by Joann Ellison Rodgers
One recent day, it took five calls, multiple e-mails, two faxes, and several hours of our PR staff's time to coax a Johns Hopkins University scientist into an interview with a network science reporter. Though the professor eventually relented, I wanted to fire off a memo telling him how close we'd come to making lemons out of lemonade.
But I knew that the essence of good faculty-press relations is good faculty-PR relations. So instead I called our scientist to thank him for his time, arranged to send him the video, and briefed him on the Baltimore Sun reporter who wanted an interview on the same piece of research.
My past experience proved prophetic, and Dr. No said yes to the Sun. My mood brightened. My personal headline read: "PIO Discovers Fundamental Axiom--Again."
For all of us in public relations, our ability to persuade researchers to speak up, speak out, and speak English springs from that axiom. It holds that inside most scholars are teachers who want to talk about their life's work. They desire--and deserve--to be noticed and respected for contributing to the world of the mind.
"When it comes to interactions with the press, every scientist yearns to be needed," says veteran science writer Ben Patrusky, who has recruited more than 1,000 researchers to speak to journalists attending science-writing seminars. "This attitude may be about ego, but it's also about accomplishment and contribution. Each scientist has a receptor for this; all we have to do is find the right signal transducer to open it up and we're in."
Nevertheless, some scholarly receptors remain more accessible than others, and few are easily infiltrated without thoughtful effort. So thanks to help from colleagues in PR and the press, here assembled is a list of 10 faculty challenges and suggested strategies for success.
Challenge No. 1: The Humble Pretender
Profile: This is usually the senior scientist. He may modestly demur ("Oh, I'm sure you can find someone better suited to this interview, even though I do know a lot about Subject X"). Or he may call to let you know you might get press inquiries about his new paper, but "I don't want you to think I want any publicity."
Strategy: This challenge is basic enough to be a litmus test for your suitability to the PR field. Your job is to figure out if it's smarter to overcome the researcher's modesty (and make the most of his expertise) or play along with it (and avoid letting reporters and all the world know his research is not the best available).
If the researcher demurs, make sure he is the best person for the job and offer reassurance; if not, ask him to suggest another professor. (Betcha he'll agree to the interview after all, especially if you know his alternatives aren't available.)
If the researcher calls, recognize that the demurral is a bit of professional face-saving; after all, scientists aren't supposed to be visible. Thank him for the call and ask him to fax you the paper.
Challenge No. 2: The Ubermensch
Profile: This professor's motto is, "I'm brilliant and you're not." No one but a handful of her peers is intelligent enough to understand the complexities of her work. Neither English nor scientific German is a language rich enough to describe her theoretical constructs, her experimental protocols, or her subtle interpretations of ancient Sanskrit texts.
Strategy: This problem screams for a firm institutional policy suggesting that faculty coordinate media relations with your office. Your goal is not to censor but to provide good service to the institution. Deans are usually willing to establish such a policy and give you some authority to enforce it.
With authority, of course, comes responsibility. Keep track of which researchers are impatient with general-assignment reporters. Likewise, let reporters know your reasons if you filter out professors who really don't do well in interviews. Then suggest other researchers--at your institution or elsewhere. The journalist will thank you, and the Great One will never know she wasn't bothered.
If it's too late for prevention, wait until you've calmed down. Then make a date to tell the professor that though she didn't give the interview, or she wrecked it, she communicated one thing very clearly: disdain for the public. Mention that this is not likely to warm her dean's heart or give Joe Sixpack a reason to want his tax dollars supporting university research.
Challenge No. 3: The One and Only
Profile: This faculty member is often the lead author on a paper. A good communicator, he's perfect for the reporter's story. But he'll be on a flight to Bucharest when the story breaks, and he can't--or won't--suggest anyone else on his team who could substitute for him.
A corollary profile: Your entire Department of Biblical Archaeology is attending a seminar in a forgotten time zone when a trekker comes across Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat and tells all to Reuters.
Strategy: This one takes persistence and the good will of the researcher's secretary, spouse, and sometimes kids. Like a reporter who knows that the key to the inner sanctum is worn around the neck of the least visible staffer, you should be on good terms with aides and abettors. From them, you'll need hotel and fax numbers, Skytel pager access, and a willingness to wake the source at zero-dark-hundred for an East Coast deadline.
