<!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN">
<html><head><style type="text/css"><!--
blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { padding-top: 0 ; padding-bottom: 0 }
--></style><title>MIT Editors' Club Minutes,
3/10/2004</title></head><body>
<div>MIT EDITORS' CLUB<br>
</div>
<div>*Meeting Notes from March 10, 2004*</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Many thanks to the Editors who attended this meeting and kept it
jumping with queries about everything from photos to video to tips for
faculty about working with the media.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>*Video*</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Hear ye, hear ye: send Elizabeth (yep, me) all story ideas about
MIT research that's particularly visual. Come to think of it, send me
all good MIT story ideas period, but I digress....</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I'd like to ramp up production of News Office videos about MIT
research, but to do so I need story ideas. The videos I'm referring to
are produced on beta tapes (so TV crews can use them) and contain
about 30 minutes of unedited (b-roll) footage that can be crafted into
individual stories by TV producers. They also have lots of other uses:
for example, clips can be run on plasma screens outside MIT
labs, and have been used in presentations by admissions officers and
others.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>I mentioned to the group that we work with MIT Video Productions
to produce these visual gems, and others quickly jumped in with kudos
for that office. For example, Catherine Avril of the School of
Engineering mentioned that MVP is now maintaining the plasma screen
display outside their office. As I think I've mentioned before, MVP
has a host of other services including a TV studio and radio suite. Go
to<font face="Lucida Grande" size="-4" color="#000000">
http://web.mit.edu/amps/facilities/video.html</font> for more info or
send a note to MVP Director Larry Gallagher at ldg@MIT.EDU.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>*Faculty and the Media*</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Heather Denny, the new communications director for the Libraries,
asked if any of us had "communications information" that we
share with faculty or other staff about how to work with the media. We
had several suggestions:</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--In fall 2002<font face="Lucida Grande" size="-4"
color="#000000"> Kathryn Willmore, Vice President and Secretary of the
Corporation, initiated a series of </font> communications
workshops for MIT communicators. (Most MIT communications offices,
including the News Office, report to Kathryn.) One of the workshops
was on the topic of "working with the news media." Go
to the following URL for more info:</div>
<div>http://web.mit.edu/commworkshops/</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--Jack Curtis of the Museum noted that Lesley University has a
great web site titled "What is News" that's through their
office of Public Affairs. Go to<font face="Lucida Grande" size="-4"
color="#000000">
http://www.lesley.edu/public_affairs/mediatips.html</font></div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--In 1995 I was interviewed for an article FOR RESEARCHERS about
how to work with university Public Information Officers (PIOs). The
story is below.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--A great little book on the whole subject is Media Guide for
Academics by Joann Ellison Rodgers and William C. Adams. It was
published in 1994 by the Foundation for American Communications. I
don't know if it's still in print, but the foundation can be reached
at 213-851-7372.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>--Please, as always, feel free to contact the News Office with
questions about working with the media. You can start with me
(thomson@mit.edu or 8-5402), and I'll get you to the correct
person.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>*MIT Photos*</div>
<div>Nancy DuVergne Smith,<font face="Times" color="#000000">
Communications Director for the Center for Technology, Policy, and
Industrial Development</font>, is putting together a poster for her
group and is looking for photos. Does the News Office have a photo
archive that she could explore to that end? The quick answer: no, but
we're working on it. We *do,* however, have an index of subjects for
photos taken by our photographer, Donna Coveney. If you have further
questions about photos, please contact my News Office colleague Mary
Anne Hansen at mahansen@mit.edu or x3-8608.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>The Publishing Services Bureau is another place to peruse for MIT
photos. Visit their web site to see their photo archive,<font
face="Lucida Grande" size="-4" color="#000000">
http://web.mit.edu/psb/</font>.</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Cheers!</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Elizabeth</div>
<div><br></div>
<div>===================================<br>
Elizabeth A. Thomson<br>
Assistant Director, Science & Engineering News<br>
Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br>
News Office, Room 11-400<br>
77 Massachusetts Ave.<br>
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307<br>
617-258-5402 (ph); 617-258-8762 (fax)<br>
<thomson@mit.edu><br>
<br>
<http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/www><br>
===================================</div>
<div><br></div>
<div><br>
[From SPECTRA, the monthly membership newsletter of the Speech
Communication<br>
Association, February, 1995, issue]<br>
<br>
Grantswatch<br>
<br>
GET TO KNOW YOUR P.I.O.<br>
by<br>
William F. Eadie<br>
<br>
<br>
Recently, I received a thank-you note from an SCA member whose<br>
research had been featured in a story that appeared in her<br>
hometown paper; as it happened, I had been responsible for<br>
