13 July 2011, Geneva, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
"A guide to communicating with the media is intended as a practical tool for managers, statisticians, and communication and media relations officers in statistical organizations, particularly those organizations that are in the process of developing their communication strategies.
This guide aims to help producers of statistics find the best way to get their message across and to communicate effectively with the media. It contains suggestions, guidelines and examples-but not strict rules or rigid templates.
The Making Data Meaningful guides have been prepared within the framework of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Work Sessions on the Communication of Statistics, under the programme of work of the Conference of European Statisticians.
The guide is available online at: https://bit.ly/pot1dv
The first two guides are:
- Making Data Meaningful Part 1: A guide to writing stories about numbers
- Making Data Meaningful Part 2: A guide to presenting statistics
This new edition reflects the increasing impact of the Internet and social media, including Facebook, Twitter and blogs. These topics are now covered in more depth and across the various aspects of media relations, rather than in one isolated chapter.
New discussions include the integration of social media with broadcast and print media, measuring the impact of social media and online press rooms.
The guide recognizes that there are many practical and cultural differences among statistical organizations and that approaches may vary from country to country........."
Contents
Introduction
- Principles, objectives and management issues
- Organizational aspects
- Emerging technologies for communicating with the media
- Using the web to communicate with the media
- Writing for and releasing information to the media
- Monitoring and measuring media activities
- Media training
- Handling media crises
The Making Data Meaningful guides are intended as a practical tool to help managers, statisticians and media relations officers in statistical organizations use text, tables, charts, maps and other devices to bring statistics to life for non-statisticians.
Part 1: A guide to writing stories about numbers
The first guide provides guidelines and examples on the use of effective writing techniques to make data meaningful.
- Making Data Meaningful. Part 1: A guide to writing stories about numbers (1.6Mb)
- Cómo hacer comprensibles los datos. Parte 1: Una guía para escribir sobre números
Spanish translation kindly provided by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Spain (301Kb)
Part 2: A guide to presenting statistics
The second guide provides guidelines and examples on preparing effective tables, charts and maps, and using other forms of visualizations to make data meaningful. It also offers advice on how to avoid bad or misleading visual presentations.
- Making Data Meaningful. Part 2: A guide to presenting statistics (2Mb)
- Cómo hacer comprensibles los datos. Parte 2: Una guía para presentar estadísticas
Spanish translation kindly provided by the Instituto Nacional de Estadística, Spain (1.3Mb)
Related resources:
- Communicating with the Media: A guide for statistical organisations
- A guide to the websites of national and international statistical organizations
- Best practices in designing websites for dissemination of statistics
- Recommendations on formats relevant to the downloading of statistical data from the Internet
