200 Words
Simon Grose,—Science and technology editor, Canberra Times.
Attracting and managing publicity requires time, effort and resources. It also involves risk. As soon as you put a message out, you lose control of it.
You need good reasons to make that effort and take that risk.
So approach publicity as a means to an end, not an end in itself.
Identify what you want to achieve by publicizing your science.
You could be motivated by the basic principle that the public has a right to know about research supported by public funds.
Your research could help people make better decisions as individuals or communities.
You could be motivated by another basic principle – securing more funding. Most donors appreciate publicity. Maybe you want to be famous. Maybe your boss wants to be famous.
Once you have defined your purpose, target the media that will best serve that purpose. The popular press or professional journals? Online news or morning television? International business media or local papers? Or all of the above.
Once you have a purpose and a plan, go for it.
Don’t expect results immediately, have a long term plan.
Don’t expect the results you expect. Like research, learn from the results of each experiment and adapt your next experiment accordingly.
And always remember that publicity is a means to an end, not an end in itself.