A question almost constantly on the minds of (well, most, I guess) science communicators is:

“Is this piece of research newsworthy? Will anyone CARE about it, and read what I write on the subject?”

And, as a general rule, the bigger and more important the news outlet, the more crucial that question is.

Thankfully, people are looking into that very question! Paige Brown, a science communicator herself, started conducting a survey into the subject last year. And this year, she’s following the survey up with Part II: “a follow-up to answer more questions and confirm some intriguing results from Part I.”

As she says:

If you are a journalist, blogger, freelance writer, magazine writer, TV producer, radio announcer, podcast producer, or anything in between, I’m asking you to participate in this online survey. By participating in this survey, which only takes 10-15 minutes to complete, you can help me understand when and why science makes its way from research publication to news story.

Fancy yourself a science communicator of any sort? Want to find out more? Check out Page’s article on the subject, which also links through to the survey itself. Oh, and don’t worry - you don’t have to have participated in Part I to participate in Part II :)

An added inducement? You’ll get to see some of the results from Part I, which are really interesting. I certainly enjoyed them* :)

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Yes, I filled out the survey. It’s quick, and worth it :)