How to communicate - to the academic community

If you are about to publish a research article, have reached an important milestone in your career or have an interesting 'story' to tell, contact us.

He is a member of the academic community. How can we help you?

If you are about to publish a research article, have reached an important milestone in your career or have an interesting 'story' to tell, please contact us via email Assessoriadeimprensa@ualg.pt.

We can advise and help you tell your 'story', prepare the press release and even provide you with some training to better communicate with the media. 

Communicate with the Media

Do it like communication theorist Mauro Wolf and ask yourself which information or events are considered interesting enough, meaningful and relevant to be made into news.

Don't forget the four factors that determine the quality of the news:

- New (information cannot be known or repeated, must be new);

- Proximity (must create an impact on the life of the reader, listener or viewer);

- Size (as a general rule, anything that is abnormally large or small does not attract attention);

- Relevance (really significant, important aspects that capture the public's attention more).

5 questions to build a news story ...

If the press release contains a story that needs to be told to the journalist and the public, it needs to follow rules of simplicity (short words), brevity (short sentences) and rigor (objectivity).

With some creativity, the statement should answer the five basic questions of journalism - who, what, when, where and why - the first four usually create the lead, that is, the opening paragraph, which summarizes the essentials of the news. Bearing in mind the technique of choosing the newsroom, which orders information from the most important to the least interesting, the second and third paragraphs will answer the “why” and the “how”.

Always using clarity, correctness and conciseness (one idea per sentence, with short paragraphs), the press release should not exceed 600 words (close to four thousand characters [spaces included], a page and a half of text, as far as possible) . The result must be easily understood, but at the same time, appealing.

However, all stories have characters and so do the news. Therefore, there are people behind the projects / conferences / colloquia ... Whenever possible, statements / opinions should be used to humanize what is being communicated.

 
 

Resources at your disposal: