Environmental Factor, August 2007, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences

Panel Offers Tips for Talking to the Public about Science

By Eddy Ball
August 2007

Veteran scientific spokesman Hunt Willard related several anecdotes of his interviews with print and broadcast journalists — the positive outcomes, with such professionals as NPR’s Ira Flatow of "Talk of the Nation: Science Friday," along with the lessons he learned from some of his not so good experiences. This photograph shows him delivering a lecture on epigenetics at the meeting of the NIEHS National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council in February 2007. (Photo courtesy of Steve McCaw)

The auditorium at Duke University’s Bryan Center quickly filled with scientists and science reporters on June 22 for a brown-bag panel discussion titled "Talking to the Public: How Can Media Coverage of Science Be Improved." The event was co-sponsored by Sigma Xi, the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, and the Council for Advancement of Science Writing. The Science Communicators of North Carolina helped to publicize the event in the Triangle scientific community.

In the course of presentations, panel discussions, and question-and-answer sessions, panel members outlined specific ways scientists, public information officers and journalists can improve scientific communication. The panel included four specialists with expertise in science communication:

Richard Harris, science correspondent for National Public Radio, who reports on science for "Morning Edition," "All Things Considered" and "Weekend Edition"
Joanne Rodgers, executive director, Media Relations and Public Affairs at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who fields media inquiries and helps scientists prepare for interviews
Christine Russell, president of the Council for Advancement of Science, who reported on science for the Washington Post before joining Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government as journalism fellow
Huntington Willard, Ph.D., director of the Duke Institute for Genome Sciences and Policy, who has been featured in several national media stories about science

Although coming from different backgrounds, the panel members developed several core themes about how scientists can frame their messages to get more accurate and supportive coverage of science out to the public. They all agreed with Harris, for example, when he underscored the importance of speaking to the audience in terms they can understand.

"Don’t worry about being too simple," Harris said and recommended that scientists ask journalists to paraphrase what they think the scientist said. In her presentation, Rodgers suggested that scientists envision talking to their equivalent of "Aunt Sophie," the well-meaning relative with little or no training in science. Rodgers also outlined the many ways that public information officers can help scientists with their insight into individual reporters, their experience seeing science reporting from both sides and their understanding of common pitfalls in interviewing.

In her presentation, Russell referred to her list of Ten Tips for Medical Coverage of Science and Public Policy (http://www.ksg.harvard.edu/presspol/research_publications/papers/working_papers/2006_4.pdf) . These tips caution scientists and reporters about the pitfalls of sensationalizing breakthroughs and disasters and inadvertently misusing risk statistics. Russell’s tips also encouraged writers to put new research into context with earlier studies, avoid "dueling" experts and keep in mind that there is no single "public."

The Scientist’s Perspective

As the discussant and sole scientist on the panel, Willard described his sense of an "obligation to try to explain what I do" and offered suggestions that are in many respects similar to the ones listed by the journalists on the panel — but in his case framed by the scientist’s perspective.

Before meeting with reporters, understand the "agenda," which may change at different points in one’s career. Scientists almost always have an objective in mind when they talk to journalists — promoting themselves, their institutions or their field.
Prior to the interview, prepare two or three points to get across and make these points, no matter what questions the reporter may ask.
Think ahead about ways to explain what people can’t see, such as DNA. Try to make metaphors visual and commonly understood.
During the interview, use relatively short sentences, which are easier to understand and lend themselves more readily to sound bites in recorded stories.
Be careful about statistics. "For example," Willard noted, "you can say that we're all 99.9% identical at the DNA level, suggesting… that we're all one happy family of human beings. Or you can state the same information in another way -- there are massive differences between us, as many as 3 million differences between my DNA and your DNA. Same information, but very different message."
Don’t assume that the "public" understands basic scientific terms.

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