Science communication: How to tell the story of your scientific work

Have you ever wondered why certain research projects get picked up in the news and not others? Or how some researchers manage to produce science content that goes viral on social media? Sure, part of it is luck, but another part of it is storytelling. By framing your research in a different way, you can increase the chances that your story gets picked up, or that your social media gains a following.

This webinar will give you the tools to tell stories about your research intentionally, identifying newsworthy stories, who’s your audience, what medium best fits your story, and considering whether you want to pitch your story to journalists, or perhaps use your own media production skills, and posting it to social media. But what platform? We will cover all of this and more in part 1 of our Arctic PASSION seminar! This is part 1 of a series of seminars that Arctic PASSION will be hosting. Arctic PASSION is an EU Horizon 2020-funded project which aims to build a coherent Arctic Observing System that is adjusted to societal needs based on a co-design of knowledge.

The Arctic PASSION Online Seminar and Dialogue Series is a tool to communicate project’s topics, share ideas, plans and results, and initiate an inclusive and proactive dialogue with people from different groups, backgrounds and career levels. It is targeted to Arctic and Indigenous Youth, Early Career Scientists and other interested audiences. The online seminar is led by Olivia Rempel, a documentary filmmaker and multimedia journalist working at GRID-Arendal, where she does everything from producing, shooting and editing documentaries, to guest teaching a mini science communication course at the Technical University of Denmark. She holds a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, with prior undergraduate work in both journalism and environmental studies. Olivia has had a variety of media jobs, from logistics and communication work at Students on Ice, an educational polar expedition organization, to leading open-source investigations that combat disinformation at the UC Berkeley Human Rights Center and working on documentaries that have been screened at film festivals from Svalbard to Addis Ababa. Olivia has been working alongside passionate researchers for much of her career, and one of her greatest joys is helping them ensure their important work is communicated accurately and effectively.

Useful Links:

Watch this video on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aasLG7uOGAg 

Olivia's public profile and contact details: https://www.grida.no/staff/108

Olivia's slides: https://nextcloud.awi.de/s/2Gnj8pprci...

List of databases mentioned: https://researchguides.journalism.cun...

GRID-Arendal media resources, free for reuse: https://www.grida.no/resources

Science communication citations: Bickford D, Posa MRC, Qie L, Campos-Arceiz A, Kudavidanage EP. Science communication for biodiversity conservation Biological conservation.. 2012 Jul;151(1):74-76. DOI: 10.1016/j.biocon.2011.12.016.

Bullock OM, Shulman HC and Huskey R (2021) Narratives are Persuasive Because They are Easier to Understand: Examining Processing Fluency as a Mechanism of Narrative Persuasion. Front. Commun. 6:719615. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2021.719615

Márquez MC and Porras AM (2020) Science Communication in Multiple Languages Is Critical to Its Effectiveness. Front. Commun. 5:31. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2020.00031

Pavelle S and Wilkinson C (2020) Into the Digital Wild: Utilizing Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook for Effective Science and Environmental Communication. Front. Commun. 5:575122. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2020.575122