PIO Forum

by Joann Ellison Rodgers

Joann Ellison Rodgers

PIO 101 (Part Two)

A press officer on my staff once spent several days negotiating press-release language with a faculty physician. The release described a study of social barriers to organ donation, which, the physician found, were principally religious misconceptions and minorities’ distrust of doctors and hospitals. But the researcher demanded that the release stay away from the words “religion” and “distrust,” because she feared they would “offend people.” The investigator ultimately came to terms with my press officer-and the more compelling demands of accuracy and news value-but, not for the first time, a scientist had come perilously close to making lemons out of lemonade.

Grizzled or graceful, we who are long-term veterans of press relations all have war stories, tales of frustrating encounters with Dr. No Way or his trusty sidekick, Dr. My Way. Arguably, however, the more interesting stories are about the negotiations, because success in our craft depends on the ability to persuade scientists that the press and public are worth writing for and talking to in language that as much makes sense to the audience as their department chair.

So, what are the elements of such negotiations? What brings the “war” to a peaceful end? Consistent success in any enterprise requires at least one fundamental, field-tested axiom, and we might begin with this one: Most scholars are teachers who want to talk, need to talk, and yearn to talk about their life’s work. That is, they desire, and deserve, to be noticed and respected for contributing knowledge. Veteran science writer Ben Patrusky, who has recruited more than 1,000 scientists to speak to journalists at science-writing seminars, put it just right: “When it comes to interactions with the press, every scientist yearns to be needed. 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.”

Several years ago, the magazine CASE Currents asked me to survey some colleagues and assemble a list of faculty “challenges” and field-tested strategies for overcoming them. In the article, I noted that some faculty receptors remain more accessible than others and few are easily opened without effort. And I did come up with a list. Here’s an updated summary:

The Scarlett O’Hara. This faculty member combines charming ambition with coyness. She nags often for “more” media coverage, but plays hard to get, responding only to the fifth e-mail, fourth phone call, or third plea to her beleaguered assistant. When you do reach her through sheer dint of perseverance, she holds your interview request hostage to her interest in speaking only to network producers or the Washington Post, and only between 4 and 4:15 p.m. on Sunday when she’s at her vacation home in East Overshoe.

Strategy: Gary Stephenson, my colleague at Hopkins, suggests the PIO “get her home phone, cell, and children’s phone numbers, and use them.” Spend some time explaining (with examples) that frequent regional coverage builds the credibility portfolio that will, over time, bring national media interest. Let her know it’s no problem at all to send the inquiring reporters to her chief competitor at another university. Jealousy is, for Scarlett, a powerful motivator. Use this tactic sparingly.

The Humble Pretender. Usually a full professor, he may modestly demur to “someone far more capable than I, even though I’m the world’s expert onÉ.” He’s the one who also will call to let you know that The Journal of Incredible Results will publish his new paper but says, “I don’t want you to think I’m looking for publicity.” He is.

Strategy: The Pretender is a frequent flier among press officers. If his modesty is truly misplaced (and he is the world’s greatest expert on a subject), offer reassurance that he can survive a press interview, along with a modicum of media training (“let’s go over some questions you might hear”). If he still balks, ask him to suggest another expert. Betcha he’ll agree, especially if you point out that the other possible sources may not hit the high notes as well as he will. Recognize that a bit of demurral is the sine qua non of professional face saving; scientists aren’t supposed to toot their horns. Be grateful when he calls, and ask him to fax the paper.

The Ubermensch. He’s brilliant and you’re not. No one but a Nobel jury of his peers is smart enough to understand his work and no description without stacked polysyllables and scatter diagrams is adequate for his theoretical constructs.

Strategy: This one is Exhibit A in your petition for firm institutional polices that encourage faculty cooperation and coordination in media relations. Deans usually are willing to establish such policies and give you some authority to enforce them. But you have to ask. Authority requires responsibility, of course. Let reporters know your reasons if you filter out profs who really don’t like, or do well with, the press. Be prepared to suggest other experts-even outside of your institution. The journalists will thank you and the Great One will never know he wasn’t asked. When the media request is faint memory, make a date to tell the Ubermensch that his unwillingness to communicate did in fact communicate one thing very well: disdain for the public’s interest in tax-supported research. Mention that this is not likely to warm the heart of either a dean or a fundraiser. Try again. Keep trying. Reformed Ubermenschen sometimes become media-relations champions and your best fans. After all, they usually are really smart.

The Friendly Skies Chief. This frequent lead author will be on a flight to Bucharest when the story breaks and he can’t or won’t suggest anyone else on his team as substitute. Or, he and his whole Department of Biblical Archaeology are at a seminar in a forgotten time zone when a trekker uncovers Noah’s Ark on Mount Ararat and tells all to CNN.

Strategy: Like a reporter who knows that the key to an organization’s inner sanctum may be worn around the neck of the last-hired substitute secretary, get on good terms with gofers, aides, and abettors. From them you can get hotel and fax numbers, international cell phone, and Skytel pager access and a willingness to wake up somebody at zero-dark-hundred to make an East-Coast press deadline. Better, of course, is to have known in advance that the conference was taking place and gotten all those numbers ahead of time. Chris Curran at the University of Cincinnati says she finds out where faculty members post abstracts for upcoming meetings, then scans the bulletin boards in her institution regularly. She also finds out who handles a department’s travel budgets, since this person knows who’s going where and when.

