We researchers all wonder whether reaching a broader audience for our academic work is worth the time and effort. Here’s a recent experience that may help you decide.
On July 1 2014 I published a paper with Rex Cocroft showing that plants can identify vibrations caused by caterpillar chewing and respond with increased chemical defense. That day, The New York Times carried the story online; five days later a feature length story about our research appeared in the Washington Post; and a week later I did an interview with Robert Siegel on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.
The story quickly developed a life of its own, getting picked up by newspapers internationally and by major online-only media outlets. Even Rush Limbaugh covered it (more on that later). When National Geographic put the story on their Facebook page July 10, it accumulated over 12,000 likes in four days. Within a month, over 4,300 media outlets had carried the story.
What happened to make this story go so far?
1. Our Subject Has Broad Public Appeal
Plants are perennially underestimated by humans. They’re largely immobile and most of their behavior is invisibly chemical. When plants are shown to have complex responses to their environment, we are surprised. Even delighted. The 1973 publication of Tompkins and Bird’s The Secret Life of Plants captured the public imagination with its reports of plants responding with human-like emotions. Although most of the research reported in the book has been discredited, its popularity reflected the public’s interest in botanical similes of their own experience.
This presented Rex and me with both an opportunity and a challenge – do we ignore the analogy with human senses or address it upfront in the news release to control the message? Do plants “distinguish among vibrational signals” or do they “hear”? We chose the latter.
2. A Little Science Communication Training Goes A Long Way
Twenty years of teaching science to honors students – science majors and not – has provided me with great experience in explaining science concepts well, but it was no preparation for the simplification required for the news media. At a 2013 Becoming the Messenger workshop offered by the National Science Foundation, I gained experience and some confidence in describing my research to the general public. At several symposia on Science Communication at the AAAS Annual Meeting in 2014, I learned tips for communicating with the public and, perhaps most importantly, I listened to science news reporters describe how they find their stories.
