Don’t Just “Hang on for the Ride”
By Carol Schadelbauer, February 16, 2010
A quick Google news search tells me there were 114,000 H1N1 flu stories in the span of 24 hours in mid-November at the height of the H1N1 epidemic. While coverage of H1N1 has dropped significantly since, a search today still shows over 28,000 stories in the last 24 hours, even though the Haiti tragedy has bumped H1N1 as the latest long-term top story (there have been over 178,000 Haiti stories in the last 24 hours).
In days past, once the Haiti earthquake hit, there would have been little to no sight of a story on H1N1. No room. Limited news space. Only newspapers and soundbites on television and radio to fill. Obviously, the world of communications has changed quickly, opening up vast space and a world of ways to report news and deliver messages.
We’ve got dozens of new communications tools. One tracker estimates that the world will see its 10,000,000,000th tweet on March 5th. (Check out the link to see the countdown). Even my 82-year-old father at least knows about twitter and what a blog is, and Generation Y is tweeting daily.
What’s my point? All of this change is good news for people who want to make change and have their voices heard. It presents challenges as well: which of the 60,000 stories I mentioned above are important? Which blogs matter? To successfully navigate the new media, academics, medical experts and scientists – the folks we work with – must not only hang on to the “new communications ride”, but wholeheartedly jump on and enjoy it.
We want to help. Today, alongside the new Burness Communications website, we’re launching our new Health & Science Advocacy blog, Above the Noise: Being Heard, Becoming Memorable. The name reflects the overarching mission of the Burness Institute: to help researchers, health experts and other leaders become memorable in a cacophony of competing voices and priorities. Through the Institute, we help people rise above this noise with old and new tools and techniques to be heard and be memorable to reporters, policymakers, and funders with the ultimate goal of making change. Moving people to act.
We see this blog as a forum to share real-life examples of the principles we teach. We’ll be sharing examples of great messages, interviews, compelling op-eds and commentaries, and other ways to make the most of communications tools. Sometimes, we’ll even show what not to do.
Many of my colleagues will join me in blogging on Above the Noise, so we can provide you with the thoughts and diverse experiences of our entire training faculty. Please feel free to comment and let us know what you think!
