Sharing Our News
Faculty, staff, students, alumni and friends of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at UNC Charlotte engage in research, community engagement and scholarship at the regional, national and international levels.
Sharing our stories is important for us to build connections and to share knowledge. We do this by first thinking about the impact of our work and the best ways to communicate that impact. Each story is unique, yet the steps we take to tell our stories follow a well-established path, which can be adapted in various situations.
The College’s Communications Director is available to provide guidance on developing a news story, the best outlets to approach for various stories, the University’s policies and practices on news and media, preparing for a media interview and other topics. We work closely with the University Communications team to gather newsworthy information and disseminate it to the news media, general public and constituents of the University through internal and external channels.
These tools also are designed to help walk you through the process.
Focusing On Outcomes
Evaluating whether your topic or activity is newsworthy is an essential first step. Many components go into determining whether something is news.
This “What Is News” tool will help you think about the news value of your story and the approach you can take when developing your idea. No matter what your news item, it is often good to tell it though people. We respond to stories of people, rather than stories about institutions. Also think about the people who are affected by your topic or activity — whether that is students, community members, researchers or others.
Submitting News to Exchange Online
Once you have thought through the questions covered in the tool, we invite you to submit your news story to Exchange Online. Go to the site and complete the news online submission form with this information below. The more details you can include, the better. If you can let us know about your news before it occurs, that’s even better!
Please include:
- Who is involved
- What the news is
- Where it occurred or will occur
- When it occurred or will occur
- Why it is significant, interesting, noteworthy or impactful
- A short biography of the main person or people involved
- Please email us a photo if you have one (or more than one.)
From those submissions, the College is able to post items to the online magazine, and develop news stories to share with the University Communications team for internal and external distribution.
We also use these submissions in other College communications, such as the College’s print magazine Exchange, updates to the internal and external community, updates to College alumni, and in postings to social media channels.
Media Relations and Interactions
The University Communications team, working in collaboration with the College Communications Director and other unit-specific communicators, holds primary responsibility for media relations at UNC Charlotte.
While members of the university community certainly may talk with the media about their individual work, they should not represent themselves as speaking for the institution.
The College Communications Director should be notified when media interactions occur — preferably in advance or as soon after the interview as possible. This helps us spread the good word about your news coverage and provide assistance as needed.
We invite you to submit your news coverage to Exchange Online, for the “In The News” section.
Consultative Services
The College’s Communications Director is available to provide guidance on developing a news story, the best outlets to approach for various stories, the University’s policies and practices on news and media, preparing for a media interview and other topics. We work closely with the University Communications team and other colleges and units to gather newsworthy information and disseminate it to the news media, general public and constituents of the University through internal and external channels.
University Policy and Guides
