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Major media: what it is

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Major media: definition

Key answer

Major media are outlets with broad reach and professional editorial staff (national or leading trade press). For the published-material criterion, what counts is coverage about you and your work in such outlets - not paid placements and not articles you wrote yourself.

Officers look at reach, editorial independence and whether the piece is about you. Paid publications, press releases and contributor posts are the typical reason the criterion is rejected.

The site has a database of hundreds of outlets rated major/not-major and a pay-to-publish breakdown; check a specific outlet with the tool.

Major media: the official source

Major media: what to do - tools

Major media: read next

Major media: documents and templates from the library

Major media: from community discussions

  • «Everyone said that a PhD is several criteria at once - contribution, publications, etc. But now you have to prove that an interview in the Vedomosti newspaper is national in scale. Obviously the officer doesn't care - Vedomosti or a wall newspaper, you need to carefully prove the print run and reach.»

    community member · from public community chats

  • «The article should be about you personally, which means there's some reason for the article, for example you received an award. And all the media will start writing about you at the same time. As a rule, the occasion creates such an effect that articles appear all at the same time, and then silence.»

    community member · from public community chats

  • «in an article about your project you should also feature in it and explain why exactly your involvement was so important. Mentioning you as a participant doesn't earn you any perks if you didn't win this competition.»

    Pavel · from public community chats

Personal opinions of community members from public discussions, not legal advice.

Major media: related terms

All glossary terms

A reference definition, not legal advice. Requirements and procedures depend on your case - verify on uscis.gov.

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