Contribution guidelines
Unsolicited submissions are welcome, but publication is not guaranteed. Normal editorial rights to cut copy apply. It is recommended that you contact the editor to discuss your idea first - it may not be suitable, or there may already be someone working on a similar story.
Word limits
Articles can be anywhere from 100 to 600 words.
Deadlines
Please refer to our publications schedule for contribution and publication deadlines.
Audience
Consider the audience when preparing submissions. UniSANews not only goes out to UniSA staff, but also registered alumni (when The Graduate is included), and a ‘corporates’ mailing list, which includes members of parliament, journalists, careers counsellors, and friends of the university. UniSANews is also distributed in cafes, shops etc around Adelaide. Therefore it is important not to assume that all of the readers have an intimate knowledge of UniSA. Spell out acronyms in the first instance and avoid jargon. (If you must use jargon, at least explain it in plain English).
Timing
Timing is of utmost importance. Consider when the article you are writing may appear in the publication. For example you may want to publicise something happening in early August, but the August edition doesn’t come out until the 15th and the deadline is July 25, in which case you need to get information about your event in in time for the July issue. In some cases correct use of tense (with the distribution date in mind) will overcome some timing issues. In others you may need to consider an alternate way to get across your message – via email, posters etc.
If writing about an event that has already occurred, please submit as soon as possible after the event – stories that are months old by the time they are submitted will not be given the prominence of more timely articles.
All articles must be approved by the people quoted in the article.
Photographs
Some tips to maximise your photo’s chance of being published:
If you are photographing a person, in most cases you should go for a mid shot (above the waist). Take your time and take a few shots, try it from different angles, so you’ve got some choice later. Use an interesting prop or background. No more photos of people in front of signs please (unless it’s a stunning professional shot, or the person you’re photographing is actually a sign writer). If you’re using a digital camera, switch the quality to as high as you can. Large groups of people can be a problem – it’s rare that we have the space to blow them up large, so if you must get 10 people in a shot, try it with one or two people in the foreground and the others in the background.
Photographs are used with the permission of the photographer. If you are
sending in a photo, please include a caption, along with the photographer’s
name, making sure you have permission from the photographer. If emailing
photos, ensure they are sized appropriately (about the size it should be
published) and at least 300 dots per inch, in jpeg or tiff format.
Once again, normal editorial rights to choose what photos to publish
(according to quality of the photo, significance of the event/research, and
space available), apply.
Advertising
Contact the editor on 8302 0578 or email vincent.ciccarello@unisa.edu.au. Classifieds are free for UniSA staff members.
News values
The following is an excerpt from the ‘Understanding the Media’ section on the MDU website (staff access only). It was written with the external, mainstream media in mind, but many of the same principles also apply to UniSANews.
The term news as defined in the Australian Macquarie Dictionary is a report of any recent event or situation. However, the difference between what is technically news and what the media may classify as newsworthy is often vast. There are many shades of news, from the hard hitting disaster story, to the octogenarian who breeds cockroaches for an annual race at Tibooburra. The one thing all news has in common is a sense of action. What newspaper and radio journalists look for are stories with these qualities - action, controversy, change, potential, immediacy.
If you expect to attract attention to a story about something that happened last month or a visit from an important academic last week - think again. Similarly, it is difficult to attract media attention for a plan - they will only be interested when the plan or program takes shape.
News must be timely, it must have aspects that relate to the world around us.
Finding the news in meetings - conferences - small-scale changes or
concepts for programs can often be difficult. More often than not the news
will be in the recommendations, outcomes and keynote speakers - where the
action is.