Media

What drives 

news coverage?

I’m not saying that there’s some kind of conspiracy to actively hide covid stories or other big stories. It’s just the way the mass media works.

A press release gets written for a client, it gets sent out to a big list of journalists, the PR agent then phones around the journalists in whatever sector they’re working in to try and get them to look at the story, offering interviews with the key players. Most stories you see in the headlines are the result of a PR agency. I would say >95% of all stories you read start as a press release. And depending on the news, the PR agent might not send out a release en-masse but “sell in” the story as an exclusive to just one outlet. I don’t know if the press release-origin for most of our news is a dirty little secret or widely known due to the aforementioned media savvy-ness of people, but it’s how it goes.

…

So how does this relate to covid? Well, covid doesn’t have a PR agency, and most studies are coming out of niche research labs or universities that have very limited or non-existent PR teams/agency support. And even when it’s coming out of a big university, the media teams at these unis are spread thin and often don’t see the humdrum science research as something to prioritise when it comes to media. It doesn’t raise money, it’s not that sexy etc. Unless it’s a breakthrough piece of research, you’re unlikely to see it.