Leigh Marshall, head of communications, NatCen Visit the CharityComms website to view slides from past events, see what events we have coming up and to check out what else we do: www.charitycomms.org.uk

1. Making your
research hit the
headlines

2. 11
Making your research hit the
headlines
 The National Centre for Social Research (NatCen)
 What is “social research”?
 Social research stories in the press
 What type of research do I want for my story:
- Research that gives you numbers
- Research that doesn’t
 Workshop: Making your research hit the headlines

3. 22
The National Centre for Social Research
(NatCen)
Social research charity, set up almost 50 years ago
100 social scientists and 800 interviewers
British Social Attitudes survey
Policy and survey research

4. 33
What is social research?
Research used by social scientists to understand society.
- Covers range of social policy areas – education, health, crime
etc.
- Cuts across economics and politics.
- Two basic methods: quantitative and qualitative
- Surveys, polls, focus groups, evaluations.
What it is not
 Medical research
 Market research
However, the principles of getting research into the
media are the same.

5. 44
Social research stories in the press – 17
November 2016

6. What type of
research do I
need – and how
do I get it into
the press

7. 66
Research that gives you numbers
Polling, surveys and secondary analysis
What’s it for?
- Understand the public view on an issue
- Uncovering facts about people and their behaviour
What’s the difference?
- Polls vs Surveys
- Secondary analysis – a treasure trove of data
Need to know:
Cost: from £250 to £1m
Assessing quality: Sample size important, but quality of sample is key.
What do you get?
- Stats that can make a great story
- Quick and dirty poll great for a headline – but media more discerning than
in the past
- Authoritative survey can influence policy

8. 77
Getting your numbers into the press
Polling, surveys and secondary analysis all give us numbers and we know stats
make for a good story, but how else can you maximise success?
Getting the sell-in right:
- Involve key targets in advance – What are the questions the media want
answered?
- Find the political angle – What are the wider implications of your research?
- Offer unique angles – “exclusive” analysis/data to key targets
- Setting the right embargo – is the midnight embargo a thing of the past?
- Make your numbers real – e.g. turn % in people
- Know your method – Polling issues mean journalists are increasingly tuned in to
methodology
Producing creative, shareable content:
- Rise of data journalists – Make data available
- Explore creative content with outlets in advance – Could they build a quiz or an
interactive
- Create your own creative content – can you build an interactive that will
capture imagination?

9. 88
Creative content

10. 99
Considerations
The public may not agree with you or you may find people
are not doing what you expected.
Be prepared for what you might find and how you will deal
with research that doesn’t tell you what you want to hear.
The media may pick up on an angle you don’t want them
too (applies to all research).
Manage with exclusives.
Prepare your spokespeople.

11. 1010
Qualitative research
What’s it for?
- Getting under the skin of an issue
- Following up survey research to understand better what people
mean
- Hard to reach groups and sensitive subjects
Need to know:
- Cost: from £5-50k
- Judging quality: Access, ethics
- Anonymity
What do you get?
- Colourful, rounded insights
- Unique and new perspectives

12. 1111
Getting qualitative research into the press
Without the numbers that give you a simple story you need to think more
carefully.
Getting the sell-in right:
- More suited to features and longer, thoughtful pieces.
- Focus on journalists who are highly engaged in the issue – commentators
rather than reporters.
- Often great for broadcast if you have access to case studies.
- Draw out interesting quotes and comments (these also work well for social
media).
- Encourage researchers to think about the ways in which you might be able
to generalise about the findings.
Producing creative content:
- More people are trying to visualise qualitative data.

13. 1212
Considerations
Case studies are key, but researchers may demand anonymity
If you are aware, you can prepare your own in advance.

14. 1313
Evaluations
What’s it for?
- Evaluating whether your service is delivering what you want it
to.
- Assessing the effectiveness of a policy or intervention.
Need to know:
- Cost: from £10k upwards.
- Works best for understanding your own work.
- Judging quality: Closest to medical research – RCTs.
What you get?
- Evidence that proves the value of your work.

15. 1414
Getting an evaluation into the press
Getting the sell-in right:
- Often more suited to sector/trade press.
- Consider other ways of reaching practitioners – e.g.
social media focus.
- New audiences - RCTs in particular are of interest to
the Research press.

16. 1515
Considerations
Your service or intervention may not work as well you like.
Bad news, more newsworthy than good news.
Can you focus on the learnings?
Does this become leverage for political campaigning?

17. Workshop –
getting your
research into
the press

18. 1717
Research checklist
Poll Survey Secondary
analysis
Evaluation Qualitative
Small budget
  
Big budget
  
Tabloid friendly
  
Quality
press/BBC
  
Policy influence
   
Feature articles

Broadcast
   
Exclusive
  

19. 1818
Getting your research into the press
Your research proposal
1. What do you want to know
more about?
Evaluate a service or find out what people think
2. What are your objectives? Headlines or policy influence?
3. What is your budget? Can you afford a quick poll or a high quality survey?
4. What kind of research
matches these requirements?
(see checklist)
Poll, survey, qualitative, evaluation?
How will you get this into the press?
1. Does your research answer
the right questions?
Desk research and will you involve a journalist from the start?
2. What is the angle? Wider implications? Features or news pages?
3. Will you offer exclusives? Data exclusives or on the entire report?
4. What content can you create
in addition to traditional media
materials?
Create your own visualisation or work with media partner?
5. What is the embargo? What is your target outlet? How far in advance will you share your research? Is it likely to be
broken?
6. Can you explain your
method?
One or two simple sentences

20. Contact
Leigh Marshall
Head of communications
T. 020 7549 8506
E. leigh.marshall@natcen.ac.uk
Visit us online, natcen.org.uk

21. Visit the CharityComms website
to view slides from past events,
see what events we have
coming up and to check out
what else we do:
www.charitycomms.org.uk

22. 8 December 2016
London
#charityPR
Behind the headlines:
getting your charity’s
story into the news