ASTRONOMERS AND THE MEDIA:

WHAT REPORTERS EXPECT

TOM SIEGFRIED
4305 Hidden Creek Drive
Arlington TX 76106, USA
tsiegfried@nasw.org
AND
ALEXANDRA WITZE
Nature
968 National Press Building
529 14th Street NW
Washington DC 20045-1938, USA
awitze@alum.mit.edu

Abstract. Journalists writing about astronomy bring varying levels of

knowledge to the task. Most rely on astronomers for help. To be most
helpful, astronomers should familiarize themselves with the practices and
needs of journalists and learn effective methods for presenting astronomy
via news releases, interviews and news conferences. In all aspects of com-
municating with the media, the ability to express technical findings in plain
language is essential.

1. Introduction

If a science journalist had to sum up briefly what reporters expect from

astronomers, it would take merely one word: Help.
Most reporters, even those specializing in science, have had little or
no formal training in astronomy. There are exceptions, of course, as you’ll
occasionally encounter an astronomer-turned-journalist. And the best sci-
ence writers will have learned quite a bit of astronomy on the job. But you
should always remember that the reporter’s job is difficult, and the help
you provide makes efforts to communicate astronomy to the public much
more likely to be successful.
311
A. Heck (ed.), Organizations and Strategies in Astronomy 6, 311–320.
© 2006 Springer. Printed in the Netherlands.
312 TOM SIEGFRIED AND ALEXANDRA WITZE

This chapter, then, will outline some of the ways that astronomers can
be helpful to journalists, enumerating some common expectations and how
to best meet them. These are generalities, of course, and precise needs and
practices differ from publication to publication and medium to medium
(and for that matter, from journalist to journalist). But there is much
common ground on which most journalists would agree.

2. News Releases
Above all else, journalists expect to receive accurate and timely informa-
tion about new astronomical findings. In the United States, this task is
expertly fulfilled by an e-mail service provided by the American Astro-
nomical Society1 . Astronomers, their universities or other institutions can
send news releases to a central address from which they are forwarded to
a comprehensive list of journalists desiring astronomy news. Almost every
working day, several such releases are delivered to the media, although only
a small fraction of these story ideas are chosen to appear in print or on the
air. (More will show up on various sites online.)
If a news release on your work is not used, you should not conclude
that the effort invested in preparing the release was not worthwhile. There
are many reasons why a release might not be used by the media – it may
not be of sufficient general interest, there may be other more compelling
astronomy news that day, there may be more important news of other sorts.
Most of the time, reporters will still appreciate receiving the release. It may
spark an idea for a story to be done at a later time; it may let reporters
know that you are working in a given specialty that will become important
in the future. Viewing all the releases that come in gives a reporter a better
perspective on how to write the astronomy news that does make it into the
media.
That said, there are ways to improve the prospects that a release will
lead to a story. First of all, a news release really should be in some way
newsworthy. For the general media, that means that it should be about
a development of significant interest outside the astronomical community.
The three key questions to ask are: Is this development new? Is it interest-
ing? And is it important?
There are many ways in which a finding can be considered new. It might,
for instance, be the first observation (of anything) with some new type of
technology or a new instrument. Or it might be the first observation of
some previously unknown celestial object with any instrument. It might
1
See, e.g., “Astronomy and the News Media” by S.P. Maran, L.R. Cominsky &
L.A. Marshall in Information Handling in Astronomy, Ed. A. Heck, Kluwer Acad. Publ.,
Dordrecht (2000) pp. 13-24.
 WHAT REPORTERS EXPECT 313

Figure 1. Paper on the final days of the Hubble Space Telescope in The Dallas Morning
News (17 May 2004).
314 TOM SIEGFRIED AND ALEXANDRA WITZE

be the first time anyone has witnessed some amazing phenomenon. Or it

might be some new data, or new analysis of old data, that sheds light on
some important question or issue.
There is another aspect of newness that you should also keep in mind,
and that is timeliness. If your release is reporting the publication of a paper
in a journal, the news release should be sent out, at a minimum, several
days before the journal’s publication date. Similarly, if the release describes
a report delivered at a conference, the reporter will want the release before
the conference. There are issues involved in this process related to the
embargo system (see below), but the general rule is always to let the media
know about a report in advance, not after the fact.
But new is not enough. There must be an element of interest in it to
people who have an interest in astronomy but are not themselves expert
astronomers. Is it the sort of thing that would intrigue your non-astronomer
friends? Is it in some way humorous or surprising? Sometimes the interest
can be generated by showing how your finding is important. Does it resolve
some longstanding question? Does it illuminate an astronomical contro-
versy? Does it bear on cosmic questions, such as the origin of the universe,
or of life? Keep in mind that in order to write a story, a reporter usually
has to be able to tell an editor, in one succinct phrase, why this discovery
matters. If you can help the reporter do that, the chances for a story will
dramatically improve.

