Media training and writing workshop 2015

A TV studio during a talk show. © sutterstock.com

The SNSF supports practice-oriented media training courses for scientists in order to foster dialogue between science and the media. A writing workshop in German and French has now been added to the offering.

​Academic researchers need to master the craft of writing non-scientific texts for a large number of purposes, such as adapting a research topic for the general public, preparing content for a website or writing press releases. The two-day writing workshops offer young researchers the opportunity to practise their writing skills by doing different writing exercises based on the journalistic principles. This experience will enable them to communicate more effectively with journalists and the general public.

Dealing with the media follow certain rules and conventions. If you are aware of them, you can deal more effectively with the media and make your voice heard in the public arena. For this reason, the SNSF and the Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI), in partnership with the Gebert Rüf Stiftung (GRS) and the Mercator foundation Switzerland, have been offering special courses in media training for researchers for a number of years.

The practice-oriented courses – given by journalists and communication professionals – offer researchers plenty of opportunity to practice in front of the camera. The two-day media training courses are aimed primarily at researchers supported by the SNSF, the GRS, the Mercator foundation Switzerland or the CTI. They are also open to other researchers, however.

The one-daymedia trainingcourse in Englishoffers researchers the opportunity of discovering the English-speaking media and their working methods. The courses will be held at the MAZ in Lucerne on the following dates: