[BCNnet] Birds, science & journalism

[Ryan Chew]

A friend of mine tells the story of advising Adlai Stevenson about how to 
get his message out on Industrial Policy in the early 70's, a decade before 
it became one of the hot topics in politics.  Stevenson's idea was to give 
an hour or two speech at a committee hearing, and expect reporters to 
attend.  The results were decidedly mixed.

My friend suggested that he try packaging it in a press release, emphasizing 
the important parts.  Reporters can still read the whole speech, but you've 
shown them what's most important.  Stevenson bridled at the suggestion, 
calling it "selling me like soap," but he eventually recognized the 
necessity.  You may lose some of the complexity in a press release, but you 
help reporters zero in on what's important.

There are good reporters and bad reporters.  There are also good and bad 
ways to get our message across to reporters.  It's easy to get frustrated 
about what shows up in the papers, and I sympathize.  But we can also 
improve the way we communicate with them.  Giving a detailed analysis of 25 
years of research is probably not going to help much.

Succinct press releases summarizing research in a page or two will help a 
lot.  Even if no article results, a release can educate a reporter to write 
a better article the next time.  Likewise, if you feel something important 
was missing from an article, a follow-up phone call directly to a reporter 
can help make sure they understand more of the nuances of an issue the next 
time they cover it.

(I'd caution that one or two informed callers will have more of an impact 
than all of us calling to complain.  Reporters will handle advice like most 
of us - once we make them feel defensive, we'll lose the argument.)

I agree with Chris that the survey was accurate enough to publicize - it's 
not nearly as difficult for experienced observers to pick up population 
trends among large, sociable birds and feeder birds as it is to document 
nesting trends for cerulean warblers.

But the survey is just a first step.  I interviewed a lot of people after 
the Christmas Bird Count, and almost everyone was very circumspect about 
West Nile, admitting that there are far too many factors for us to attribute 
CBC changes to West Nile or to spraying to counter West Nile.

The reporters and the public were sensitized by that first round of 
publicity, and that creates space for good science, well communicated, to 
draw a more complete picture of what's happening, which will help guide 
public opinion and public policy.  I'm glad Steve opened a discussion on how 
to get that done.

Just my two cents.  Let's keep talking.

Ryan Chew
An ex-press secretary and occasional free-lance journalist
www.chicagoriverpaddle.com

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