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Work with the media
Dr Patricia Whitelock
Astronomer at the South African Astronomical Observatory, Cape Town, South Africa
There is in my mind no doubt whatever that astronomers need to communicate with the media. Our salaries and research funds are paid out of taxes and the media are our main communication link with those who foot that bill.
Journalists are often intimidated and/or frightened by scientists - I once did an interview with a very young journalist who was literally shaking when he started speaking to me. Turns out his editor had insisted he do the interview, he had not been good at science at school and expected me to be aggressive, arrogant and incomprehensible. We talked for a long time and he eventually it was clear that he was enjoying the whole thing - and he was far from stupid but had preconceived ideas about scientists.
If you are nervous, as a young scientist being interviewed by a journalist, it is worth remembering that they are almost certainly MUCH more frightened of you then you are of them.
So one of the most important things for each "side" is to put the other person at ease - just chat like a normal person and try to find something a little in common, anything from the weather to soccer will do.
Whatever the story is you want to tell it is important to find some aspect of it that the media rep can relate to - a slant they believe will fit their viewers or readership. Unless you have something really striking, like the most distant galaxy or the most massive black hole, the chances are that they will not be able to relate to the discovery as important in its own right - don't worry about it! They may latch on to one of your students, who looks or talks more like their readership than you do, if so encourage them, it will do no harm and may attract more youngsters to the field. You and the journalist can probably find a slant that will work by talking around different aspects of the story.
Many journalists are much more interested in the human story than the science one. While that is not ideal you can still use it to your advantage to get the message across. If you have something exciting get excited and jump up and down!
If at all possible you need to think of a reason why the person in the street would care about your result - not always easy, but usually possible. Do as much simplification as you can, and look for analogies that people can relate to. Big numbers don't work and 10 to the power something or other is meaningless to the average journalist.
A picture is worth a thousand words, but graphs and spectra are totally unacceptable so there is no point in trying to use them. Describing a spectrum as a "stellar fingerprint" makes a good analogy, but even at ESO where the European audience, is usually much better educated then the African one, they find the newspapers will not show spectra.
Never get cross, even when they can't tell the difference between a star and a planet or astrology and astronomy - they are no different from most members of the public (or most politicians). Explain the difference and, while I would always be dismissive of astrology, it is usually better to laugh about it than to try a full scale attack. It is so easy to come across as arrogant.
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