Breakout Summary Report

ARM/ASR User and PI Meeting

Breakout Description

Each year, scientists publish about 2 million peer-reviewed papers* in an estimated 30,000 journals. While a few highly prolific scientists coauthor 70 papers annually, the average is four. But who reads any given research paper from start to finish? Sadly, only about 10 people**, according to recent research. To be noticed, your work must appeal to more and broader audiences beyond traditional scientific journals. Increased awareness of your work builds your reputation, leads to new collaborations, and helps atract funding opportunities. More than ever, it is vital that climate research be shared with the public in an open and understandable way. This breakout session by professional communicators and a media-savvy scientist will explore why engaging in climate science communications is important for you and for the scientific enterprise as a whole. It will also provide guidance on how to engage with media and the public on the sensitive topic of climate. We will discuss how media has changed in the last decade. On the practical side, we will help you: 1) take an active role in the media process, from pitch to interview, publication and beyond; 2) define your audiences; 3) work with reporters; and 4) use digital and social media to amplify your science. This session will share communications tools that the ARM/ASR community can use to communicate climate science in an open and understandable way

Main Discussion

This session on climate communications training was developed at the request of the Office of Communications and Public Affairs and Biological and Environmental Research program leadership.  The training aimed to help lower the barriers for ARM and ASR stakeholders engaging with the media . This, very positive, session established the need and impact of media interactions, shared some underlying information on the media, and equipped attendees with key skills. In particular, the techniques of bridging and blocking during an interview were shared and then demonstrated in an interactive mock interview with a volunteer pre-picked before the session began. The training encouraged doing research on who is conducting the interviews and asking for the interviewer to share a list of issues or topics to be covered during the interview ahead of time. There was also a reminder to first connect with your institution's communications or media office before accepting an unsolicited interview request.

Key Findings

Climate communications trainings are good topics to include in the joint meeting–it is an excellent place to reach researchers who may not have opportunities at their institutions and helps identify researchers who have an interest in science communications. Science communications topics should be kept high level due to time constraints while more personalized trainings could be provided as follow ups.

Issues

Attendance was somewhat limited due to being a lunch session. However, all attendees were clearly engaged.

Needs

N/A

Decisions

N/A

Future Plans

The session created some excellent materials, which will be reused. The ARM communications team will be repeating the activity as an ARM virtual webinar and an in-person presentation at PNNL.  The whole team will work on making materials accessible as a video accessible on the www.arm.gov webinars page.

Action Items

Conduct an ARM webinar to be recorded.