Media training for researchers and communications staff

Communicating your research to the media, and beyond

Next session: date TBC

This session is aimed at researchers and will cover:

• Why share your research? Why not?
• What makes a good story?
• The ins and outs of a press release
• Media interviews
• Other ways to share your research
• Who can support you?

Train the trainer: building confidence in media support for researchers

Next session: date TBC

This training session is designed specifically for communications staff who support researchers with media enquiries. 

The session will give you practical tools, frameworks, and real-world case studies to help you feel more confident acting as a first point of contact for media-related questions. By the end of the session, you will:

• Understand the current media landscape and how it relates to academic research
• Feel more equipped to advise researchers preparing for interviews
• Use practical frameworks to assess potential media stories
• Know when and how to escalate to the Press Office
• Build confidence in your own judgement in fast-moving situations

The session is designed to be interactive, with group exercises, scenarios, and helpful take-away resources. 

The Conversation

The Conversation is the world's leading publisher of research-based news and analysis. It is an independent, non-profit media charity supported by around 90 UK and European universities and strategic partners.

Staff from member universities (University of Oxford is currently a member) can participate in the year-round, weekly schedule of 60-minute training sessions (plus Q&A) that teach the core skills and techniques of how to communicate research expertise, write for and pitch to The Conversation.

Weekly Zoom sessions

There is a regular schedule of sessions running weekly throughout the year, with material provided by The Conversation's sister company Universal Impact (UI). Oxford staff are welcome to register for any of the sessions at a time that suits them.

Benefits of attending:

• Understand what makes a good story, the types of articles your expertise could generate, and how to put them together
• Session hosted by experienced journalists from Universal Impact, The Conversation’s subsidiary that provides bespoke training, mentoring and editorial services
• Learn core communication skills that are useful and widely transferable, via sessions whose contents have been mapped to Vitae’s Researcher Development Framework
• Join academics from other member institutions

Sessions are held on Zoom twice weekly: every Wednesday at 2pm and on rotating Tuesday and Thursday mornings and afternoons.

Registration links: (these remain the same for every week’s sessions)

• Weekly Wednesday 2pm
• Rotating Thursday 2pm
• Rotating Tuesday 10.30am
• Rotating Thursday 10.30am
• Rotating Tuesday 2pm

Choose a day and time, register your details using the link, and the link to the session will be sent to you via email.

For more background on The Conversation and how they work with academics, they recommend taking their online course, The Conversation: who we are and how we work with academics, which takes 20-60mins. This is not a mandatory prerequisite.

Online training courses for academics

The Conversation offers four free online training courses for staff from member universities:

• The Conversation: who we are and how we work with academics
• How to write for The Conversation
• How to pitch for The Conversation
• Writing for Insights (long form articles)

Editor visits

The Conversation editors also make on-campus visits to catch up with the communications/research teams and to meet academics who they have identified as having potential stories to offer.