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The Media and Academic Publication: Lessons From

My PhD Thesis

Mark David Ryan Queensland University of Technology

2 July 2009

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A Dark New World’s Media Coverage

My PhD thesis “A Dark New World: Anatomy of Australian horror films” received almost 40 stories in national broadcast, print and online news

• Broadcast: Triple J, 3AW, thewire.org etc• Print: The Age, The West Australian, The

Courier Mail, Brisbane Times, MX magazine etc • Online: Sky News Online, Yahoo movies,

Bigpond movies etc •

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A Dark New World’s Media Coverage

Academic outcomes The media coverage of my thesis resulted

directly in: • Invitations to write a journal article and

book chapter • Invitations to edit a journal theme • Media commentary •

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Working with the media

• Pitch the right angles/what you value may not be what the media find interesting

• To an extent simplify your research• Be very careful what you go public with, the

media can misconstrue your research • Even if you think you’ve considered every

possibility, the media will ask you something don’t expect

•

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The benefits of mediaoutcomes

• Immediacy of knowledge diffusion • Reaches a broader audience (which is both a

pro and a con). E.g. you may become the target of criticism on blogs etc

• Media coverage legitimates your research• As research revolves more and more

interdisciplinary partnerships and industry partnerships, academics can no longer afford to be insular

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