3rd Mission Media
3rd Mission Media - Communicating science for society
Facilitating science communication in a time of significant societal challenges
Climate. Energy. Sustainability. Natural hazards. Infectious disease. Economic turmoil. AI. War. These and a wide array of other acute issues facing societies accentuate the overwhelming need for expert knowledge to help manage the defining societal challenges and crises of the 2020s and beyond. Communicating the results of cutting-edge research to stakeholders both inside and, crucially, outside the academic sphere—part of the university’s “Third Mission” of societal outreach and relevance—is thus more important than ever. Yet effective and accessible research communication that reaches governmental decisionmakers, other experts, the general public and traditional media—nationally and internationally—remains an endemic area of weakness among many academic institutions. What is more, compelling communication plans are often the least developed dimension of research funding applications, reducing the likelihood of their success.
3rd Mission Media’s science communication mission
Third Mission Media provides universities, departments, institutes, think tanks, research projects and centers of excellence with a tangible and effective research communication tool in the form of professionally produced podcasts. We work in close collaboration with clients to create customized podcast series based on their particular research agenda and science communications needs.
Our clients are also active participants in the podcast: in the process of producing each episode, our experienced journalists interview experts who in turn share the knowledge and insights resulting from their research. Depending on the client’s preference and the nature of their research, other possibilities can also include, for example, interviewing project partners and stakeholders from government or industry, or reporting from e.g. laboratories or research expeditions. We can also provide additional information through narrations at any point during the podcast episode.
We can provide a complete start to finish service, from consulting with researchers and/or their communications specialists in planning each episode, to distributing the final version to major podcast platforms such as Apple, Google and Spotify and others. Interviews for the podcast can be conducted in person / on location, over the phone, or in our recording studio in Stockholm.
In producing a finished podcast episode, 3rd Mission Media provides the following services:
preparing the structure of the interview, including drafting questions
interviewing researchers and others that relevant to the topic
editing the recorded interviews
writing copy, narrating and recording the introduction for each episode, including any
relevant background information.
producing the episode (i.e. editing together the various parts of the podcast, interviews,
introduction, integrating musical backgrounds and soundscapes, etc.)
posting episode to podcast hosting service and making it available to all major platforms
We can also compose the short textual description of the episode and draft the show notes that explain what the episode is about. This can also include additional information such as links to research papers and books that listeners can refer to for further insights into the subject matter.
Podcasts as a highly effective science communication tool
Podcasts have become a hugely popular type of media that are convenient, free and easily accessible on worldwide platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts. They can be informative, educational and illuminating, as well as entertaining and even inspirational. Properly produced, podcasts can provide academic institutions a platform and tool for swiftly and effectively communicating research to a broad local and global audience of stakeholders that can include public officials, civil society, academic peers, funding agencies and journalists from traditional media, who often turn to niched podcasts when doing research for news stories on scientific and other substantive topics. Podcasts, which can take a variety of forms and be produced on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, etc.), thus represent an ideal complement to traditional academic outputs such as peer-reviewed articles that are usually aimed at narrow specialist audiences and can take many months from the initiation of research to the publication of results.
Who we are
3rd Mission Media was established by a pair of veteran radio producers and podcasters with many years of experience within journalism and academic research.
Eric Paglia holds a PhD. in History of Science, Technology and Environment from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and has published his research in an array of humanities and social science journals and edited volumes. He has worked with radio since the 1990s and has produced podcasts since the early-2000s on topics ranging from environment and sustainable development, the science and politics of the polar regions, and the coronavirus pandemic. During the course of his academic research and journalistic work with radio, podcasts and live events like the World Water Week, Eric has conducted hundreds of interviews with scientific experts, government officials and private sector actors on a wide range of subjects.
Keith Foster is an accomplished journalist with over thirty years of experience with the Swedish public service radio and TV stations Sveriges Television, Utbildningsradion and Sveriges Radio. He has produced countless reportage segments for Radio Sweden and programs such as Packat och Klart (SVT), and served as program leader for the SVT1 shows Living Room and Big Words, Morning Coffee (P6/Stockholm International) and Family Foster (Utbildningsradion). He has created podcasts for companies such as Sony Ericsson, KTH and Semcon. Although English by birth, Keith hosts radio shows in Swedish as well.
In addition to Keith and Eric, Third Mission Media also draws upon a variety of other experienced voices from different backgrounds in producing podcast episodes.