Better, of course, is to have known in advance that the conference was taking place and gotten all those numbers upfront. At the University of Cincinnati, science writer Chris Curran learns where faculty members post abstracts for upcoming meetings, then scans the bulletin boards regularly. She also finds out who handles a department's travel budgets, since this person knows who's going to which meetings and when.
Challenge No. 4: The Strategist
Profile: This researcher has an agenda that is frequently at odds with everyone's press policies: the institution's, yours, and the media's. She knows several journalists on the major newspapers, has their home and fax numbers, and courts their inquiries. She doesn't care if she ticks off every other news outlet by "leaking" her information exclusively.
Often, this is the scientist who also has a financial or other interest in a patent, discovery, or company she advises. If her conflict of interest isn't exactly unethical or illegal, it still creates problems when she demands a press conference unattached to a published paper, a press outreach timed not to the institution's interests but an outside company's stock plans, and the use of the institution's name and reputation to publicize an outside venture.
This category also includes researchers who seek the media spotlight when they don't deserve it (or don't deserve it alone) and are always claiming to be the first, the best, or the most significant.
Strategy: Have in place--or establish, quickly--relationships with the deans and officials who are responsible for faculty partnerships with industry and for monitoring academic behavior. Most campuses have expanded their conflict-of-interest policies, and you need to join with the dean's office in making sure they're followed.
"Demand documentation and question everything," advises Curran at the University of Cincinnati. Conduct literature searches to track down "first" claims. With these especially, PR officers at Hopkins and elsewhere get a second opinion about the research from others in the field and from the dean responsible for monitoring research.
"This is rarely a problem in the fundamental research area," Curran says. "But you have to be wary when patents and potential royalty income are involved. Is the researcher really interested in promoting campus research, or is she trying to turn your office into a marketing arm for her lab?"
You will need respectful firmness and a willingness to call on higher-ups if persuasion fails. Negotiate, but pull rank if you must. Let the scientist call the New York Times, but only if you can also send an institutionally approved news release. To hold down hype, insist on coordination from any outside PR firm connected to a faculty business partner and always offer to do the upfront work of writing releases and contacting the press.
One last technique: Use the strength you always have--direct media contact. "It might be difficult to come right out and say a faculty member is a publicity hound," says Curran, "but you can use more subtle techniques such as encouraging reporters to ask for recent papers and funding sources."
Challenge No. 5: The (Really) Shrinking Violet
Profile: This scientist buys in to the need for working with the press but is genuinely terrified of going public.
At Hopkins, these researchers have ranged from the gifted theoretician to the competent clinician. They've included the department chairman who was sleepless with anxiety the night before a scheduled press conference, the primatologist panicked at the thought of speaking without slides, and the junior faculty member who wanted a cosmetic makeover to build confidence.
Strategy: One thing highly valued in academe is preparation. Provide it.
Media training can be as simple as an hour of role-playing. Set up a session with the researcher, then come armed with information the scientist provides and a good sense of what journalists will want to know. Ask tough, provocative questions. In most cases, the real interview will seem tame by comparison.
You also can hire professional media trainers, particularly when legal, ethical, and political sensitive issues surround the science. At Hopkins, such topics have ranged from a breast surgeon's death from AIDS to the use of pig valves in human heart surgery.
If the scientist is really shy, ask one of her media-savvy peers to persuade her the training exercise is useful for presenting scientific papers as well. If a senior researcher tells a peer or junior colleague there are good reasons to work with the press, your challenge may disappear. [For more on media training, look back at "On the Air" and "On the Record" in the March 1992 CURRENTS.]
Challenge No. 6: The (Truly) Overwhelmed
Profile: "This is the poor professor whose stories are bound to generate a ton of media attention," says Chris Sigurdson, coordinator of agricultural news and public affairs at Purdue University. This scientist tries to respond to the press, but he becomes mystified and dazed by the demands of an enthralled corps of reporters.
"I'm not talking about the guy who balks after six phone calls and says we're wasting his valuable research time with this publicity nonsense," says Sigurdson. "I mean the scientist with true popular appeal. I mean the kind of story covered by reporters all over the country, including the morning drive-time comedy due on a Dallas radio station."
At Purdue, this happened when a professor developed a "kinder, gentler chicken" that got along better with other chickens. It didn't peck or eat its cage mates, but preferred to lay eggs instead. The story showed up everywhere from The Christian Science Monitor to Vegetarian Times. When the story broke, it took two solid weeks of the scientist's time.
