Communicating Astronomy with the Public 2005

The Nuts and Bolts of a Good News StoryCheryl Gundy and Lynn Barranger

STScI Office of Public Outreach

Components that make up a Hubble news release package

Components that make a standard release package extraordinary

Good news release packages equal good news stories

• Good news stories stand out and will get you good news coverage (headlines)– accurate, comprehensive, but simply

written text– constituent parts (something for

everyone, no matter what their science literacy or interest level)

Good news stories equal good news headlines

Good news stories equal good news headlines

Good news stories equal good news headlines

Good news stories equal good news headlines

Good news stories equal good news headlines

Good news stories equal good news headlines

Good news stories equal good news headlines

Parts of a Standard Hubble News Release Package

• Press release text• Release photo• Supplemental images and illustrations• Caption• Astrofile (background info)• Q&A• Fast facts

Press Release Text

– Written text announcing and describing a finding or discovery.

– Usually 2-3 pages long. The language is aimed at news media (print and broadcast reporters) and the general public.

– It does not describe a photo, so it can stand alone.

– Based on text supplied by the lead research scientist (PI), but rewritten iteratively for news focus and style.

New Clues About the Nature of DarkEnergy: Einstein May Have Been RightAfter All

The good news from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is that Einstein was right — maybe.

A strange form of energy called "dark energy" is looking a little more like the repulsive force that Einstein theorized in an attempt to balance the universe against its own gravity. Even if Einstein turns out to be wrong, the universe’s dark energy probably won’t destroy the universe any sooner than about 30 billion years from now, say Hubble researchers.

Release Photo

– Photo illustrating the finding or discovery.

– The layout can include one or more images with minimal annotation and/or graphics.

Supplemental images and illustrations

– Artwork describing some phenomenon associated with the finding.

– Could be an artist’s concept (painting), cartoon, or line art, and may include images and more annotation.

– Based on input from the PI and/or consulting scientist

– Approved by the PI

Caption

– Text that specifically describes the photo

– May be some overlap with the press release text.

These are images of three of the most distant supernovae known, discovered using the Hubble Space Telescope as a supernova search engine. The stars exploded back when the universe was approximately half its current age. The light is just arriving at Earth now. Supernovae are so bright they can be seen far away and far back in time. This allows astronomers to trace the expansion rate of the universe, and to determine how it is affected by the repulsive push of dark energy, an unknown form of energy that pervaded space.The research team members are: Adam Riess and Louis-Gregory Strolger (STScI), John Tonry (Univ. of Hawaii), Stefano Casertano, Harry Ferguson and Bahram Mobasher (STScI), Peter Challis (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics), Alex Filippenko, Saurabh Jha, Weidong Li, Ryan Chornock (Univ. of California, Berkeley), …

Astrofile

– General background text, not necessarily specific to the news announcement.

– Based on input from the PI or other consulting scientist

– Could be a chronology of the research (which can’t fit into a 2-page press release)

AstroFiles — Background information

Chasing the Light from an Ancient Supernova: An Astronomer's Adventure

Ten billion years ago, when the universe was in itsinfancy, an aging star in a corner of space took itslast breath. This final gasp was a big one, a titanicsupernova explosion, which unleashed streams ofbrilliant light. As the blazing light traveled through space andacross billions of years, Earth and its neighboringplanets in the solar system were born and evolved.Humankind arose. Astronauts set foot on themoon. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope waslaunched into space. The light was still journeyingtoward Earth in 1995 when Hubble stared at a tinyspeck of sky in the Northern Hemisphere for itsfarthest look across the cosmos, called the HubbleDeep Field.

Q&A

– Questions about the finding are posed and answered in simply written style

– Allows an opportunity to add clarification, if necessary

Questions & Answers — Understanding the discovery

1. What is dark energy?

Dark energy is an unknown form of energy that radiates from deep space. It behaves in the opposite manner from gravity. Rather than pulling galaxies together it pushes them apart.

2. Did anyone predict dark energy?

Dark energy is a complete surprise.

However, Albert Einstein theorized the existence of a repulsive form of gravity in space that would balance the universe against normal gravity and keep it from imploding. Einstein called

it the Cosmological constant.

Fast Facts

– Specific information about the object/target and the data, such as proposal number, science instrument, exposure date(s), filters for observation(s), image compass for orientation on the sky, and a list of science team members

Fast Facts — Technical information

About the Data Data Description:The datasets used for these results are from

the HST programs: 9425 and 9583: Great Observatories Origins

Deep Survey (GOODS)9352: A Riess (STScI), J. Tonry (Inst. fFor

Astronomy, Univ. of Hawaii), M. Dickinson (STScI), C. Steidel (Caltech), A. Filippenko and W. Li (UC Berkeley), R. Kirshner (Harvard College Obs.), S. Jha (UC Berkeley), P. Challis (Harvard College Obs.), and S. Casertano (STScI).

• Everything posted to the website

http://hubblesite.org/news

Materials flow to our educational and informal science websites

http://amazing-space.stsci.edu

http://hubblesource.stsci.edu

Why do we go to all of this effort?

• Placing science and technology stories in the popular media is pretty tough! We are competing with the daily news (murders, politics, the war, health care issues). Science journalists need interesting stories to sell to their editors.

• Coverage of science and technology attracts funding from the private and public sectors for research.

• Science and technology news encourages students to enter careers in science and engineering.

The STScI News Team

Greg Bacon, Sr. Animator Lynn Barranger, Video

Producer John Bedke, Photo Lab Ann Field, Sr. Graphic

Artist Lisa Frattare, Image

Processor Cheryl Gundy, News

Production Team Lead

Zolt Levay, Sr. Image Processor

Mario Livio, Sr. News OPO Scientist

Ray Villard, News Chief Ed Weibe, Video

Engineer Donna Weaver, Science

Writer Skip Westphal, Photo Lab

A spice cake recipe is like a good news release package

• Spice is the key ingredient that makes a basic cake extraordinary.

• Images and video “spice up” standard release packages and make them shine. My colleague Lynn Barranger will tell you why video is such a key ingredient.