Press release

The Communications and External Relations will support you in communication about your research but your contribution is vitally important: you should write a draft that will be edited into a press release. Write the draft so that readers from outside academia can understand it. The draft will be edited together with you and finalised into a press release.

Please take a look at this sample of a press release.

The Communications and External Relations will need a picture of you. Please send it by email with the following requirements:

• horizontal picture
  
• the picture should be taken in daylight or in a studio setting.
  

If necessary, we can organise a photoshoot for you.

Your contact persons are communications planner Jaana Ojuva and graphic designer Reetta Linna (firstname.lastname(at)ulapland.fi).

Include the following points into the draft:

• start with telling the most important results or another message of your research that raises interest among the public
• bring forth the meaning of your research and its results from a wider perspective
• mention the connection of your results to public debate
• if the results can be applied in practice, explain how.

Conclude the draft with information about the public defence, general information about your education and professional background, your contact information and the publication data of your dissertation.

Distribution to the media

The Communications and External Relations will write a Finnish version of the press release and send it to the media. The English version will be published on the university's website. The media represented in the Finnish distribution list are the largest national newspapers and broadcasting companies, and regional and local newspapers. The Communications and External Relations will also post information about your dissertation and public defence on the website, social media, and the Kide magazine.

You can agree on sending the press release to any other popular publications and magazines and smaller local newspapers. As a researcher, naturally, you are responsible for communicating with publications in your own field and with your co-operation partners.

Communication with the media

We recommend that you take initiative in communicating about your dissertation and use your relations to the media. Please ask the journalists to comply with the embargo you have agreed on with the Communications and External Relations. Articles agreed on beforehand should not be published before other media have received our press release.

Prepare yourself to potential contacts from the media before and after your public defence. You can ask for support and advice for media encounters from the Communications and External Relations.

Print versions

You can deliver a link to your electronic dissertation to the media, available in the Lauda database. Journalists interested in print versions of your dissertation can contact the publisher.