Bob Finn PHOTO BY HAGOP PHOTOGRAPHY

ON THE LISTS

by Bob Finn

nasw-talk

Freelance Norman Bauman sparked a discussion of statistics (Sept. 9, 2003) when he quoted an article from the New York Sun, which read, in part, “The Field Poll, set for release today, found that 55 percent of likely voters support the California gubernatorial recall, down from 58 percent in an August Poll…. The poll…was drawn from telephone interviews with 505 likely voters, and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.”

The question was: What’s the significance of a 3 percent drop in support in a survey with a 4.5 percent margin of error? The discussion, with the subject header “Statistics,” delved into a number of subtle statistical distinctions.

On Nov. 17, 2003, Glennda Chui of the San Jose Mercury News posted the draft of a handout she distributes to her class at UC Santa Cruz on how to jump into a story and find sources and information quickly. The handout, which you’ll find under the subject header “A collaborative handout WITH the handout!” is chock-full of helpful advice on how to hit the ground running. Needless to say, however, a number of nasw-talk subscribers came up with quite a few additional suggestions.

My favorite came from Charlie Petit, U.S. News & World Report, who wrote “If a source has given you only a phone number and it doesn’t pick up, Google the number. You may find hits on the source’s home page or even better, other pages the source maintains but without links on the homepage, on agenda of meetings he or she has attended, reports the source has written, all sorts of things. Even if you have all the contact numbers, Google the phone. To scare yourself, Google your own phone number and see what people can find out about YOU.”

nasw-freelance

Deborah Blum reported in her last President’s Letter (SW, Fall 2003) about some difficulties regarding press registration for NASW members at the AAAS meeting. I was happy to hear that this issue has been resolved, for this year at least, with AAAS agreeing to grant press registration for any NASW member attending the NASW workshops. But the possibility that some NASW members—especially freelancers—may have been denied press registration sparked a discussion on nasw-freelance. The discussion began with an Oct. 4, 2003 message with the subject header “Read This! AAAS Registration.”

On Oct. 15, 2003, freelance David Surface asked for advice on contract work for communications and public relations groups. He discussed his background and asked whether he was well positioned to break into this field. And he wanted to know how difficult a market this is for a freelancer to crack, how plentiful the opportunities are, and whether they’re financially rewarding.

David received a great deal of good advice. Freelance Richard Robinson, for example, urged caution because journalism clients may react negatively to a freelancer who has gone over to the “dark side.”
Freelance Alan Wachter, on the other hand, said that as long as one keeps the journalism clients informed of the PR work, there shouldn’t be a problem. He added, “I much prefer writing for publication than for corporate/agency clients, but the dark side pays much, much more.”

Participants in the discussion went on to talk about tactics for selling oneself to PR folks, and the relative merits of working for large agencies vs. small shops. To see the entire discussion, search for the subject header “Breaking Into Communications/PR Work.”

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Bob Finn administers NASW’s Web site and e-mail lists at nasw.org. His e-mail address is cybrarian@nasw.org.