How does an idea or invention end up on the news?

[kolleamm]

Let's say you invented something, who would you contact to make it public? Such as appear on yahoo news, or in science news articles?

I've been working on a pretty cool robot for several years now and was just thinking that it would be pretty cool if it was shared on news websites.

Is it even worth sharing your ideas to news sites?

Thanks in advance

 

[jedishrfu]

It really depends on the novelty of your creation. Some folks make youtube videos, post links to it on facebook and tell their friends to share with their friends... If it gets enough hits or goes viral then some news organization might profile it.

Alternatively you could contact your local news but there has to be a story in it something beyond just a cool robot project. There are so many and yours would need to be beyond novel. It would need to be revolutionary.

One example, would be for you to make a business out of it, get some serious kickstarter funding with the potential of bringing jobs to your community and placing your town on the map as a robotics capital.

 

[Choppy]

You might want to prepare a press release.

In the corporate world this is done all the time - usually to promote the launch of a new project. You prepare a layperson description that explains what you've done and why it's important. You contact the reporters. Ultimately each newsgroup will decide whether the story is important or interesting enough to follow.

The news stories that make it into mainstream media are usually the bigger ones that emerge on the science news websites, or ones that are in some way controversial or have something that makes them interesting. The stories on the news sites are often the result of a publication in one of the big journals like Nature.

Often not too many people pay attention to smaller groups that no one has heard of, regardless of how big the idea /results may be. Instead, media tends to follow established names - whether they have something important to say or not.

 

[kolleamm]

Thank you very much guys for the advice. I'm going to really have to do some thinking on this one about where to go next but overall a business idea in the long run would be a amazing.

 

[Hoophy]

Thank you very much guys for the advice. I'm going to really have to do some thinking on this one about where to go next but overall a business idea in the long run would be a amazing.

Please show us when you announce it! :)