I work for a university faculty whose strapline is ‘change the world’. So it is understandable that many of the researchers I collaborate with feel frustrated when policy makers don’t seem to be aware of the research evidence being produced…
Blog Archives
How should think tanks deal with the problem of misinformation?
For many people, the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 was a wake-up call. If groups like QAnon seemed far-away and abstract before, they don’t anymore: We have now watched on television as the real-world results of…
Tagged with: digital communications, disinformation, events, research communications, social media, storytelling
Posted in breakfast club, Events
Posted in breakfast club, Events
Change the story, change the world
When our message reaches someone, they already have patterns of thinking about the world that they apply to help them interpret our message. Reframing the issue can help win hearts and minds.
Tagged with: child development, childhood obesity, cognitive psychology, communications, Covid-19, messaging, research communications, social change
Posted in Uncategorized
Posted in Uncategorized
Five Things We Learned About Communicating Research (and one bonus thing)
Is your research having the impact you want? If you’re like most of us, your answer is probably no. Learn how you can change that.
WonkComms and the Marvel Cinematic Universe
Marvel—and a dash of literary theory—point the way to a new approach to research comms outreach.
Tagged with: digital communications, digital content, digital publishing, digital strategy, research communications, strategy
Posted in Opinion
Posted in Opinion
Coffee, croissants and comms. What could be a better way to start your day in #wonkcomms?
We’re very pleased to announce the first in a new series of small London-based events for the policy communications community. The first session ‘Targeting Parliament’ looks at how to reach MPs and peers given the changing party political makeup of both Houses, with particular reference to APPGs and select committees.
Tagged with: breakfast club, government, media, mps, parliament, politics, public affairs, research communications, think tanks
Posted in Events
Posted in Events
The battle over NHS reform: many shades of grey
This post first appeared on The King’s Fund’s website When we published an audit of the coalition’s health reforms recently, we expected it to generate plenty of interest as health has become such a central and bitterly fought issue in this election –…
Never mind the X Factor this is the So What Factor
Why we shouldn’t let them kill the policy brief like they did the press release.
Tagged with: business change, digital content, digital publishing, media, PDF, policy brief, policy briefs, research communications
Posted in Opinion
Posted in Opinion
Why Think Tank Review?
Think tanks exist to find the best ideas for the good of society. How can they do that if no-one reads what they are producing? Or if their only metric of success is the amount of coverage they generate? Think tanks are much more than publishers, but reports are one of their principal outputs – and right now they are not working. This is the problem Think Tank Review was created to solve.
Tagged with: communication, publications, reports, research, research communications, think tank review
Posted in Opinion
Posted in Opinion
Find Policy: Why Institutional Websites And Search Still Matter
Find Policy targets the search specifically to policy research organizations, and thus can offer more rewarding results. Ideally we hope that we can contribute to more prominence of think tank research. It’s thus a complement to some of the issues discussed in WonkComms: in addition to highlighting particular research pieces, or the work of an institution, this search engine ideally helps make the work of the entire sector more accessible.
Tagged with: digital content, research, research communications, search, think tank, websites
Posted in Opinion
Posted in Opinion
WonkComms 