Nutrition Society member Dr Natalie Masento, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow working on the psychology of food nutrition and health at The University of Reading, was the winner of one of last year’s BSA Media Fellowship awards, a partnership between the British Science Association (BSA) and the Nutrition Society. The fellowship offers practicing scientists the opportunity to spend two to six weeks working at the heart of a media outlet such as The Guardian, BBC Breakfast, or The Londonist.
Selected Fellows are mentored by professional journalists with the aim of giving them the confidence and willingness to engage with the media, tackle issues of mistrust and misrepresentation, and support their colleagues to do the same. In turn, fellows provide journalists with access to new scientific expertise. Dr Masento spent her placement in 2019 at BBC Radio Two’s Jeremy Vine show, based in London.
What made you apply for the Fellowship?
"I applied for the fellowship because it felt like a great opportunity to work with the media to understand how to communicate effectively what my research is actually involved in, and how we can communicate concepts in food nutrition and health to instil changes in behaviour. It felt like a really great way to learn from media outlets and journalists on how to communicate and how to how to tell a story and engage the general public."
Why is working with the media important to you and something of interest?
"In my opinion, working with the media is really important and being an effective communicator is really quite crucial for researchers. We often prioritize communicating within scientific communities but actually, I believe it's also so important to communicate effectively to a general audience, and explain and promote your research in a way that makes it understandable to everyone. The media plays such an important role in communicating key messages to wider audiences and so working and building relationships to understand their motivations is really an important."
Where did you work during the Fellowship and what did you do?
“For my media fellowship I worked at BBC Radio 2 with the Jeremy Vine team on the Jeremy Vine show. This is a daily current affair show that is on between 12:00 and 2:00 every day. A normal day involved attending BBC offices from 7:30 in the morning and I spent the first half an hour looking at the news headlines and trying to gauge the key topics of the day. This was followed by a meeting with producers and the editors to pitch ideas around what should be discussed. There were always 4 topics per show and you only had a few hours to put together a script to work out the speakers and whether or not there were guest experts or people who have been part of a certain event and this required organisation around getting them to the radio studio or setting up calls with them when the show went live at 12 o'clock. I worked with Jeremy Vine and some of the producers in the radio suite but also communicated with other producers in the office to take listener calls, texts and emails to provide real-time feedback on some of the topics that were spoken about that day. It was a very fast paced working environment as you cannot really plan for the next day, so I really felt like each day was completely different during my fellowship.”
How would you describe your overall experience of the Fellowship?
“My overall experience of my media fellowship was a very interesting one, but it was also quite intense. My time at BBC Radio 2 was very fast paced as I've said and it definitely pushed me out of my comfort zone. I had to work on things that I didn't really know much about in quite a short space of time, which as a scientist is something we're not used to and it definitely was something where you had to work out what people wanted and do this in a very short space of time.It was a really beneficial experience though, and it really helped me consider how to approach my work but also how to approach work with the media in the future.”
What did you learn during your time in the BSA press office during the British Science Festival?
“During my fellowship I was also invited to go to the British Science Festival as part of the press team. This was another way to experience communication but in a slightly different perspective. The Festival gave a really interesting impression on how science communication works and being a researcher myself it was interesting to be on the other side and see other researchers presenting their work and a press team listening and thinking about what the key topics to promote on the radio shows were and how we could write a story for a public blog so it was quite a different perspective on political science communication.”
What was your greatest achievement/takeaway during your Fellowship?
“Coming away from the fellowship I really have learnt a lot and I think it's interesting to think about the fact I didn't learn skills that I had anticipated but actually I just understood a lot about how the media environment and how the people work and really what needs to be done to create content for media shows. I really understood the big differences between scientists and the media and I think that's really important knowledge that I can take with me should I work with the media in future.”
What’s the main difference between your work as a scientist and your experience of being a journalist?
"What I really picked up on when it comes to scientists verses presenters that are on the show is that it is crucial to have excellent communication skills. I don’t think scientists prioritise good communication skills in the way the media are looking for in terms of being able to disseminate snapshots of information that are easy for the lay audience to interpret. This is something I will definitely take back with me.
Another takeaway point from my fellowship was the power of the audience, and knowing your audience. I think journalists are very clear about who their audience are, so BBC Radio 2 know clearly who listened to that show and so they all they're always thinking about what kind of message to promote and share for each show and how that kind of draws their audience in. Particularly for the Jeremy Vine show you have this element where people are able to call in and actually provide feedback very quickly about the topics that are covered so it's important to really know your audience and get that kind of feedback.
This is something I think it unique to the media and not something that you experience a lot in science. It is something that I would like to consider in my own work. I think as a scientist you can spend months even years working on topics and really getting to grips with why something happens and trying to understand and unpick it and it can be quite tough work that's done very much only in the scientific community. Scientists often don’t necessarily consider the impact it can have to the general population which I think is something that particularly in health and nutritional science and something that needs to be addressed.
Another key difference is the pace of work. The timelines that journalist have from being introduced to a topic and learn about it to be able to create content to present it all is often only a few hours. It was also fascinating to realise that after those few hours and it has been presented on the show, it's done and you move onto the next topic. So the longevity of the work is so different compared to science where we are talking and researching and looking at topics for years and decades on end sometimes."
What do you think are the main opportunities and challenges for scientists working with the media, and has your opinion on this this changed since your fellowship?
"I think it's important for scientists to consider how their research can really impact people in the real world for journalists and for both journalists and scientists to understand the way the two worlds work.I think understanding thse key differences will help build stronger relationships between them going forward and allow them to work well together without scientists fearing the media spinning the facts. Scientists need to understand that they can't control how they're portrayed by journalists but they can consider an effective way to communicate towards a journalist about a new research topic so they're really getting to grips with key things that a journalist will want to promote. You're never going to have complete control over how a journalist introduces a story because it needs to relate so much to their audience. So whilst something may be new and exciting in science, it's not necessarily new and exciting in the media, and something that's newsworthy is very much dependent on who you're speaking to and the media."
What difference will this make to your research/practice and what are going to do to act on the things you learned in your placement, or to share them with others?
"Coming away from the fellowship I really have learnt a lot and I think it's interesting to think about the fact I didn't learn skills that I had anticipated but actually I just understood a lot about how the media
environment and the people work and really what needs to be done to create content for media shows and I think that's really important knowledge that I can take with me should I work with the media in future.
Going forward I think a lot of what I learned on my on my placement I really want to prioritize and share with my community at the University. I've shared some of my experiences in seminars within my department and I really want to try and support the next generation of people who want to talk about nutrition communication. I'm particularly going to use a lot of this knowledge in my teaching, and I'm currently teaching a master's module in nutrition communication and professionalism at the University of Reading, so this experience has given me a lot of content needed for the lectures and the workshops to really cement my experience of how the media process works but also how to work with the media and how to be an effective communicator for a media audience."
What would your top tips for nutrition scientists working with the media be following your placement?
"To understand the importance of being able to relate your research to the general public. "
Would you recommend people apply for the BSA Fellowship?
"Yes, it's a great way to understand how the whole media world works and it can really help benefit your career your ability as a communicator to understand the world of news and kind of what is newsworthy as opposed to science worthy, to help you work with the media and to help you understand the connection between science and the media and also to build up connections and network yourself. So it can really help develop you’re your opportunities to work with the media as well so it's a great opportunity, one that will challenge you and allow you to learn about yourself and about opportunities out there for you."