CALS in the News is a weekly selection of media stories quoting or mentioning CALS faculty, staff, students, alumni, research and programs. Other stories of interest to the UW–Madison community and those in the fields of agriculture and the life sciences are also included. The list is produced by the CALS Office of External Relations.
Mission
To inform CALS leadership, faculty, staff, grad students and others about how our college, its people, research and programs are being discussed or portrayed in public forums like news media.
There is value in understanding the full spectrum of media attention that we garner, and the breadth of perceptions that exist about us and our work. To that end, the stories included are positive, neutral, and sometimes critical. Inclusion in our list does not imply endorsement of (or agreement with) a news source or a story.
Methodology
CALS External Relations utilizes a media monitoring service to identify media stories in which our people and programs are mentioned or quoted. We also routinely search some high-profile publications manually, and accept submissions. This often results in several dozen media stories per week to consider for the final list.
We pare this down to roughly 10-12 items each week. We strive for a mix of international, national, and state/local coverage from both mainstream and agricultural news sources.
Often we can only share a small fraction of identified stories each week, so we must be very selective about what and who to include. Each week presents a unique set of circumstances for making selections, including trending topics and other factors. Some weeks, a certain topic will dominate news coverage which can result in a single individual being represented multiple times in our list. Occasionally, we will create a special section for very noteworthy happenings (e.g. the opening of a new CALS facility). Over the long term, we aim for the list to reflect a broad, balanced representation of the CALS community and our activities.
We typically avoid including republished press releases, briefs, duplicates due to syndication, out-of-state local media outlets, and more technical academic/research articles.
Questions? Concerns? Contact the editor at ecals@cals.wisc.edu