Press Primer for Managers

Steve MaranPress Officer

American Astronomical Society

Main Topics

• Talking to the press – sensitive matters other than emergencies

• When to make a big science announcement

• Vision for increased media recognition of MKO and their accomplishments

Talking to the Press? Stay Alert!

From page 74 of A Scientist's Guide to Talking with the Media, by Richard Hayes & Daniel Grossman (Rutgers University Press, 2006):

"I engaged in an informal conversation with an environmental reporter from the Las Vegas Review Journal prior to the formal interview ...To my chagrin, some of my informal comments were quoted out of context in the news article. "

Carol Sing, environmental pollution control expert, Henderson, Nevada

From Scientific American, Letters to the Editors, p.10, June 1992

"I had kidded around with reporter John Horgan as I would have with an old drinking buddy; had I been less tired, I would have known better and treated him the way a suspect should treat a homicide detective."

Murray Gell-Mann

What Happens with Unprepared RemarksTwo clips from a newspaper story stimulated by a NASA official’s off-the-cuff comments in a

National Public Radio interview

Your Press Release – How Important Is It?

To

What Science

Break-through

Done

With Your

Telescope

Done By Your

Scientist - Not Using Your Telescope

Results Showcase Important New Camera, etc.

Includes Great Still Pictures

Includes Broadcast Quality Video Or Animation

Science Writers 10 DON’T CARE

DON’T CARE

CARE SOMEWHAT 10 DON’T CARE

Website News

Providers10 DON’T

CAREDON’T CARE

CARE SOMEWHAT 10 10

TV Network

News10 DON’T

CAREDON’T CARE

DON’T CARE CARE A BIT

10

Other Mass Media 10 DON’T CARE

DON’T CARE

DON’T CARE 10 USUALLY DON’T CARE

Local Press 10 ? 10 10 DON’T CARE 10 10 (local TV)

Your (Non-US) National Media 10 10 DEPENDS ON

SCIENTIST NATIONALITY

MAY DEPEND ON CAMERA “NATIONALITY”

SAME AS US MEDIA

SAME AS US MEDIA

OBSERVATORY

MANAGEMENT 10 10 5 to 10 10 Annual Report, etc.

VIP Briefings, etc.

Agency Sponsors 10 10 5 to 10 10 Same as management

Same as management

Science Community 10 <10 DON’T CARE 10 N/A N/A

Know Who You Are Talking To!“Pure” science writer Shares your passion,

knows his/her stuff

“Real reporter” Suspects your motives, seeks opposing views

Mass media anchor Enjoys “Gee whiz” stories; usually just rips & reads

“Money writer” Instant stories make money for self or employer; has little time to research them

TV Investigative reporter (e.g., Dateline, 60 Minutes)

Decides what the story is, then seeks interviews that illustrate it

Framing Science

People you can't seem to reason with on a particular issue can include some

Journalists PoliticiansCommunity leaders / Opinion makers Activists of all kinds Fellow scientists, engineers, technical managers

Examples of such topics:

Human-induced global warming, Evolution vs. Creationism/Intelligent Design, Embryonic stem cell research

Scientists think that improving science education will increase the acceptance of scientifically derived conclusions/positions

Communications researchers think they know better.

Framing Science - 2

This discussion follows the short article, "Framing Science" by Nisbet & Mooney (Science, 6 April 2007, p.56).

Framing Science -3 Quotes are from Nisbet & Mooney

People usually do NOT weigh the arguments on both sides of a question

They "use their value predispositions (such as political or religious beliefs) as perceptual screens, selecting news outlets and Web sites whose outlooks match their own."

"Scientists must...'frame' information to make it relevant to different audiences" instead of assuming that they can educate most people to understand their message.

Framing Science - 4

Global Warming Controversy - Human-Induced or Not

Different attitudes correlate with political affiliation, not education-

Fraction of college educated citizens who attribute global warming to human activity by political affiliation:

Republicans 23% Democrats 75%

WHY? To paraphrase Bill Clinton, “It’s the frames, stupid.”

Framing Science - 5

Frames Used by Opponents of the Scientific Consensus on Global Warming:

"scientific uncertainty" "unfair economic burden"

Frames Used by Supporters of the Scientific Consensus on Global Warming:

Democratic leaders: "a 'Pandora's box' of catastrophe“

Certain Evangelical leaders: "matter of religious morality“

Various opinion makers: "public accountability" - i.e., criticizing the Administration for interfering with free communication of climate science research

Framing Science - 6

In public debate, many scientists prefer "to safely stick to the facts." This approach is ethical but it often is doomed,

BECAUSE "...facts will be repeatedly misapplied and twisted in direct proportion to their relevance to the political debate and decision-making" In short, as unnatural as it might feel, in many cases, scientists should strategically avoid emphasizing the technical details of science when trying to defend it.“

CONCLUSION Don’t mess with the facts, but frame your position or rely on spokespersons who can.

(Quotes are from Nisbet & Mooney)

When Do You Announce a Discovery?In real time?

Before or After refereeing?Upon publication?

