A blog post by Freya Robb, Senior Press Officer at the Science Media Centre and Stempra committee member
At our recent online event on how to reach politicians and policy makers, we heard from an excellent panel of speakers who shared their experience about working with (and in) the media to communicate key policy stories.
Angharad Kolator Baldwin is Media Manager at Asthma and Lung UK, whichfunds research into respiratory disease, supports people living with these conditions, and campaigns around key issues such as air pollution and spirometry. Angharad previously worked at Cancer Research UK and her move to Asthma and Lung UK made her realise there was much less recognition of respiratory conditions at a policy level than for cancer, so she had work to do!
She took us through a case study around a parliamentary event under a previous conservative government. She spoke about the advantage of using an event to ‘manufacture a moment’ around it.
- Presenting new data can provide a strong hook for media. The charity looked through their data and released the five top and bottom constituencies in the UK for lung health: poorer constituencies faired worst, unsurprisingly. This work led to one of their key messages to ‘end the lung health lottery’ coming out a day before the parliamentary event.
- Having new data also gave the charity a reason to contact all key stakeholders in advance of the event, including the NHS, key collaborators, MPs of the top/ worst performing constituencies (it’s important to consider that there may be differences across the devolved nations/ internationally) and celebrities and influencers.
Then you need to assess the impact.
- Asthma and Lung UK saw 500 pieces of coverage mainly led by the BBC and the PA and regional coverage on TV and radio. There were some specific exclusives such as one with the Evening Standard that focused on the data for London. This impact compared to their media coverage across a whole month of regular media work – so these ‘manufactured moments’ can be really effective and their tailored approach to the different regions and outlets obviously paid off.
- 50% of their coverage contained their key messages. Angharad said it is worth thinking about whether to stick to one key message or have a few. With a range of messages, journalists could pick out a top line that they felt most relevant to their readers and this could generate more coverage overall, but on the other hand this can mean that main messages become more diluted across media coverage.
- Having heard the Chief Executive on the Today Programme the day before the parliamentary event, the National Clinical Director for Respiratory Health got in touch to ask to come along to chat at the Parliamentary event– a reminder that media can be a key way to help reach those key policy people!
- The Department of Health and Social Care issued a quote in response stating that the Government believed chronic respiratory disease should form part of the Major Condition Strategy – a real policy win!
Andy Hawkes is Communications Manager at CASE (Campaign for Science and Engineering),is a membership organisation whose remit is to advocate for policy positions that support R&D to benefit people around the UK.
Andy’s case study was around influencing our new government based on rumors and advice from trusted sources that there would be a significant real terms cut to the science budget, a story first broken in the media in Research Fortnight. Because of how the UK Budget process works, nothing was confirmed until the day of announcement, so while CASE’s members wanted CASE to try and avert this outcome, the was nothing official to respond to. The team had to rely on trust of their sources, good quality media reporting, and instincts from policy experts within the organization.
A tricky issue in policy stories like this is that a LOT of discussions happen behind the scenes and in confidence, so there is a balance between policy work taking place through these same avenues versus engaging the media and policymakers publicly. Andy said there’s never really an easy answer but should be discussed on a case-by-case basis.
In this instance, CASE made the call to act and needed to act quickly! Within 36 hours they had:
- A letter to the Chancellor signed by 42 leading organisations – gaining media coverage on the way
- A letter to the Times
- An op-ed in the Observer
The aim of this work was to make it clear and public that:
- The sector was united in opposition to this potential outcome
- This outcome would be disastrous for R&D in the UK and negatively impact UK science
As there was ultimately no blow to science R&D in the Budget, how can organisations who work in this space be sure of their impact? It can be very hard to assess this and Andy’s best advice on measuring success where outcomes can be hard to measure is to keep all colleagues informed from the outset, highlight the level of uncertainty that you’re working with so you are less likely to come unstuck when asked to ‘prove’ the impact of your work.
Finally, from the other side of the fence we heard from Robin Bisson, UK News Editor from Research Professional News (more often known as Research Fortnight)
Research Professional News is squarely focused on policy and politics – Robin spends a lot of time talking to policy makers and government agencies, understanding what is important to them and what topics are most significant to policy makers and the sector. Exclusives and longer features are often used to brief parliamentary committees and policy makers, are regularly quoted in parliament and policy literature and are widely read by policy makers. This means they can be a great outlet to speak to about policy issues at your organisation!
Robin talked us through what makes a good policy story… and honestly it’s the same as for other topics: it needs to be new, accurate and what people want to read about.
To dig down a bit more into policy stories specifically:
- He recommended people have a look at their website to see which stories they cover. It might be more person centered around key figures in the field – e.g. an interview with outgoing UKRI Chief Executive Ottoline Leyser on research funding; or big ongoing stories such as the financial challenges within the university sector will always be popular with their readership.
- A policy story may not get much pickup at all one week, but when circumstances change, that can make the difference to push a story to the top of the news agenda. A recent example is a regular seminar on DEI work in higher education, that may occasionally give them a story or headline, but given the US retrenchment of DEI under the new administration, it is now a much bigger news story. So, look out for opportunities like this!
- Keep an eye on the policy agenda outside the news and try and try to tap in ahead of time e.g. what are the different parliamentary committees covering, what enquiries are going on, are there any scrutiny sessions with key ministers, which bills are moving through parliament – and can they be a peg or push for some policy work.
- Work strong links between trusted journalists, your policy team and senior people in the organisation – as Andy said, a lot of the work in policy can take place behind the scenes, and in confidential discussions. When you have trusted relationships with journalists you can be on their speed dial to respond quickly to new and sometimes unexpected announcements and also have key off the record conversations to help them cover stories you care about and keep them abreast of likely upcoming issues.
- Timings can be a little different than with regular science stories – for media exposure, you don’t want to be trumped by another policy story, and these can be more frequent while Parliament is sitting so if your main target is media, perhaps Parliamentary recess could be a useful time to get the space needed for your story. The flip side of this is that during that time your story isn’t going to get to policy makers/ on the desk of ministers immediately so the policy impact can be lessened, less likely to get that immediate response you might be after.