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From lab to newspapers
Subhra Priyadarshini Editor, Nature India
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Nature India/Nature Research Group
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• Risks and benefits of getting your story across to media
• What makes science interesting to the media/people
• Understanding journalists/editors
• Practical tips on how to handle the media better
Communicating science to the media
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Perceived risks of telling your story
• It will distract you from your work and career
• Your peers will think less of you
• The resulting articles will be wrong or inadequate
• You will be misquoted
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Benefits of telling your story
• Informing the public about science • Raising awareness of the discipline • Inspiring the next generation of researchers • Developing new skills • Raising personal/institutional profile • Improving the quality of research • Networking • Increasing funding • Increasing the impact of your work
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Understanding journalists/Editors
In some ways, scientists and journalists are quite alike.
• Both are driven by curiosity, both frame hypotheses and gather evidence.
• Both want their work to be read by others.
• Mistakes are very visible, and mortifying.
But there are major differences.
• “The scientist wants an answer, however dull. The journalist would rather find a story.” – Tim Radford, The Guardian
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Understanding journalists/Editors
• Their primary allegiance is to their audience.
• Science journalists struggle for space in their outlets – so it is unlikely that everything will be covered “in-depth”.
• The fracturing media landscape leaves many journalists struggling to do more than respond to press releases.
• Many decisions about the way stories end up are beyond the journalist’s control.
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What journalists/editors are looking for: the bottom line …and why should I care
Somerville and Hassol, Physics Today October 2011
Background
Supporting details
Results/Conclusions
Bottom line
So what?
Supporting details
Science
Public
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Nature formula vs news structure
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Nature formula vs news structure
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When do the media cover science?
• Features: Science news still falls in this category
* Cute, strange, unexpected, beautiful pictures, a sense of wonder.
* Focus on illustration, story-telling, entertainment.
• News about scientific discoveries
• Commenting on disasters or other news events
• Scandal, risk, fraud, wrongdoing
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The basic news equation
Change x threat = news
Hence:
• Cane toads are more newsworthy than snakes
• Zika is more newsworthy than the flu
• Stories about new technologies often focus on potential risks
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A more detailed view of news values • Timing: is the event actually recent?
• Significance: social, economic, political, human
• Local interest: Local scientists, local effects?
• Surprise: freshness, newness, unpredictability.
• Numbers: scale, number of people affected.
• Drama: excitement, action, and entertainment.
• Personalities: royal, political, showbiz…science.
• Sex: scandal, crime
Not the kind of coverage you want
Natural news strengths of
science stories
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What to do when journalists call
1. Ask for their name, outlet and deadline.
2. Ask them to explain what their story is about, and how long it is.
3. Tell them you will call back. Even a reporter with a red-hot deadline can wait 5 minutes.
4. Contact your communications office.
5. Google the reporter. What have they written about in the past? What do you think of their work?
6. Decide if you want to talk to them. Let them know if you are not available. “I’m sorry I won’t be able to help this time.”
7. If you are publishing a paper, understand your journal’s embargo policy. Clarify that the journalist knows about the embargo, and will respect it.
8. For broadcast interviews, ask if it will be live or pre-recorded.
9. For print stories, a voice conversation is best, but if you are very concerned about misquoting, an email exchange can be OK.
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Prepare for the interview
• Preparedness is the best way to avoid the pitfalls of working with the media.
• The reality: most journalists will be underprepared, rushed, and ignorant about your field (at least compared to you).
• It is best to accept this reality, and take your own preparedness seriously.
• Think actively about what messages you want to deliver.
• This is your interview.
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Handy media checklist for scientists
• Prepare your key messages. Three at the most.
• Simplify. Use words comprehensible to someone who stopped science at year 9.
• Think about the implications or application of your work. What is likely? What is possible?
• Try to craft effective, accurate analogies or metaphors to help tell the story.
• Note down key contextualising facts: Why did you decide to do this work? Who else is working in the field?
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• Prepare sound-bites. Journalists are looking for short quotes that sound like spoken English.
• Think about caveats. Important limitations to mention?
• Be very careful about statistics. Particularly relative vs. absolute percentage changes.
• Prepare answers to questions about the human side of science:
• “What really surprised us was …”
• “The hardest part about this work was…”
• “We’ve been working on this for xxx years/months”
• “I/we feel really …… about this work.”
Handy media checklist for scientists
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The human side of science is important
• The frustrations and joys of research
• The tear in the eye/lump in the throat
• “Journalists take this approach not just because it is relatively uncomplicated and easy to tell, but also because it is appealing to readers, viewers or listeners.”
-- “Am I making myself clear? A scientist’s guide to talking to the public,” Cornelia Dean, New York Times
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Interview winners
• Don’t say it if you don’t want it to be a headline.
• Terms like Off the record/ Background/ Deep background mean different things to different people.
• The best journalists ask challenging questions. Don’t take it personally.
• “Stupid” questions are important opportunities to address misconceptions. Asking knowledgeable questions usually results in complicated answers.
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Interview winners
Get your message across with bridging, flagging and repetition
• Bridging: When the reporter asks you something that does not relate to what you want to talk about. “Yes, but the real issue is…” or “I don’t know the answer to that question. What I do know is…”
• Flagging: Make sure the journalist knows what the important points are: “The most important point is…” or “The bottom line is…”
• Repetition: Once is not enough. Once is not enough.
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Dealing with errors
• Ask reporters how you can contact them in case you think of something to add or adjust.
• It’s OK to ask if you can see the text, but don’t expect the reporter to say yes.
• Reporters have different views on the subject, and some news organisations have rules that forbid this.
• Generally reporters are more comfortable letting you see quotes they are attributing to you
• If you do see the draft text, resist the temptation to edit. Send bullet points with corrections, follow up with a phone call.
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Dealing with post-interview pangs
• It is not impossible for journalists to report science accurately. However, definitions of an “error” will vary.
• Sometimes (often) detail gives way to the need for clear communication to a wide audience in a small space.
• Will the error result in readers or viewers misunderstanding something about the science?
• Call the reporter and let her/him know: “Thanks, but there is a problem with the story. This is how to correct it.”
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