Real time Very, very rarely

Before or after refereeing

Comfort level issue

Upon publication Almost your last chance

Real Time Announcements

• The Good-

“We found a supernova that you can see with the naked eye right now in the LMC”

• The Bad-

“This seems to be a Type I supernova.”(Approximate quote from a press report filed by a reporter

who stood over the shoulder of an astronomer getting one of the first good spectrograms of SN1987A at an

observing console in Chile.)

•The Ugly

Title and lead paragraph of a scientist’s press release on March 11, 1998:

ONE-MILE-WIDE ASTEROID TO PASS CLOSER THAN THE MOON IN 2028

Recent orbit computations on an asteroid discovered last December indicate it virtually certain that it will pass within the moon's distance of the earth a little more than 30 years from now. The chance of an actual collision is small, but one is not entirely out of the question.

Space.com: “Most major news organizations reported the threat, which scientists later withdrew.”

Real Time Announcements - 2

Before or after refereeing?

"...a press that equates a peer-reviewed experiment with a public relations document should expect the public to equate Time with the National Enquirer."

--From an editorial, "Credibility in Science

and the Press," by the Editor of Science, Daniel E. Koshland, Jr. (Vol. 254, No. 5032, p.629, 1 November 1991)

Before or after refereeing? - 2 THREE FAMOUS REFEREED PAPERS IN NATURE

THAT WERE WRONG

• July 1993: Danish & other scientists declare climate inherently unstable so that the Earth "might plunge without warning into a new ice age." (Quote from reporter Nicholas Wade)

• February 1993: Scientists at Harvard Medical School & Massachusetts General Hospital claim a new triple-drug therapy that they say "may be the Achilles heel" of the AIDS virus. (Quote attributed to the science team by Wade)

• July 1991: Discovery of the first exoplanet“ by radio astronomers at the University of Manchester.

--From Nicholas Wade, Method and Madness - When Experts Err, New York Times Magazine (February 6, 1994, p.12).

Before or after refereeing? - 3WHY THREE FAMOUS REFEREED PAPERS IN NATURE WERE WRONG

Danish Ice Age warning- Based on bottom section of a Greenland ice core; This later was shown by another science team to be churned and mixed up by glacier flows over rough bedrock, producing the false appearance of rapid back-and-forth climate changes. Bad sample?

Harvard/Mass General AIDS breakthrough- Senior colleagues found that student's lab data (basis of the paper) overlooked some mutations which inactivated the virus independently of the drug therapy. Bad analysis?

Manchester pulsar planet- Principal Investigator realized that computations "failed to allow completely for the fact discovered by Kepler in 1609 that the earth's orbit around the sun is not circular but slightly elliptical." Bad data processing?

BOTTOM LINE: refereeing is a hit or miss proposition.

Before or after refereeing? - 4THREE FAMOUS UNREFEREED ANNOUNCEMENTS

THAT WERE WRONG

From K.C. Cole & Robert Lee Hotz, "Science, Hype and Profit: a Perilous Mix, Los Angeles Times (January 24, 1999)

December 1993: South Korean researchers claim "first step toward human cloning“* by combining a woman's adult stem cell with one of her

eggs to create an embryo.

November 1998: Massachusetts biotech firm announces combining human embryo cells and animal cells for first time.

May 28, 1997: "An Iowa physicist created a continuing international stir with his suggestion that Earth's atmosphere is bombarded every day by

thousands of fluffy snow comets -- weighing up to 40 tons.“*

*(Quotes from Cole & Hotz)

Bottom Line on Announcing Before or After Refereeing

The author and their institution will ultimately

gain fame or blame for the “big announcement,” whether refereed or not.

It’s up to you to be sure of your message when you proceed to deliver it

New Vision for Mauna Kea

Observatories Media Relations

Today’s report is from the Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope ¤Joint Astronomy CentreCaltech Submillimeter Observatory NASA Infrared Telescope FacilityGemini Observatory Subaru TelescopeW.M. Keck Observatory Smithsonian/Taiwan Submillimeter Array University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy

Collective Format, Individual Announcements--The Good--

• Identical format for teleconference briefings or ultimately, webcasts and for media advisories that announce the briefings

• The individual observatory making each announcement takes responsibility, pays costs (but see bottom bullet)

• Establishes a “brand” of Mauna Kea Observatories announcements that reporters will heed, like the “Hubble Space Telescope” brand developed by NASA.

• Enhances public appreciation of Observatories on MK

• Likely candidate for foundation grant for new kind of international cooperation in public information/education

Collective Format, Individual Announcements -2---The Bad--

Must convince your sponsoring institutions to approve this process Institutions can make simultaneous releases through their own channels

Must convince scientist-authors to use this process Authors’ institutions can make simultaneous releases too

Must convince funding agencies to sign off on these announcements Agencies can make simultaneous releases also

Collective Format, Individual Announcements -2---The Ugly--

Teleconferences or webcasts must be live at inconvenient times depending on prime target media

USA mainland press working hours across 3 time zones West European press Japanese and other Asian media

Observatory press officers will need extensive R&R after coordinating each press conference with multiple institutions, scientists, and funding agencies

What better place for R&R than Hawaii?