3. Interviews

If a reporter is intrigued enough to write a story about your findings, he or

she will want to talk to you (or one of your collaborators) directly. For good
journalists, a news release does not substitute for direct questioning of the
scientists involved in the work. The best science journalists will also want
to read the technical paper on which the release is based. When sending
out releases, you should encourage the public information officer you work
with to provide access to the full scientific paper. (Or you should have a
copy of the paper available for any inquiring reporter, in PDF format for
easy e-mailing.)
When reporters call, you should be prepared to talk right away. Dead-
lines are inflexible for most journalists, particularly those working for daily
news outlets such as newspapers. A reporter may have literally less than
an hour to conduct the interview and then write the story. Fortunately, it’s
usually not quite that frantic, but most daily stories are researched and
written during the course of a day. So you need to be able to reply to a
reporter’s inquiry as quickly as possible.
During a telephone interview, it’s important to remember that the re-
 WHAT REPORTERS EXPECT 315

porter needs to record some of what you say verbatim, for the purpose
of including direct quotations in the story. You need to speak slowly and
distinctly, pausing often to allow the reporter to take it all in. And keep
in mind, even when dealing with a knowledgeable reporter you are really
speaking to the public at large. The reporter wants you to help articulate
the nature of your findings and their significance for a broader audience.
In other words, you need to speak in plain language, without jargon, and
use colorful and vivid illustrations of the points you are making whenever
you can. Describe your results as though you were gossiping at a cocktail
party, not presenting them to a graduate seminar. If, for instance, a reporter
asks what your latest paper is about, you should not recite the title – such
as “A Comparison of Stellar and Gaseous Kinematics in the Nuclei of Active
Galaxies” – but would say it’s about “comparing the motion of stars and
gases near centers of active galaxies.” Rather than “the orbital statistics
of stellar inspiral and relaxation near a massive black hole: characterizing
gravitational wave sources,” you could say “how stars falling into black
holes make gravity waves.”
Of course, you should make sure what you say is accurate. Deeper into
the interview, a reporter may indeed ask more technical questions that call
for more sophisticated answers, and you should reply at the level of depth
necessary to answer the question.
Still, to whatever extent possible, you should build your message from
ordinary words. Here’s an example of an actual abstract from a paper
posted on astro-ph, followed by a plain language version.

Climatic and Biogeochemical Effects of a Galactic Gamma-Ray

Burst
It is likely that one or more gamma-ray bursts within our galaxy
have strongly irradiated the Earth with X-ray and gamma-ray photons
in the last Gy. This produces significant atmospheric constituent ioniza-
tion and dissociation, resulting in ozone depletion and DNA-damaging
ultraviolet solar flux reaching the surface for up to a decade. Here we
show the first detailed computation of two other significant effects. Vis-
ible opacity of NO2 is sufficient to reduce solar energy at the surface up
to a few percent, with the greatest effect at the poles. This may be a
sufficient climate perturbation to initiate glaciation. Rainout of dilute
nitric acid is a primary atmospheric removal mechanism for odd nitro-
gen compounds, which can temporarily boost fertility in terrestrial and
shallow water ecosystems. These results support the hypothesis that the
late Ordovician mass extinction may have been initiated by a gamma-
ray burst, in that it was accompanied by glaciation . . . and followed by
significantly expanded terrestrial flora.
316 TOM SIEGFRIED AND ALEXANDRA WITZE

Effects of a nearby gamma-ray burst on the Earth’s climate

and life
Within the past billion years, there’s a good chance that an explosive
event within the Milky Way galaxy drenched the Earth in a bath of
X-rays and gamma rays. Such a strong burst of radiation would have
disrupted molecules in the atmosphere, depleting the protective ozone
shield. That would allow hazardous ultraviolet rays from the sun to
reach the Earth’s surface and damage the DNA of living things for as
long as a decade. We have calculated that there would be other effects as
well. The radiation would have generated forms of nitrogen-containing
molecules that would have blocked some sunlight, especially over the
Earth’s poles. That reduced sunlight may have triggered the advance
of glaciers. Also, acidic nitrogen molecules would have been washed out
of the air by rainfall, with the effect of fertilizing the land and shallow
water below. These results support the idea that a mass extinction in
the late Ordovician period may have been triggered by a gamma-ray
burst, since that extinction coincided with growth of glaciers and was
followed by a boost in the fertility of plant life.

