Why every academic should do media training

“Skilful communication is more important than ever”

Academics are mainly trained to do research even though their job involves much more than that. Teaching? No problem! Communicating with the media? Ah, just keep smiling - it’ll be fine! You’ll never be more than an armchair expert with that approach, says Constant Swinkels. As an ecologist, he sees incompetence in communication skills in academia as a major reason why we still do not value and protect nature enough, despite all our knowledge. So he decided to take a tailor-made media training course at In’to. “Many academics see communicating as something you ‘just do’ as opposed to a skill you can hone over a lifetime.”

Skilful communication is more important than ever

“The fact that communicatively strong academics are more necessary than ever became clear to me early on. I learnt a lot about nature and even more about its decline during my younger days as a member of the Dutch Youth Association for Nature Study (NJN). How was it, despite all our knowledge about nature, we didn’t do anything?

As far as I’m concerned, the answer is that meaningful communication about the value of our nature is pretty rare; we have a ‘communication gap’. I’m currently working on my PhD project, researching bee and plant communities on dykes, and in terms of nature policy, we are no further ahead than we were 15 years ago. For me, this makes skilful communication more important than ever – I want to be able to perform as best I can in the media.”

Constant Swinkels, PhD candidate at Ecology  group
Constant Swinkels, PhD candidate at Ecology group

Blind to areas for improvement

“Actually, media training was only logical. Despite appearing in national media multiple times and my appearances being well received, I have to admit, I didn’t do much more than ‘my best’. This was a bit of an unsatisfying and slightly confronting realisation, which required me to put my ego aside for a while. I had reached the point where I was stuck – I knew some of my strengths and weaknesses, but I was pretty much blind to any potential areas for improvement. How did I really come across? And how could I improve? After all, even though every communication situation is unique, there are always plenty of tips and tricks.”

Previous media appearances dissected

“Happily, the course with Marsha Walraven was just as painfully confronting as I had hoped. In just a few hours, my self-image was well and truly flipped on its head. After a careful look at some of my on-camera work, from awkward knee-jerk reactions (previously termed ‘enthusiasm’ in my dictionary) to woolly answers (previously ‘clear’), only my enthusiastic intonation (which I’d never thought about) remained intact. The dissection of previous media appearances exposed not only my broad interest and knowledge, but also my total inability to be selective. In the end and in no time at all, the course gave me enough homework to get back on track for the next performances – to say I was blind to my own shortcomings and had an overly narrow vision of what skilful communication entails is an understatement!”

Put your ego aside

“I would argue without a doubt that anyone who can put their ego to one side and strive for improvement with a learning mindset can benefit hugely from media training. The need for academics who can communicate is huge, and most academics are coming into contact with the press more often. This means it’s essential to be able to get your message across effectively. And if you’re going to make the time investment anyway, with just a short course, you can become aware of your communication style, which will help you keep learning without any further time investment. Knowing how you come across is not only useful during media appearances but in everyday life too; after all, everyone communicates. And, judging by the frustrations about poor communication that everyone will recognise in themselves and their colleagues, we have plenty to learn as an academy.”

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