Written Press Release Review:
- What are the major results presented in the Nature article?
- How well did each press release cover the major results accurately? Explain.
- A simple story is critical for communication with the public. Did the press releases provide a simple story? Explain.
- Good communication must target either the “who knew?” elements or the application — what does this mean for them or for society? It helps to talk about the people doing the work. Did each press release do this successfully? Why or why not?
- The typical audience is impatient and itching to know why this story will be interesting. That calls for a front-loaded Did the authors of the press releases lead with interesting information (i.e., front-load)? Explain.
- In writing for the public, a technical term will likely feel like jargon. The job of a press release author is to interest and educate the Provide examples where this was done successfully or not successfully in each press release.
- The best stories for the public integrate our joy in puzzling out nature with their focus on results and application. Was the information provided in a logical order?
Podcast Press Release Review:
- Write a 2-3 sentence summary of each episode including the major take-aways
- Which did you find most interesting? Why? What about the tone, style, information held your interest?
- Which did you find least interesting? Why? What about the tone, style, information lost your interest?
- What was confusing or less interesting that you would cut from each episode? If you say “nothing”, then you must provide 2-3 additional sentences about what you liked about each episode.
Reflect – If you were to choose to create a podcast on your topic, describe any new content/style/formatting ideas that you would include based on what you heard in the Short Wave episodes. What would you do differently?