4. News Conferences
If you are presenting your results at a conference, you may be invited to
participate in a news conference attended by several reporters. News con-
ferences can be very useful to reporters who are unable to sit through the
entire technical session (though some will). But you must not assume that
the reporters at the news conference will also be attending the conference
sessions.
Typically, a presenter at a news conference takes 5 to 10 minutes to
outline the new results and then fields questions. A good initial presentation
is essential for success. When you start out – and this is the most important
point – tell the reporters immediately what your result is. In other words,
put the news first! And then explain why that result is important. Only then
should you discuss the background behind your research, giving it context,
and only after that should you describe the methods and techniques you
used in your investigations. Then you should again sum up the nature of
the result and its importance.
Visual aids are helpful at news conferences. But they must be simple and
designed to illustrate one point at a time. It is fine to use a technical slide
that shows actual data points (with error bars) to establish the technical
veracity of your comments. But to explain the results and why they are
important, it’s usually more effective to design a slide or two specifically
for use at the news conference.
 WHAT REPORTERS EXPECT 317

Figure 2. Paper on the cosmic dawn in The Dallas Morning News (6 Sep 2004).
318 TOM SIEGFRIED AND ALEXANDRA WITZE

5. Other Ways to Help

Whenever contacted by reporters, or presenting to them at a meeting, it is
a good idea to offer them additional helpful information, beyond that con-
tained in your paper or talk and news release. If you have a web page with
further details on your work, provide reporters with the address. You may
suggest other astronomers who are familiar with their work and are willing
to discuss it. (Good reporters will always seek comment on new findings
from astronomers not associated with the specific research project.) You
may recommend other papers, such as review articles that provide context
and background. And you may even want to warn reporters of inaccurate
information you have seen on the topic (perhaps in other newspapers!) so
that they will not repeat previous mistakes.
For some publications, visuals (photos, graphics, artist’s conceptions)
are very important, and you should offer to make such visual aids available
if possible.

6. The Variety of Media

Always remember that the media are not a monolith. Reporters interested
in covering your story might come from traditional newspapers, specialty
magazines, radio programs, television shows, or even blogs. Each reporter
will have his or her own specific needs to ask you to address. Advance
preparation, as always, is esential.
Print may be the most straightforward medium. You talk to the reporter
at length, then he or she goes away and then writes the story. Dealing
with broadcast outlets may seem more intimidating simply because there
is a microphone or television camera in your face. In this case, it’s more
important than ever to speak in short, comprehensible “sound bites.” Don’t
be surprised if, after a news conference, a string of broadcast journalists asks
you the same questions you just answered; in many cases, they need a fresh
sound bite for their audiences.
If you are on television, remember to look directly into the camera at
all times. If you are working with a radio reporter, be prepared to field
requests for background sounds to accompany the piece – an audio file of
the sound of a black hole, for instance, or access to your observatory to
record the ambiance of the dome.

7. A Note on the Embargo System

In all of the above discussion, the underlying assumption has been that
reporters and astronomers are observing the rules of releasing news known
as the “embargo system.” This is a set of expectations imposed by certain
 WHAT REPORTERS EXPECT 319

journals on the authors of submitted papers, forbidding them to speak to

reporters until the journal is about to publish the paper. For the most part,
these restrictions are applied only by “media” journals such as Science and
Nature. If you publish in a physics journal, for instance, you are unlikely
to encounter embargo restrictions.
In addition, it is common in astronomy and astrophysics (especially
astrophysics) to post preprints of papers online well in advance of publica-
tion. Embargoes do not apply in this case, as the paper has effectively been
“published” already and is available for all the world to see. (A journal may
try to insist that the embargo is still in effect, but that is wishful thinking.)
If you are publishing in a journal that enforces embargoes, you should
realize that not all reporters have signed agreements to abide by the jour-
nal’s embargo rules. If you are concerned about breaking the embargo, you
should ask whether you are speaking under the terms of the embargo –
that is, whether the reporter is agreeing to publish the story only after the
journal’s official release time.
If, however, you have not yet submitted a paper for publication, and
a journalist inquires about your work, you should use your own judgment
about what to say. Some scientists would prefer for their work to pass
through peer review before commenting on it to the press, but others feel
a responsibility to the public to discuss their work freely when a reporter
inquires. Of course, if you have posted your paper on a preprint server,
there is no longer any justification in remaining silent.

8. Final Thoughts

If all this seems like too much trouble to bother with, remember that com-
municating astronomy to the public is a worthwhile thing to do. More than
likely your funding came from a public agency, meaning that the money
came directly from the taxpayers on the other side of the camera lens. It’s
part of your responsibility to explain back to them what you did with their
money.
Conversely, the reporter’s job is to report the news of science, not to
educate the public. Be available to answer questions about the context of
your findings, but don’t try to dictate the way that a reporter covers the
story. Contrary to popular belief, most reporters are interested in getting
the news right as well as getting it first; they have as much invested as you
do in making sure the story turns out accurately.
Many of the misunderstandings between scientists and journalists come
about because of unrealistic expectations on either side. Go into the pro-
cess with a clear understanding, and you will often find it a worthwhile
experience.
320 TOM SIEGFRIED AND ALEXANDRA WITZE

Further reading
Montgomery, Scott L., The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. Chapter 15, “Dealing with the
Press,” is an excellent survey of the issues that scientists encounter when
dealing with journalists.
Funsten, Herbert O. “You and the Media: A Researcher’s Guide for
Dealing Successfully with the News Media.” Washington, D.C.: Ameri-
can Geophysical Union, 2004. A detailed resource for researchers need-
ing guidance on communicating to the media. Available online at
http://www.agu.org/sci soc/MediaGuide.pdf.