Getting your research ideas out into the policy realm of government, non-government and business leaders requires more than just publishing in academic journals. This session provides you with hands-on experience to extend your academic reach so your ideas have an effect outside the ivory towers, providing you with hands-on experience to help you understand when and how to pitch your ideas to the media. Come prepared to learn how to write an opinion piece on your research and then think about other ways to engage in “knowledge mobilization” – from writing opinion pieces for publication in mainstream media, to shining in the media interview, to policy briefing notes that get complicated ideas into the hands of policy experts.

Outline 

• Overview of knowledge translation for academics and why it’s increasingly important for academics

• Setting up research-policy partnerships and why it matters

• Writing an opinion piece and potential markets

• What's a good lede?

• What's a news hook?

• What's a good pitch (and what isn't)

(Practise session #1 – please come prepared with a research paper/draft that we can work with)

• So now you've done the opinion piece, now what?

• Acing the media interview

(Practise session #2 – be prepared to work in groups and be critiqued)

• Writing a policy briefing note – purpose, audience and follow up

(Practise session #3 – using opinion piece/research paper/draft)

• Final thoughts – social media and other ideas
  (and also dealing with trolls, why it’s different for women and BIPOC and LGBTTQ* and younger faculty members)