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The Multimedia Gallery on EurekAlert! was established in 2006 in response to a growing demand for multimedia among the global journalism community. As financial support for print-based science journalism has declined in the United States and some other regions in recent years, alternate communications mechanisms — including radio and television broadcasts and online reporting — have begun to place new demands on public information officers at leading research organizations. At the same time, the proliferation of science-news reporting in non-English-speaking regions, particularly throughout Asia, Latin America and Africa, suggests a need for new strategies to communicate science across language barriers. Efforts to convey complex scientific information to younger audiences also may be enhanced by the use of multimedia resources. The multimedia gallery also seeks to serve public information officers (PIOs), who face increasing demands for multimedia, as radio, TV and online reporting have increased and print-based science journalism has declined. Also, the proliferation of science news reporting in non-English-speaking nations offers new opportunities to communicate science across language barriers. Multimedia also offers PIOs an excellent opportunity to extend their ability to reach younger audiences. The EurekAlert! multimedia gallery is intended to provide a centralized, "one-stop-shopping" resource where PIOs can provide reporters with freely accessible images, audio and video files. Public visitors to EurekAlert! will have limited access to the multimedia gallery. As the gallery is being populated, we encourage submitting PIOs to think in terms of multimedia files with "evergreen" communications potential — that is, generic images of, say, butterflies or dinosaurs or famous researchers that can be credited to your institution and might support coverage now or at any time in the future. The EurekAlert! multimedia gallery provides reporters with free access to images, and will also soon offer audio and video files, via a fully searchable database. Searches can be made by keywords, captions, the submitting organization, the title of any associated press releases, media type (whether an image, audio or video file) and other parameters. Phase I Development — A first phase of the gallery was launched in early 2006. It includes an online submission form for uploading images with or without related press releases, as well as a searchable multimedia gallery. Through December 2007, all EurekAlert! subscribers can submit a reasonable number of image files to the gallery per year, at no additional cost. After that period, EurekAlert! will reassess usage-based pricing or a reduced submissions cap, depending on capacity and technology demands. Non-subscribers also can submit standalone multimedia materials to the gallery on a per-file basis. Per-file multimedia submission prices are the same as EurekAlert!'s per-news-release fees. Phase II Development — A second phase of the gallery, adding audio and video files — will be completed later in 2008. Phase II of the gallery is envisioned to be the first-of-its-kind, affordable service where PIOs can disseminate short, broadcast-quality audio and web-quality video files to reporters worldwide, in addition to providing. Founding sponsorship of the Phase II multimedia gallery is now being invited. For information about highly visible, founding sponsorship opportunities, contact Jill Grigg at (202) 326-6716, jgrigg@aaas.org. Multimedia Submission Recommendations The quality of the new EurekAlert! multimedia gallery ultimately will depend upon the quality of submissions. Basic guidelines follow below: Image Specificiations — Print-quality images generally should be at least 5 inches by 7 inches in size, with a resolution of 300 dots per inch (DPI). Currently, EurekAlert! staff can most easily process images in the JPEG format, but TIFF or GIF files also are acceptable. Note — Although PIOs may choose to submit only low-resolution "teaser" images (72 dots per inch), we strongly recommend submitting high-resolution versions of each image so that reporters can readily access print-quality materials, along with any related credit information. EurekAlert!'s submission system automatically creates teaser versions of all submitted images; these teaser images are primarily intended for use by members of the general public who browse the gallery. The original high-resolution images, however, are available only to reporters. Images can be submitted to the EurekAlert! multimedia gallery with or without an accompanying press release, but all submissions must include an explanatory caption, as well as preferred credit line and information on terms of usage or permission requirements, if any. The shorter the credit line, the more likely it is to be used by media outlets. For example, "Courtesy John Smith, Best University," is a better credit line than, "Courtesy of Dr. John G. Smith IV, Department of Neurology and Cognitive Sciences, Center for Best Resources, Best University, Anytown, U.S.A." Similarly, captions should be concise, but complete. Research organizations submitting multimedia files to EurekAlert! must ensure that they are the rightful owners of the material, or otherwise fully authorized to share the content with others. Public information officers are reminded to take extra care in securing appropriate rights for any multimedia materials depicting human subjects, particularly children. Submitting public information officers can specify whether high-resolution (reproducible) materials should be accessible to all EurekAlert! visitors, or only to reporters. EurekAlert! will include any requested credit or usage information provided by the submitting organization. In this way, submissions to the multimedia gallery may help to increase each submitting organization's visibility, by increasing research-news placements. We cannot guarantee, however, that all media outlets will faithfully adhere to credit-line or usage instructions in all cases. It is the sole responsibility of the submitter to enforce any credit-line requests or usage restrictions. Moreover, EurekAlert! cannot assume responsibility for multimedia content submitted by public information officers who have failed to secure proper permission to do so. Please see the Terms and Conditions section for more information about image use. For more information on sponsorship opportunities on the EurekAlert! multimedia gallery, contact Jill Grigg at (202) 326-6716, jgrigg@aaas.org. Input regarding technical submission recommendations is welcomed. Please send your input to the EurekAlert!, webmaster@eurekalert.org. Ideas, questions and concerns regarding the concept for the gallery or proposed features may also be directed to webmaster@eurekalert.org.
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