Engaging the Media: Telling Our Operations Research Stories to the Public
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Engaging the Media: Telling Our Operations Research Stories to the Public Laura A. Albert 1 Received: 28 May 2020 / Accepted: 22 June 2020/ # Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
Abstract Academic research occasionally captures the attention of the media. When this happens, there is a small window of opportunity to disseminate the real-world impact of our research and the value of our operations research and analytics expertise to the public. To do so, we must package our messages for public consumption. In this article, I summarize principles for interacting with the media, describe what various media interactions are like, and offer tips for capitalizing on one’s expertise. Finally, I reflect on what we have to offer to journalists and the value of telling our stories to the public. Keywords Public outreach . Research impact
1 Introduction Academics study problems that are significant for the discipline and possibly for the world. Academic research, if successful, can be published, disseminated to the larger research community, and receive awards. Our research is occasionally of interest to those outside of our academic and disciplinary communities, and at times, the research we do draws attention from the media. At other times, our expertise can shed light on a newsworthy topic that has captured the attention of the media. When this happens we have a small window of opportunity to disseminate the real-world impact of our research and the value of operations research and analytics to the public. The purpose of this article is to summarize my experience with media outreach and offer guidance for capitalizing on one’s expertise to tell our stories to the public when opportunities arise. My experience with the media goes back to the beginning of my operations research career. Two months into my first faculty position, a press release was set to be published for my paper to be published in The Engineering Economist with Prof. Sheldon Jacobson [1]. The topic was a touchy subject—obesity—and the outcome of the paper that related the amount of automobile fuel was used each year due to heavier drivers had the potential * Laura A. Albert [email protected]
1
Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53706, USA
SN Operations Research Forum
to make headlines in newspapers throughout the country. In anticipation of the media attention, the news office at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign gave Prof. Jacobson and me training for how to engage with journalists. The news office had experience with media attention and controversial topics, and this training taught me a few key lessons that became the foundation from which I have worked ever since. First, we came up with a set of key messages and takeaways from the paper we wanted to convey to journalists and reporters. The talking points described the research findings to the general public without any technical jargon. Second, the media office taught me how to circle back to the main takeaways to reiterate the main messa
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