Graduate School of health and Medical Sciences

Hey you, let me tell you about my research - get public media outreach
Provider: Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

Activity no.: 3768-25-00-03	There are 11 available seats
	Enrollment deadline: 14/10/2025

Date and time	14.11.2025, at: 08:30 - 28.11.2025, at: 16:30
Regular seats	12
Course fee	5,520.00 kr.
Lecturers	Charlotte Strøm
ECTS credits	2.00

Contact person	Charlotte Strøm E-mail address: cs@sharpen.dk

Enrolment Handling/Course Organiser	PhD administration E-mail address: phdkursus@sund.ku.dk

Aim and content This is a generic course. This means that the course is reserved for PhD students at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences at UCPH. Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student at the Graduate School, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. After the enrolment deadline, available seats will be allocated to the waiting list. The course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except Copenhagen Business School), and for PhD students at NorDoc member faculties. All other participants must pay the course fee. Learning objectives A student who has met the objectives of the course will: 1. Have insight into and understand the basic news criteria of the media, the inverted journalistic triangle, and the basic principles of journalistic writing. 2. Understand how journalists work and know how to collaborate with them on communicating your research. 3. Be able to identify target groups and differentiate between different media when pitching the story about your research. 4. Know in practice basic and easy-to-use tools for how to communicate to an audience beyond your scientific peers. 5. Demonstrate how to write a press release with the purpose of disseminating science and extend the public’s knowledge and benefits of scientific work. Content Knowledge comes with an obligation. All scientists need to tell the world about their findings and research, but many do not like having to convey to the media because they feel that journalists turn their story in directions they do not come to terms with. The rules of communication, as we know them from the scientific world, are fundamentally different when communicating to the public through the media. This difference may give rise to misunderstandings and at worst conflicts. When scientists apply for national or international funding for doing research the requirements for disseminating the research to the public are well defined and clear. This does not change the fact that many researchers feel uncomfortable reaching out to journalists. This course will give the participants an understanding of how journalists work, how to collaborate with them when communicating the research. It will give the participants tools to sharpen the key message of the story when pitching it to a journalist, and help defining the target groups and media selection. Moreover, the majority of the key learnings from this course are readily applicable to public talks, grant applications, panel debates, composing of layman summaries etc. These are disciplines that many researchers get to do over time – but few receive training on how to do it. This course provides that training. Through exercises, plenary discussions, and individual homework, the participants will get hands on practice with different journalistic tools followed by feedback. Target group PhD students within the natural science, medical, and life science disciplines. Researchers from other faculties are welcome to join; lectures will primarily comprise examples from biomedical / natural scientific news in the media. Qualifications / requirements / course preparation Participants need to bring a case to the course. A case is defined as a story from the laboratory, the clinic, the hospital, or else – i.e. where the PhD student is doing his / her research. During the course, the cases will be used for practical exercises in journalistic communication. Mandatory pre-reading encloses a textbook written by the lecturer, Charlotte Strøm. The book will be provided by the course director as an e-book in English or Danish. Mandatory homework: writing a press release, prepare feedback to co-students; prepare for a liveinterview in front of a camera. Book in English: e-book ‘Why don't you get this?’ ISBN 978-87-994812-3-1 Printed book ‘Why don’t you get this’ Book ISBN 978-87-994812-4-8 In Danish: e-bog ’Forstå dog, hvad jeg mener’ ISBN 978-87-994812-2-4 Trykt bog Forstå dog, hvad jeg mener’ ISBN 978-87-994812-1-7 Relevance to graduate programmes The course is relevant to PhD students from all graduate programmes at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH All graduate programmes Language The entire course will be in English if required by non-Danish speaking participants. In Danish: course, theory, practical cases, and group discussions. In English: presentations, slides, Q&As during exercises. Homework can be done in either English or Danish – by individual choice. Feedback will be provided in the same language. Form Lectures (face-to-face classroom tuition), plenary discussions, practical exercises, group work, mandatory homework, individual written feedback of homework Course director Charlotte Strøm, MD, PhD, journalist, and author Founder and owner of SharPen – Medicine in Media cs@sharpen.dk Teacher Charlotte Strøm Brief CV: Charlotte Strøm is a self-employed consultant since 2009, providing various communication services and training to public and private life science stakeholders. She graduated as a medical doctor and holds a PhD in ophthalmology. She has worked for several years in the pharmaceutical industry. Simultaneously, she took a diploma in journalism and communication. Besides having published scientific articles, she has authored a long list of journalistic articles in healthcare and pharma magazines. Charlotte Strøm is the author of the non-fiction book Why don’t you get this (in Danish: Forstå dog, hvad jeg mener – guide til kommunikation og mediehåndtering for læger og forskere) about communication and handling the press as a physician or a scientist. Additionally, she has taught the PhD course described herein at Copenhagen University Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences 3-4 times a year since 2017 and a similar course at University of Southern Denmark Health twice a year since 2018. Dates 14 and 28 November 2025 Both days hrs. 08:30-16:30 The course is a two-day course of each 8 hours of tuition with a time span of 14 days between Day 1 and Day 2 to implement learnings into the homework, prepare homework, and prepare feedback for group members. Course location TBA Registration Please register before 14 October 2025. Seats to PhD students from other Danish universities will be allocated on a first come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules. Applications from other participants will be considered after the last day of enrolment. Note: All applicants are asked to submit invoice details in case of no-show, late cancellation or obligation to pay the course fee (typically non-PhD students). If you are a PhD student, your participation in the course must be in agreement with your principal supervisor.

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