We always have to fight for funding for research projects as we're a rather... sidelined discipline in many respects, although awareness is definitely on the rise. There's a lot of provision for rescue archaeology in this country (thanks to government legislation which requires developers to provide funding for archaeological work if it's required), and a large number of dedicated units doing such surveys and excavations on new development sites. But for research projects being carried out for other reasons, it's more tricky, especially if you're not doing a Roman-period excavation (as there's most interest in this period from the general public, there's most funding to be had there).

I remember one article which referred to a site called Star Carr in Yorkshire as "the cradle of civilisation", which was a rather wonderful example of outright weirdness -- I think this did turn out to be something an archaeologist had mentioned while showing reporters around.

We do also sometimes have the problem of making things immediate enough to get reported upon, as well. If an excavation has been going on for years, what justifies it getting written about now? Trying to find new angles can work well or can err... not. *laughs*

Oh? What sort of things? *curious*

(I win at tangental rambling. Or something.)