Master Media Engagement
January 9th, 2019
Are you a media whore? Or do you worry you might be labeled one by your colleagues – if not to your face, then behind your back? In the process of delivering hundreds of media engagement workshops, I’ve heard dozens and dozens of you express this fear, using precisely this language. You’ve made it clear […]
read more...In praise of academic media sluts – a New Year’s resolution
Improve your Writing
August 9th, 2012
If you saw the following sentence at the start of a piece in your daily newspaper, would you keep reading? “You don’t see a lot of naked men in advertising.” Lots of people did — no thanks to me. The lede I’d originally placed at the top of an essay I wrote 20 years ago […]
read more...Don’t Bury the Lede!
Improve your Writing
March 12th, 2012
Last week at an intellectually stimulating but relatively staid scholarly event, a minor controversy broke out. Harvey Weingarten, President and CEO of the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (who gave one of the best presentations I witnessed during the day), discouraged the scholars in the room from imagining that the news media would be […]
read more...Exerting influence on policy — through the media?
Master Media Engagement
July 11th, 2011
Television’s day may be waning, but it served me well in the late 1990s – both generating attention to issues I cared about, and enhancing my status among the students I taught. Hired to teach writing and presentation skills to recalcitrant turf management and accounting students (who had chosen their career paths in part so […]
read more...Media exposure boosts classroom cred
Improve your Writing
July 6th, 2011
Scholars accustomed to sharing evidence-based analysis grounded in research and purporting to be fact sometimes express discomfort with the idea of expressing the kind of strong opinion favoured by op ed page editors. They might benefit from the example offered by CBC Televsion’s intrepid attack dog, Terry Milewski. Profiled in the Globe and Mail last […]
read more...Commentary advice for scholars from Terry Milewski
Our Advocacy Work
June 30th, 2011
Yesterday, sharing my Top 7 Reasons Smart Women Should Speak Up with a group of scholars at Carleton University in Ottawa, the conversation turned – as it often does – to the potential aftermath of gaining media profile. Many women worry about the fall-out from this, not wanting to be slagged – either by colleagues […]
read more...Implanted breasts and concerned scholars
Our Advocacy Work
January 17th, 2011
Is it a measure of the fact that I’ve been a largely self-employed freelancer for most of my career that I’d never heard of so-called Blue Monday until today? This morning — before having read the Lifestyle section of the Globe and Mail, which featured a column by Sarah Hampson exploring the day’s questionable origins, […]
read more...Blue Monday a bad example of scholarly contribution
Our Advocacy Work
January 17th, 2011
Media slut — the term probably brings to mind the ubiquitous Paris Hilton of a few years ago, which perhaps explains why it’s an insult feared by tenure-track seeking scholars who want their academic credentials taken seriously. Nothing undercuts that like being perceived as irrepressibly self-promotional. Neither a performing artist nor an academic, my perspective’s […]
read more...Media slut or community-minded public intellectual?