Articles are always citing some professor from UChicago or whatever, or some random NASA employee, for example. How do writers (or editors?) go about choosing someone to ask? What’s the process?
I don’t know about scientific fields, but the couple of guys I worked with who always managed to get their names in the press met reporters at trade shows and conventions.
I guess there has to be a willingness to talk and be in the press. They were also pretty willing to help these guys understand a little more about the biz. I have worked for meatheads who were so paranoid about the media that they wouldn’t talk to the New York Times for a puff piece.
Usually newspapers and TV stations have a designted set of “experts” on various subjects.
They ask the people who they have asked in the past, and who gave them good quotes and respected their deadlines.
I used to know stock market strategist Hugh Johnson. He would discuss the market to anyone who wanted an opinion. If a newspaper called, he’d answer, and if you missed him, he’d call right back so you’d have plenty of time to write your article. If you wanted him for a TV quote, he’d say, “when?”
Once one reporter uses you as a regular source, then others do, too.
As a colleague of those often quoted, I think this nails it. We had a high profile case that a local investigative reporter did a piece on. Subsequently, any time this guy needed a legal expert in an even remotely related field, my colleague got the call. Another guy I work with has an “in” with a local reporter, who would, similarly, call him for quotes. Unfortunately, this model can lead to “experts” who don’t know jack. This of course would affect the reputation of the publication. Still, the times I’ve seen or heard quotes used by these guys (commenting on areas of the law they were literally researching via google in the hours leading up to the call with the reporter) it was in local NPR, local paper of record type stuff.
Major institutions have a public information/media relations department that not only keeps tabs on what areas of expertise their staffs have, but actively works to get word of it out to the media.
Let’s say that I’m at some mid-size news outlet in – oh, let’s say Illinois – and I want to know about the Gulf oil spill. You might think no one in Illinois has any expertise in oil spills, but I guarantee you, one call to the University of Illinois will find the one geology professor on the entire staff who actually did his undergraduate work at Louisiana State and not only knows about offshore drilling, but can provide me with contact information for his old professor at LSU who at that precise moment is watching an oil slick wash up on shore.
So, if I’m working at a TV station, I can haul my butt over to Urbanna and get a home-grown talking head on camera, or if I’m working for a newspaper, I can call the friend at LSU, ask my three question, and get an expert’s quote in the next day’s edition.
Good media departments also run interference for their staffs, and coach them on how to answer questions in a way that the general public will understand, not like a paragraph out of their dissertations.
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Anytime the story is mentioned in any sort of planning meeting, reporters or editors who are in that meeting will often chime in with “hey, you should call X”. Get a group of eight or ten people together who have ten or more years of experience in journalism in the same town (as rare as that probably is anymore), and you’ve got quite a lot of ground covered.
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A reporter who works the same beat for a few years comes to know who’s reliable and who isn’t. Who gives good quotes and who doesn’t. A good source will also often say “You know who you should talk to about this?”
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If the reporter is starting from scratch, one usually-reliable course of action is to call a local university with a department in the relevant field, and ask who would know the most about whatever the topic is.
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In addition to colleges, there are also research institutes, thinktanks and regular old companies and corporations that employ people who may be considered experts in their fields. Obviously mileage may vary when using a new source, and background research is prudent (if not always done, of course).
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Finally, there are a few services springing up to help out reporters in this situation. One is literally called “Help a Reporter Out”. Another one, primarily used by public radio, is called the Public Insight Network. In addition to experts, both of these get “man on the street” folks with specific interests who want to provide reporters with what they know. Obviously these sources need to be checked out as well as any other unfamiliar source.
Great responses. Thanks to everyone! That HaRO link is especially interesting.
Just to add to what kunilou said, at least regarding universities.
Universities maintain a list of ‘experts’ by area and refer to it when they’re approached by a reporter or similar type who’s looking for information or, more likely, a sound bite. When I was first hired, I was asked if I wanted to be on such a list and, if so, under what subjects. Every year since, I’ve been asked to update my ‘profile’.
Media people like this arrangement since it not only spares them having to try to figure out who the experts are, but it also guarantees that the person they ultimately contact is going to be prepared to talk to them and not be antagonistic (“how did you get my number” or “I make it a policy of not speaking to the media”).
And, of course, the universities like it since anything that puts them in the public eye in a positive way (especially stuff like having your faculty member being quoted by the national media) is desirable from their point of view. It’s one way to attract donations, students, and even other potential faculty members.
I’m an ex-college prof, and there’s all sorts of ways we get connected to the media. I had a “close call” once. Many years ago, I responded to a Newsweek reporter’s article online and she called me. But I was busy and didn’t call back until the next day. Too late, she already had finished her article. I could have become known as an Internet expert.
I know lots of people that have done interviews- once. The reporter cuts and misquotes the prof so badly they refuse to do anymore. Never, ever trust anything the media reports about Science (among other things). They are just so clueless and stupid they can’t process real info.
And not all “experts” in the media are genuine, case in point. Nowadays, you just have to have a website that comes up high in Google.