The Entrepreneur. This investigator has more agendas than a year full of trustees meetings, and some of them are at odds with everyone’s press policies: the institution’s, yours, and the media’s. She knows several journalists at major news organizations, has their home phone numbers, and courts their inquiries. She doesn’t care if she ticks off every other news outlet by “leaking” word of her new finding exclusively. She probably has a financial or other interest in a patent, discovery or company, and if her conflict of interest isn’t exactly unapproved, or unethical, it creates problems when she demands a press conference unattached to a published paper, or other press outreach timed not to science’s or her university’s interests, but to an outside company’s entreaties.

Strategy: If you don’t have in place, establish-and quickly-relationships with the deans, lawyers, and others responsible for faculty partnerships with industry and for monitoring academic interests. Most institutions have expanded and enriched their conflict-of-interest policies and you need to join with the dean’s office to make sure they’re followed. “Demand documentation and question everything,” advises Cincinnati’s Curran. Track down the validity of hyperbolic claims, especially when patents and royalty streams are involved. Follow institutional disclosure guidelines for press releases and if they don’t let the sunshine in, lobby to make sure they do. “You have to be wary,” says Curran. “Is the researcher really interested in promoting campus research, or trying to turn your office into a marketing arm for her lab or company?” To hold down hype, insist on coordination from any outside PR firm connected to a faculty business partner and always offer to do the up-front work of writing drafts, since that puts your institution in the driver’s seat.

The (Really) Shrinking Violet. This scientist is genuinely shy, even terrified, of going public. At Hopkins, the ranks of this category have included a gifted clinician who had a full-blown anxiety attack the night before a press conference and a primatologist who panicked when asked to speak without slides.

Strategy: Something highly valued in academe is preparation. Provide it. Media training can be as easy as 15 minutes of role-playing, some advice on cosmetics and tips on how to dress for an interview. When Hopkins researchers developed a genetically engineered mouse that seemed to be a model for male aggression toward females, the social implications impelled some formal media training that was worth the time, expense, and careful planning for such predictable, if naive, questions as “does this mean men who beat their wives are driven by their genes?” Don’t hesitate to hire professional media trainers to work with you and your faculty when legal, ethical, and politically sensitive issues surround the science. Finally, recruit help from inside. Ask a senior scientist with media experience to encourage the shy junior-grade researcher. If there are legal implications, ask the General Counsel to attend the media training session. Everyone likes to be a player. That’s a strength to exploit.

The (Truly) Overwhelmed. A Purdue PIO told me about the scientist there who developed a “kinder, gentler chicken that didn’t peck or eat its cage mates, but just preferred to lay eggs.” The story wound up everywhere and took two solid weeks of the researcher’s time in a press feeding (sorry) frenzy. The experience is enough to sour even the most willing communicator.

Strategy: Save the professor’s time whenever possible. Presumably, your good news sense will have forewarned and forearmed you. Use prepared Q&A materials, fact sheets, and audio or video versions of responses. Use e-mail and teleconferencing to pare the time he spends with any one reporter. Develop statements to distribute and offer to gather reporters’ routine questions in groups, get answers, and get back to the press yourself. When we know that a medical study will bring weeks or months of inquiries from patients as well as press, we recommend to faculty that they work in advance to send out brochures to referring physicians, provide 800 numbers or Web site materials for press and public, and hire temporary clerical help. Warn the scientist of what’s to come, stay in close touch during the deluge and afterwards, consider flowers and a note of appreciation: “I know your time is your most valuable asset. I appreciate your attention to the press and the public.” Yes, men like flowers, too.

The Trojan Horse. This scientist is willing to work with the press and you, but once inside your gates would like to destroy your mission by repealing the First Amendment. She wants assurance that whatever appears in print or on TV is exactly what she dictates, or she won’t “play.” Offended if a press report rounds off a decimal point, she is like the researcher at Hopkins who exploded because a newspaper didn’t “print the release exactly as I approved it.” She wants prior review of all stories in the New York Times and when told that she can have control only if she runs a paid ad, she seems interested until you tell her price.

Strategy: Offer examples of success despite the impossibility of control. Show her press clippings, demonstrate the value of press coverage to funding agencies and opinion leaders, help her prepare to get her message across so well that the potential for distortion is minimized, and explain, without patronizing, the role of the press in America. Our colleague Dennis Meredith has a “script” he uses with the Trojan Horse who wants a cost-benefit analysis of why he should give up control: Because by working with the media, researchers can help stories be better informed and more accurate than if they take a pass; because scientists read the newspapers, too; because news releases go to scientific journals such as Science, Nature, and Scientific American, too; and because a carefully prepared news release provides a black and white record of how the researcher sees his or her own work that can protect against charges of overstatement and misrepresentation.

The (Truly) Underwhelmed. He cooperated with you, the release was great, his story was terrific, and not one news agency picked it up. He blames you and your operations and is understandably unwilling to sign on to your next bright media idea.

Strategy: When scientists and others complain about PR failure, it could be you oversold the possibilities, but it’s more likely a case of ignorance about PR and journalism. If you haven’t got one, create or locate a short, concise “explainer” describing how and why the press covers what it does and why it may not cover what your faculty wish. (There are lots around.) Describe the process of press relations in terms of potential, context, and competition. Make clear that you and your office are determined to build a body of good stories and news releases that are newsworthy and likely to get attention over time. Resist the urge to scowl or ridicule. Recycle a good news release with a personal follow-up to select reporters who genuinely may have missed it or been distracted by other compelling news events. Welcome complaints, but learn to make lemonade out of lemons.

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Joann Rodgers is director of media relations in the Office of Communications and Public Affairs at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

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