'Newsmaking geography': communicating geography through the media

Geographers have undertaken important work exploring the role of the media in projecting and producing imagined worlds. This work needs to be extended to consider how the products of our labours might be broadcast most effect ively to the public through the media. This paper presents a case study of media responses to research in South Australia by one of the authors to ill ustrate how the media shaped and represented the findings. From the case st udy, the paper outlines three lessons for geographers who either deal with the media or are involved in training students in professional skills. Geog raphers need to develop a 'newsmaking geography' by: first, understanding t he nature of the media as a set of institutions that encapsulate and commun icate our works; second, positioning ourselves as 'authorized knowers' - pe ople known to have something credible to say about a specific range of issu es; and third, developing effective strategies for delivering information a nd ideas to the media. Engagements with the media may allow us to publicize the vitality that has characterized parts of geography in the past two dec ades, help overcome the power/knowledge ineffectiveness of academic publica tions, and fortify our public activism. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.