Tuesday, 23 July 2013

How do people consume your research? A short video, on tobacco and alcohol policy, requiring attention and feedback

This is a first draft of a simple video I am doing with Tereza Procházková @ZasCreativeBag to accompany a blog post I did on the differences between tobacco and alcohol policies in the UK. I wouldn't mind some feedback (here or to @cairneypaul) on it before I ask to have it tweaked then embedded in the proper post (although, realistically, it's feedback for the next one, if there is a next one). From looking at it myself, I know that I try to pack a lot of information into 3 minutes (perhaps a bit like an inexperienced lecturer trying to tell students everything) and so the pictures and audio come thick and fast. Next time, I will speak more slowly. But maybe it still works because it is accompanied by a blog post with all of the information. Maybe you listen to the 3 minutes then decide if you want to fill in the blanks by reading the full post (and then maybe the full paper). My partner tells me that I take a while to get to the point and that there need to be more punchy bullet point moments (I didn't get too offended). Would you agree? There is also a bit of a skip in the audio towards the end (a big problem?), and I trail off at the very end (to press the stop button on the ipad). Note that I am not Glaswegian - the Irvine/ Ayrshire accent is a wee bit different. Polite comments on my voice/ pronunciation also welcome.

The post can be found here: http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/archives/34735. If the video doesn't play, you can get it here on youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fujeajKKa-E or here:



UPDATE: here is the more polished version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6pkPTPohas

For more discussion of the 'impact' side of the work, see: http://paulcairney.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/how-do-people-read-your-research.html
and http://paulcairney.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/a-picture-of-pathways-to-impact.html

2 comments:

  1. This is really good - it could be made public as it is. The animation is a good way to present the information.

    I think your partner is right, you do take a while to get to the point and this also shows in your tone of voice. You start out quite flat and monotonous (in the literal meaning) and end with a very excited, interesting tone of voice.

    I wonder if you could use some techniques of storytelling to make the narrative compelling: have a beginning, middle and end; set up characters as protagonist and antagonist; use simile and metaphor to add colour.

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  2. I agree with Peter that this could go out as is.

    I don't actually think you take too long to get to the point; I think the preamble is important in setting the scene and the stakeholders.

    The one thing I would say is towards the end, when you're talking about 5 key points, it might be helpful on the visualisation to have title and certainly numbers so we can keep track of them.

    And in terms of your delivery I felt this bit was a bit rushed - you could have pauses between each of the 5 points, maybe, so they have a second to sink in and are clearly separated from the one following.

    All in all, though, really impressive, and I enjoyed the drawings, which helped me concentrate on the points being made.

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