For the Viking Ship Museum, one of the clearly defined aims of the experimental voyage with the Sea Stallion is that of disseminating knowledge. This means that in addition to working towards a deeper understanding of things like Viking marine, transport and communication activities, we are also trying to involve the public in the project. The new knowledge must be spread as widely as possible.
In this connection, the press and work on contacting the press is quite central – in combination with the project’s website. The website disseminates project results and takes the reader on an adventure trip in words and pictures. At the same time, we maintain extensive direct contact with both the Danish and the international press to make the Sea Stallion visible also on TV and in newspapers – not to mention the many big new news websites.
The efforts of the press and their interest in the Sea Stallion last year when the ship sailed from Roskilde to Dublin almost took our breath away. Quite simply, it came as a surprise to the Viking Ship Museum that there was so much public appetite to follow the Sea Stallion’s activities.
Skipper Carsten Hvid and project leader Preben Rather Sørensen (also a member of the crew), together with a single press coordinator (also a member of the crew) were simply rung up by the press all day long. We were, of course, really glad about this – but it was certainly not an ideal situation, for the press or the project.
So we decided to set up a regular floating editorial board on the support vessel Cable One, consisting of a photographer, a video journalist, a technician/webmaster, and a press coordinator. The photographer takes the many photographs you see on the website and documents the scientific side of the project in pictures for the museum. The video journalist produces the podcasts – video clips for the website – and a number of films in broadcast quality for the press to download, so life on board can be seen in moving pictures.
The technician/webmaster maintains the website (also the English version) and makes sure the extremely expensive satellite connection to land is working. The press coordinator has in principle all contact with the press to ensure access to the relevant sources on board the Sea Stallion. Moreover, he supplies material for the website, like the article you are reading right now.
The basic aim with this organisation is to service the press as professionally as possible and have a website that really many people will want to follow the Sea Stallion’s journey home from Dublin.