Wed, 28 Aug 2002 -- Media Matters No.14:
Are there any advantages to working with mass media?

In Media Matters No. 13, we wrote, "How does the public ever find out about the research? Is it important for the public to even know about the research?"

It is always important for researchers to keep in mind the end goal of the research -- the consumers who will benefit from it.

Sure, other objectives are present, too. The professionals who will apply the knowledge; the colleagues with the peer-reviewed journals who will pass on whether one's article on the research is qualified to appear in the academic literature.

But the ultimate end is the people with disabilities whose lives a researcher's work will ultimately affect. Whether the research involves a new technology to fabricate low-cost, lightweight ramps or determining voting patterns among people with disabilities in Congressional elections, the ultimate goal of NIDRR-funded research is to benefit individuals who live with disability.

Those individuals, like most of us, really, get almost all of their information through the mass media. News reports on television and radio; stories in general-circulation magazines like Time and Newsweek; local newspapers bring most of the information any of us use in our daily lives. Most people with disabilities are NOT connected to either an independent living center nor to a rehabilitation program -- many, in fact, do not identify as "disabled" at all.

But they can ultimately benefit from your research -- if they know about it. If the people who need to know what is being worked on and what progress is being made on disability and independent living research are to find out about advances, they are most likely going to find the information in the mass media.

Researchers must seize the opportunity to tell the story of their research to the media. And tell it terms of what it means(or might mean) in practical terms to people with disabilities. Even if all of the details and qualifications are not included, more often than not, the gist of the story will be true. It will often be compelling; much disability research is. And it has the added benefit of being "new" -- since the kind of disability research NIDRR grantees conduct is not frequently reported in the mass media.

If consumers learn something that leads them to find help, then the NIDRR research team will have succeeded.

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