On Friday, February 6, 2015, a workshop titled "Tips for Press Releases" was held at the Shinanomachi Campus of Keio University. This was the second workshop of this fiscal year, following the one held at the Yagami Campus in November 2014, and was conducted with content specifically tailored for medical faculty and staff.
In the workshop, Atsuko Ishiguro, Director of the Office of Communications and Public Relations, first gave a talk titled "Press Release Susume," covering the characteristics of the media and Keio University's methods for issuing press releases. Next, Kayoko Yamamoto, Editorial Committee Member and Reporter for the Science and Technology Department of the Editorial Bureau at Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, gave an explanation using actual press releases titled "Press Releases Adopted by Reporters and Media Effects," focusing on what kind of writing attracts a reporter's interest. Finally, Yukari Kamakura, Head of the General Affairs Division at Shinanomachi Campus, gave an explanation titled "Press Release Procedures for Medical Faculties and Hospitals and Consideration for Patients and Subjects," summarizing the procedures and specific points of caution regarding the dissemination of medical research results. The workshop served to deepen the understanding of actual press release writing and methods, even for researchers with relatively little experience in issuing press releases.
On the day of the event, there were many participants, primarily researchers from the Shinanomachi Campus, who listened intently with the goal of having more of their research results reported as news by improving the quality of their press releases.