Information: Dr. Jones is a leading authority on certain rare infectious diseases, lecturing and writing on subject in world’s most distinguished medical journals and colloquia.

News: The Governor of Dr. Jones’s state contracts one of those diseases, and uncertainty over his ability to remain in office swirls. Dr. Jones does not treat Governor, so he cautions that he cannot comment on specifics of this case. But calmly and objectively, he explains to reporters in lay terms general facts about this kind of illness, pointing out that 90% of people with it recover promptly with treatment once diagnosed.

Information: broad, deep, and evergreen.

News: narrower, shallower, but timely and topical.

The knowledge within it is no less true, real, or important. It’s just been distilled into bite-sized bits that fit space in paper, time on show, or audience’s attention span. Distilling that information into news, and then assembling it into appealing packages called stories, is essentially what news media do.

So don’t be like one of those characters in an Alfred Hitchcock movie – getting in trouble because you know too much. Instead, learn to slice and dice your topic into many narrower, manageable offerings.

All you have to do is understand how game works. How media folks think. How they speak. What they need to put together a story… a story that informs their audience, and that features you.

Truth is, you can sort nearly everything you need to know into five convenient buckets. They are:

Create your own story. Learn media game. Connect with media. Excel in media. Get more out of your publicity.