
in all press releases. This is provided in the section Writing
a Press Release.
- Describing the Copus Grant
- The support from the Copus Grant Schemes must be acknowledged
in all appropriate corporate materials (e.g. Annual Reports for
organisations that hold Major or Large grants). Copus is written
as Copus – it is not an acronym.
Sample phrases to describe Copus Grants:
a) The Copus Grant Schemes for science communication projects
b) Copus Grant Schemes support ways of making science accessible
to public audiences
A longer description is provided in the section Writing
a Press Release as a Note to Editors.
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| Generating
Local Publicity |
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Four ways of generating local publicity are listed below. This
is not exhaustive, and should be arranged in partnership with your
organisation’s Press or Publicity department. See also the
Media Trust’s
online guides at http://www.mediatrust.org/.
- Staging a photoshoot for a local newspaper:
- Local newspapers are often keen to publish interesting, colourful
or arresting images of local interest. Your project may provide
an ideal opportunity to create one of these photos. This photo
could either be taken during your project, at an event for example,
or beforehand, at a staged launch for example. Contact your local
newspaper to gauge interest, and to discuss with them the image
they are looking for. Please note that you should always obtain
consent from individuals before photographing them for publicity
purposes. This applies in particular to children – permission
must be sought from parents/guardians before photographs
are taken.
- Issuing a Press release:
- Issuing a press release (also called a media release) can help
encourage journalists to write about or broadcast information
about your project. See the section Writing
a Press Release.
- Being interviewed on local radio:
- local radio stations are frequently keen to feature local events
and activities that they think will be of interest to their listeners.
See the section Featuring on
local radio.
- Being included in event listings:
- A variety of local, regional and national media have lists of
forthcoming events. If your project includes events open to the
public, consider submitting your event to them. There are a number
of agencies that produce lists of events for use by regional and
national media. You could also email details of your event (in
the body of the email, no attachments) to The PA: listings@pa.press.net
and AMI: info@amiplan.com.
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| Writing
a Press Release |
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Please contact your organisation’s Press or Publicity department
in the first instance for assistance. See also the Media
Trust’s online guides at http://www.mediatrust.org/
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| Why |
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Issuing a press release (also called a media release) can
help encourage journalists to write about or broadcast information
about your project. Your organisation’s Press or Publicity
department can help you write and distribute your release.
There has to be something of interest to journalists –
make sure there’s something newsworthy. |
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| What
to include: |
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Media releases follow a standard form, which you should
follow. They should normally be one, or at most two sides
of A4. From top to bottom:
- Date: the date the press release was issued.
- Title: A short, factual summary of what the release is
about.
- First paragraph: the first two sentences should summarise
the whole story. Be clear and simple.
- Further paragraphs: Use short sentences to summarise what
you are doing/have done; why this is important; who is involved;
when it is happening and where. If possible, include a quote
from you or another relevant person that could be used directly
in a story. If you would like a quote from the Copus Grants
Panel, please ask.
- Notes for editors: additional (usually numbered) short
paragraphs of background information – e.g. explaining
what the various organisations are that are mentioned in
the main part of the release. See below for the Note to
be used to acknowledge the support of the Copus Grant Schemes.
- Contact information: Provide at least one name and telephone
numbers (daytime and evening) for journalists to contact
to follow-up the story. Ensure whoever is listed is available
to be contacted, and will be able to provide sufficient
and relevant information when asked.
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| Acknowledging
the Copus Grant |
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The following should be included in the Notes for Editors.
1. This project is supported by a grant from the Copus
Grant Schemes. The Schemes provide funding and support for
activities and projects across the UK that improve two-way
communication between scientific communities and public
audiences. Copus Grant Schemes are funded by the Office
of Science and Technology and the Royal Society, and are
administered by the Royal Society. For further information:
http://www.copus.org.uk/
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| Featuring
on local radio |
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Please contact your organisation’s Press or Publicity department
in the first instance for assistance.
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| Why: |
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Being featured on local radio can reach a large local audience,
to help develop the audience for your project or disseminate
the results of your project. Your organisation’s Press
or Publicity department can advise you. There has to be something
of interest to the radio producers and the radio audience
– make sure there’s something newsworthy or something
of local interest. |
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| How
to arrange: |
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The time of day, day of week and style and focus of the
radio piece will vary from radio station to radio station,
and will be determined by the radio station themselves. You
or a member of your organisation’s Press or Publicity
department may have contacts already. Two different approaches
are:
- Send a press release to the news department at the local
radio station – give at least a week’s notice.
Follow this up with a telephone call a few days before the
event – ask for the forward planning desk.
- Listen to the programmes that you think might be appropriate,
and contact the producer of the show concerned – this
is often more appropriate for studio interview pieces or
a phone-in themed around your project.
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| Giving
an effective interview: |
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The prospect of giving a radio interview can be daunting,
but they can also be great fun. To make sure that the interview
is effective, consider these points:
- Think of the three key points or messages you want to
get across – these could be details of an event, a
scientific concept, or something that has been achieved.
Keep them brief, and remember them. Try to include one of
your key messages in any answer you give, if possible.
- Talk through the interview with the producer or interviewer
beforehand. For pre-recorded pieces, they may want to record
interesting sounds and background noises.
- For live interviews, ask for questions or themes in advance.
Write keywords to help remind you.
- For pre-recorded interviews, may interviewers prefer
that you phrase your answers as a complete sentence to include
the original question, so only your voice is heard in the
edited piece. If you fluff a sentence, just start again
– there’s no rush.
- Ensure you arrange for someone to record the finished
piece, so you can review how you did.
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| Acknowledging
the Copus Grant: |
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We recognise that it can be difficult to acknowledge funding
on a radio feature. Please include our note for editors in
any press release you send to them, and if asked about funding,
please mention us. |
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| Comments/Queries |
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For comments on this document, or for questions on acknowledging
the support of the Copus grant, please contact
us.
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