“It may not be for every academic, and if you really don’t want to do it, you shouldn’t need to. But a lot of academics, working in most fields in the humanities and social sciences, could usefully up their media game.”

Professor Philip Cowley has written an academic paper reflecting on his 25 years engaging with the media. (Along with a number of others I read an early draft and made a couple of observations.) Now he’s published the finished piece. It’s terrific and I agree with (just about) every word of it:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4371905

https://twitter.com/philipjcowley/status/1632288779611389958

I’ll quote from the paper over the next couple of weeks but would thoroughly recommend reading the whole thing. For now though, his reasons why it’s worth engaging with the media:

1. Because you should want to disseminate your findings and work as widely as possible.

2. Because it is in your interests to do it.

3. Because you’ll gain access, knowledge and contacts.

4. Because you’ll learn to communicate better.

5. Because it can make you think about your research agenda.

6. Because it produces benefits to the university in terms of publicity.

7. Because it can be fun.

8. Because you might make some money*

* Though as he expands, “this one should definitely be last.” 

Margaret Thatcher’s legendary former press secretary Bernard Ingham has died at the age of 90. Whatever your views on his politics (or the politics of his boss), he was a formidable operator. I love this quote attributed to him:

“Always feed the dogs at the front gate or they’ll scavenge from the bins at the back.”

Keep that quote in your mind as you prepare for media engagement. Journalists will generally want to seek out a news line and if you don’t feed them one they’re more likely to pursue paths you might not want them to head down.

Good content leads to control and direction. A lack of content means you will always be on the back foot in interviews.

Incidentally Ingham was very generous with his time. At university I (smugly) wrote my dissertation on whether his power and influence undermined our democracy. Despite this premise he agreed to meet and we ended up talking for over three hours. I was determined to get a decent news line out of him…and failed to get even remotely close.