Back-to-back successes: The Communications and Media Relations department of the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) recently won the prize for the best scientific press release of the year 2020, awarded by the Informationsdienst Wissenschaft (idw). The prize recognises press releases that are characterised by a high degree of professionalism (quality), are of high value in terms of the news shared, and are also scientifically significant (relevance and originality). Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the awards ceremony took place online on 6 May.
The press release “A sensational discovery: Traces of rainforests in West Antarctica”, produced by the AWI’s Communications and Media Relations department, took home first place in the competition. Josef Zens, Managerial Board Member at the idw, gave the awards speech: “There’s also been a small sensation in this competition: for the third year in a row, the AWI’s Communications and Media Relations department is among the finalists. It came in third last year and the year before that, and now first place! As you can see, quality is no coincidence.” No other contender has enjoyed such a string of successes with the idw Prize – especially since there are new jury members to win over every year.
The AWI press release tied for first place in the category “quality” and took top honours in the categories “originality” and “relevance”.
Jury member Katharina Menne (ZEIT) was full of praise: “There are plenty of things this press release gets right; maybe even everything: the headline piques your curiosity, the content is relevant, the language is accessible, and the scientific aspects are clearly explained. It serves well both as a motivation for readers to do their own research on the topic, and as a template for short news items. The structure is sufficiently complex without feeling packed with too much content. The accompanying images are good, though they could have been tailored a bit more specifically to the content covered. The researchers are clearly listed, together with their contact information.” Even if the text on such a sensational discovery ‘practically writes itself’, as some might claim, in Menne’s words it is “nevertheless a challenge to successfully convey both the verified findings and the remaining question marks. The text does so exceptionally well, without laying it on too thick, engaging in speculation or being intentionally vague.”
The winner receives 2,000 euros in prize money and a plaque designed for public display, a lasting testimony to their success.
Second and third place went to the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Bavarian Natural History Collections(Staatliche Naturwissenschaftliche Sammlungen Bayerns (SNSB)), respectively. Zens summed up this year’s competition: “The quality was once again very high, which means the jury had a tough choice to make.” And plenty of texts to review: 85 communications departments from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy took part. On behalf of the Managerial Board, Zens thanked the jury for their valuable, unpaid work. Every member of the jury was eligible to nominate three press releases. Four were nominated by more than one member, as a result of which eleven made it to the final round of selection.
About the idw Prize:
There are more than 500 prizes for journalism in Germany alone. Yet an important type of raw material for journalism work is rarely awarded: good press releases. To address this oversight, the Informationsdienst Wissenschaft (idw) awards the idw Prize for Science Communication for the three best press releases published in the previous year at idw-online.de – this year marked the twelfth instalment.
Every year, the idw websites publish ca. 20,000 press releases from more than 1,000 academic institutions. The idw imposes certain quality standards for the content, and communicates them to its associated communications departments; e.g. advertising and endorsements are prohibited. As an incentive for more high-quality press releases, every year the idw holds a competition for its Prize for Science Communication. The prize recognises press releases published by the idw that demonstrate excellent professionalism (quality), outstanding news value (relevance) and scientific significance (originality). For the jury, quality counts 50%, relevance 40% and originality 10%. Winning communications departments are intended to use the prize money for measures that maintain and enhance the quality of their communications work.
The 2021 jury:
- Werner Hinse, freelance journalist and Member of the Directorate at the Journalistenzentrum Herne
- Katharina Menne, editor in the “Knowledge” section at ZEIT
- Prof Christoph Moss, Professor of Communication and Marketing at the International School of Management and an expert on newsrooms
- Magdalena Schaeffer, Press and Public Relations Officer at the DFG and Managerial Board Member at the idw
- Patrick Bierther, journalist and Team Member responsible for the prize at the idw