Publicizing Honors and Achievements
UC Davis News Service policy
Because academic honors and awards reflect UC Davis' academic quality, they are significant for the campus community and useful for publications directed toward alumni, parents, donors and others with ties to us.
Publicity for most awards and honors will be:
- targeted to an internal campus audience
- made available to unit communicators for use in their materials
Academic awards and honors typically are of low interest to the news media and rarely result in news stories at any but the most local level.
Awards and honors matrix
A tiered approach gives guidance for choosing awards publicity
What makes an award newsworthy?
- Is the work being recognized highly topical, of broad public interest?
- Does the recipient have a compelling personal story?
- Is there anything unusual or surprising about this award?
- Does the award carry a high cash value or come from an interesting or surprising source?
- If this story was from another institution, would you read it?
How awards will be publicized
The most prestigious awards and honors
The following will be publicized through press releases:
- awards and honors with high name recognition
- awarded by institutions with broad interests
- given to only a small number of individuals in any year
Major awards, honors or fellowships
Will be publicized
- as stories in the faculty/staff newspaper, Dateline UC Davis
- shared via email with the Davis Enterprise, Woodland Democrat and the Sacramento Bee
- on the campus News & Information Web page and may be a headline on the campus home page
Other honors and awards
Will be publicized
- in Dateline's biweeekly "laurels" column
- in a monthly roundup of laurels in a news release sent to local media
- in some cases in a "laurels-plus" format to give more prominence to some honors, depending on the availability of space in the paper
- made available to unit communicators to use or expand upon in their publications
Student awards
Most student awards do not reach a threshold of newsworthiness for a press release. The likely publicity — usually for a minor or community "hometown" newspaper — does not justify the time and resources involved in the News Service preparing the press release.
High-profile awards of a national nature are the exceptions. Examples:
- NCAA Athlete of the Year
- Black Engineer of the Year leadership award
- Rhodes, Marshall scholarships, etc.
Other assistance
- For UC Davis students who are Sacramento region residents, the News Service may be able to pass on information about an award to local reporters.
- The News Service can offer advice on contacting the hometown paper of a student outside our region if units wish to do so.