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Work with the media
Debra Shepherd
National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA
I want to talk about the single most important event I've ever had in preparation for and delivery of a press release. I had discovered the first evidence for an accretion disk around a massive star that was 10-15 times the mass of the sun. A big discovery - but it was made with a radio interferometer and the results had to be modeled. I didn't have a great picture to show, I didn't have truly conclusive evidence, like actually seeing the disk. But I knew it was there because I had studied this source for 10 years and this was the final piece of evidence that brought the existence of the disk to a much more solid foundation than I had ever previously been able to do. But how was I going to convince journalists, let alone get them enthusiastic about a fuzzy-looking blob that was mathematically modeled? I started talking to our press-release officer, Dave Findley, and explained the situation and my rather humdrum ideas about how to present the result. Dave came back a few days later and said "Try this: Think of a burlap sack, a baseball bat and ball and a Frisbee. Put the bat, ball and Frisbee in the sack. You have a very good idea about what is in the sack and you can see lumps and bumps suggesting that the items are in the sack and how they are oriented relative to each other. Now, if all you can see is the burlap sack, you can still tell what is going on inside. The same is true for the source I discovered. I knew there was a central star (the baseball). I knew there was an outflow of major proportions from previous observations and this had to be traced down to a disk if all our ideas about disks and outflows are correct. Thus, I knew there was a baseball bat (the outflow) and a Frisbee (the disk). All these components were obvious in the fuzzy blob I had detected (e.g. the burlap sack) and my model just figured out how they were oriented relative to each other and what they were made of (ionized gas or warm dusty, molecular gas).
The more I thought about this analogy, the more I liked it. So, I spent a lot of time thinking about my audience (both the journalists and the public) and how to get this concept across. I built my entire press release around Dave's idea. The morning of the press release I started off talking to a polite, and rather sleepy audience of journalists (given that it was the first release of the day at an American Astronomical Society meeting). They followed along with the talk as I presented for 5 to 8 minutes or so on the background of the source. A few notes were jotted down but I clearly didn't have my audience's interest. Until I came to the discovery... I showed them the fuzzy blob I had discovered and full-out admitted it wasn't much to look at. Then I led up to the story about the burlap sack, the baseball & bat and Frisbee. Somewhere in the story, "light bulbs started going off over everyone's head." Eyes widened, notes were scribbled furiously as I explained how exciting this was for our understanding of how robust the disk and planet-building process was. It was truly awe-inspiring. Both the actual discovery and how the journalists reacted.
After my talk, many questions were asked and several people came up to me and got more details. The press release got world-wide coverage and I was invited to give several lectures around the world on this discovery and on star formation; both for astronomers and the public. I consider this event to be one of the most important ones in my career as an astronomer. It launched my career as a good public speaker and gave me credibility as a major player in the field of massive star formation.
I think the most important thing about this story is, first and foremost, you should honor the people you are speaking to: the journalists and the public. Don't talk down to them but use language and analogies that can be grasped by everyone. Second, work on getting the information out there as much as you did to make the discovery in the first place. Polish your presentation or your paper until the concepts flow smoothly. Third, ask for and take advice on how to present your work. Don't be afraid of how it will look for you to ask for advice from journalists. They generally know how to get ideas across! Be humble when receiving the advice so you will hear whatever value exists in the advice. The idea of a burlap sack hiding things inside would never have occurred to me and the whole picture seemed ludicrous at first. But it was clearly the key to a successful press release and a significant contributing factor to my success as an invited speaker in forums for both astronomers and the public.
You can't go wrong if you follow these guidelines. You may not get a famous press release each time, but you will get better at it if you continue to work at it, until one day, it just happens. Good luck!
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