recommending her to the reporter. She appreciated my efforts
and<br>
sent me another paper that represented her current research<br>
interests, asking me to recommend her for that topic as well.<br>
While I'll be happy to do so, I started to wonder why the public<br>
information officer at her university hadn't recommended her<br>
also. It got me to thinking about how many, if not most,<br>
academics in communication fail to have their research covered by<br>
their local universities, and so I placed an electronic "want
ad"<br>
for public information officers (PIOs) to share their advice<br>
about how faculty could best deal with them. I received
thirteen<br>
responses, from institutions ranging in size and scope from<br>
M.I.T. to Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri. Some of
their<br>
advice was similar, some of it varied by the kind of institution<br>
involved, but it was useful enough that I wanted to pass it<br>
along.<br>
<br>
All of the PIOs were interested in learning about faculty<br>
research, and all of them said that the best way they had of<br>
finding out was to hear directly from the faculty themselves.<br>
"Getting them to notify us is one of our biggest problems,"
said<br>
Ray Jones of Winthrop University. "Usually we find out
about<br>
things by accident, or via a dean, and when we confront them one<br>
on one, they say, `Oh yes, I did discover a cure for AIDS last<br>
week. I didn't know it would interest you.'" Jo
Parris, at<br>
Idaho State University, put it most directly, "What's the
best<br>
way for a faculty member to approach you to ask for publicity?<br>
Call our office."<br>
<br>
PIOs also develop their own methods of finding out about<br>
interesting projects. Parris reads lists of faculty research<br>
grants, Elizabeth Thomson of M.I.T. reads departmental<br>
newsletters and attends public lectures by faculty, and Larry<br>
Anderson of DePauw University attends faculty meetings and stays<br>
in touch with faculty doing potentially newsworthy work about</div>
<div>their projects as they mature. But, all encourage faculty
to<br>
make contact. As Ken Service of the University of Pittsburgh<br>
commented, "Whatever the method--phone call, e-mail, campus
mail-<br>
-the initial contact can be brief, even a sentence or two--just<br>
something to alert us to get back to the faculty member to follow<br>
up."<br>
<br>
Once you've made the contact, be prepared to explain to the PIO<br>
what you're working on and why it might be newsworthy.<br>
"Newsworthy," can be defined according to Bill Brophy of
Hartwick<br>
College as "Why should I care?" Chris Rutkowski of
the<br>
University of Manitoba put it this way, "Perhaps even before
the<br>
point [of the initial phone call], though, is to reflect on the<br>
intrinsic "interestingness" of the research you want to
pitch . . . Is there<br>
an `angle' that's really worth pitching to the media?"
Thinking in these<br>
terms may be difficult for many faculty, PIOs agreed. As Service
of<br>
Pittsburgh said, "Recognize that if you want coverage in the
popular press,<br>
your research findings will have to be simplified for distribution to
the<br>
news<br>
media." Ruth Wardwell of Chapman University goes so far as
to hold media<br>
relations seminars for faculty "in an effort to familiarize<br>
professors with how journalists do their jobs. That sounds
so<br>
basic, but many professors don't have a clue."<br>
<br>
Once you and your PIO have found a "hook" for your research,
most<br>
PIOs wanted to be left alone to be creative; after all, as Brophy<br>
of Hartwick commented, "That's what we do best."
Denise Horton,<br>
at the University of Georgia, shared a story of how Don Rubin,<br>
chair of the Speech Communication Department, called her about<br>
some findings that showed students believed they had more trouble<br>
understanding Asian graduate teaching assistants, even when they<br>
were objectively as comprehensible as nonAsian teaching<br>
assistants. As Denise described it, "Don was excited about
his</div>
<div>subject and was able to explain it well; and, he was willing
to<br>
take the phone calls from reporters that inevitably come from<br>
sending out a good story." As a result, the study was
reported<br>
in USA Today, Lingua Franca, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and was<br>
picked up by the AP wire.<br>
<br>
When should you call? All of the PIOs agreed: with as much
lead<br>
time as possible before a specific event associated with your<br>
research. Robert Conn at Wake Forest University indicated
that<br>
PIOs are happy to know of pending papers to be presented at<br>
conferences or articles to be published in journals--and that<br>
sending them abstracts with presentation or publication dates<br>
helps them to plan (all of the PIOs sounded like they were<br>
overworked!). According to Marianne Cianciolo of the
University<br>
of Cincinnati, "Timing can be everying." Calling right
before<br>
doesn't allow for enough time to find a "hook" and decide
where<br>
to send the releases; calling after it's all over is even worse,<br>
because then it's "old" news.<br>
<br>
What if you make the effort and nothing happens? Follow up
with<br>
the PIO. Not every story will "merit the cover of Time<br>
magazine," as Pittsburgh's Service said. "Don't take
it as a<br>
personal affront if your research does not turn out to be as<br>
newsworthy as you thought it was." Talk to your PIO.
Look for a<br>
different angle. Stay in touch. As Westminster's Jim
Muench<br>
said, "I try to get them to think about how we could best
package<br>
the story to make it catch a reporter's eye." Long-term<br>
relationships with PIOs generally pay off in more coverage, and<br>
who knows--it might even help the utility of your research<br>
program.<br>
</div>
<div>So, get to know your PIO. You'll be glad you did.</div>
<x-sigsep><pre>--
</pre></x-sigsep>
</body>
</html>