Strategy: Save the professor as much time as possible. Use prepared Q-and-A materials, fact sheets, and audio- and videotaped versions of the scientist's responses. Use e-mail and teleconferencing to cut down on the time he spends on queries and faxes.
For stories you know will bring weeks or months of inquiries about medical procedures, consider sending out brochures to referring physicians, providing 800 numbers for readers and viewers, or even hiring temporary clerical help.
And treat your professors well throughout. Warn them in advance that the deluge might occur. Then, during the onslaught, stay in touch with them so they don't feel abandoned. "A note of appreciation to their department head doesn't hurt either," Sigurdson says.
Challenge No. 7: The (Truly) Underwhelmed
Profile: This researcher is just the opposite: She cooperated and her story should have played well, but not a single newspaper picked it up. She blames your office, and she's understandably unwilling to sign on to your next media campaign.
Strategy: When scientists and administrators complains about the PR office's failure, it may be because you oversold the opportunity. But it's more likely because they don't understand PR and journalism.
What's needed is a dose of reality in a pill the academic can swallow. You need to point out how the media work. Dennis Meredith managed this at Cornell University before he became research communications director at Duke University.
In a detailed memo, he explained why "media articles are necessarily limited in scope and size, and reporters must be selective, choosing only what's relevant to them at the moment." First he outlined what the PR office can't do--force reporters to run stories they don't find newsworthy. Then he moved on to what the PR office can do--identify solid stories, work well with researchers to make the news understandable, prepare compelling press releases, and nurture contacts with the media.
The memo met with good results, including one professor's apology for "complaining inappropriately" and a suggestion that Meredith spread the memo's contents further through a campuswide publication.
Challenge No. 8: The Genuinely Clueless
Profile: By this scientist's own account, "no one would care about my work." His research--on 17th-century economics or Chaucerian syntax--may be several theoretical layers away from any obvious value to the planet. Yet the media really are interested in the "gee whiz" aspects of his work.
Closely related to and grouped with the Clueless is the Missourian. This is the faculty member who says, "Show me why I need to pay attention to the press." a pragmatist, he wants a cost-benefit analysis on what's in it for him before he'll agree to work with you.
Strategy: Easy--provide it. Tell him why the public understanding of science is important to your institution. One of the best (and briefest) scripts comes from Meredith at Duke, who makes these four points to faculty:
Challenge No. 9: The Control Freak
Profile: This academic appears, at first blush, willing to work with the press. But on closer inspection, she would like to repeal the First Amendment and be assured that whatever appears in print or on TV is just what she dictates.
This is the researcher who is offended if a reporter rounds off a decimal point. One scientist at Hopkins actually exploded because a newspaper didn't "run the release exactly as I approved it." This person also demands to approve stories before publication. When told that she can have control only if she runs a paid ad, she seems interested until you tell her the price.
Strategy: A good approach is to offer examples of success despite the impossibility of absolute control--preferably examples involving people the Control Freak respects. Show her press clippings, talk to her about the importance of good media relations, and demonstrate the value of press coverage to funders.
Challenge No. 10: The Impossible Dreamer
Profile: This is the scientist who wants you to sell a story no one will buy. Moreover, the impenetrability of his work is directly proportional to the dean's desire to publicize it.
Strategy: With any luck, these situations won't arise too often. When they do, try limiting your work to writing a release or tip for the trades, the researcher's hometown paper, and your internal periodicals.
Also try telling the faculty member and dean the truth: that publicizing this research can backfire. If we generate vague, overstated, hyped-up prose, the media will lose respect for us--and the story still won't run.
As difficult as it is to be direct sometimes, it's the best way to build solid relationships with researchers--which is the best way to enlist their help when you need it. If we provide good service to them, more often than not they'll provide good service to us.
So keep this in mind the next time the Control Freak demands a news-release rewrite or the Shrinking Violet flees the cameras. Your job is to help your institution leverage its discoveries. If you do that, most of the faculty will at least tolerate you. And a few (gasp!) will even respect you.
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Joann Ellison Rodgers is deputy director of public affairs at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, an academic medical center in Baltimore. This piece is reprinted from the January 1996 issue of CASE Currents. Copyright 1996, Council for the Advancement and Support of Education. Some of the article was adapted from Media Guide for Academics, a 1994 book Rodgers co-authored with William C. Adams.