2007-03-30 - 12:12 p.m.

...teranika the media hound...

I just spent this morning and the 2nd of two media training workshops. I'm only very rarely asked to comment on news stories, but each time I've felt woefully unprepared and panicky. In the end, I tend to do an okay job. But I figured that now was as good a time as any to practice pitching a media message. I should have learned this years ago.

The workshop was very useful - I realize that I can normally spent 2 hours in front of students, going on and on about a range of topics. But when push comes to shove, I just plain suck at the sound bite. So my goal was to be able to communicate a scientific message quickly and effectively.

The feeling that I have the most when I stand up there is that I am NOT the expert on what they want to know. But what I have to realize is that a scientist's definition of 'expert' is very far from a public's perception of expertise. I could explain more than Joe Q Public ever wants to know about hurricanes, but I am not the expert. I just read the literature. In the end, we conducted my interview about carbon credits, of all things. I don't know the first thing about the regulation of the carbon credit market. But simply being able to explain what a carbon credit IS was sufficient. Huh, talk about different levels of expectation.

I don't think that this workshop will solve all of my media problems. But it did serve as a pep talk, and give me context about the demands of radio, television, and newspaper journalism. It helps to know what the context is.