You might occasionally see NIH leadership in the news—like Anthony Fauci, MD, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaking with CNN during the COVID-19 pandemic or new NIH Director Monica Bertagnolli, MD, in an interview with The New York Times. Their media appearances help the public understand NIH’s mission and build more trust in what NIH does.
Media 101: Defining the Media Landscape, a training course from the NICHD Office of Communications (OC), was offered to NICHD fellows on January 18, 2024, to provide more information about the process of reporting science in the media.
Paul Williams, Director of Communications at NICHD, kicked-off the course with his talk, “Why speak to the press?” As we all experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic, science can be easily misunderstood. It is therefore crucial that NICHD communicates clearly and confidently about the public health significance of NICHD research, and speaking with the media helps NICHD gain access to large audiences.
At the institute level, the OC issues news releases and other articles that highlight NICHD research findings, and they publish stories about individual NICHD researchers. NICHD also uses various social media platforms and newsletters to reach wider and more diverse audiences.
But what is the procedure if a reporter requests an interview with someone at the NICHD? As a first step, always contact NICHD’s OC (nichdpress@mail.nih.gov or 301-496-5133) before proceeding. If you are interested in doing the interview, OC will help coordinate. If you aren’t interested and/or the request falls outside your area of expertise, OC can decline on your behalf and refer the reporter elsewhere.
If you accept the interview request, you will want to understand who reporters are and what they want to get out of the interview. For this, Elizabeth McMahon, MS, a writer and editor in the OC, led a session titled, “About reporters and newsrooms.” She introduced daily news cycles, deadlines, and the types of reporters you might meet.
In terms of scientific knowledge, reporters are often representative of the general public, and usually hold non-STEM degrees. A reporter would want fast responses to their inquiries, meaningful quotes, and information for the takeaway message. Typically, a reporter will not submit questions in advance and prefers responses that avoid scientific terms, jargon, and passive voice.
To help you prepare to explain your science to reporters, Robert Bock, Press Officer in the NICHD OC, presented, “Explaining science to reporters,” during which he shared essential points to remember. He suggested that for an interview, you should:
- Omit details and focus on the “big picture”
- Use simple words and active voice
- Replace commonly used medical terms with those that are easier to understand, such as saying “long-term” in place of “chronic”
- Relate scientific concepts to familiar ideas with metaphors and analogies
- Prepare 3 or 4 key messages or talking points that you want to get across
As a wrap-up exercise, participants of Media 101 wrote a press release headline using the abstract of a recent publication from an NICHD intramural lab. After the exercise, the actual headline was revealed and compared to what participants suggested. Summarizing a research study in one sentence, using only general terms, was more challenging than it sounds!
This was an informative course that is ideal for those interested in learning why and how NICHD communicates with the media, the role of the OC in this process, the media environment, and how to make your story easy to understand for general audiences.