Feb. 11, 2012 lecture at USC by Denise Gellene, scientific communications lead for UCLA CTSI

1. Science & the Media:
Beyond the oohs and Oz
February 11, 2013
USC Keck School of Medicine

2. Denise Gellene
Scientific Communications, UCLA CTSI
dgellene@mednet.ucla.edu

3. Oohs and Oz

4. What the Public Thinks
Public Scientists
Humans and other living things 32 87
have evolved due to natural
processes
Favor use of animals in scientific 52 93
research
Favor federal funding for 58 93
embryonic stem cell research
All parents should be required to 69 82
vaccinate their children

5. What the Public Knows
% Agree
Aspirin is recommended to prevent 91
heart attacks
Carbon dioxide gas is linked to rising 65
temperatures
Antibiotics do not kill viruses as well 54
as bacteria
Stem cells can develop into many 52
different types of cells

6. •Inform Understand
•Engage Participate

7. $21,461,283,350

8. The News Process
• Breaking News
• Enterprise
• Embargoed News

9. The News Process
On Feb. 5, 2013:
• 423 public releases
• 83 embargoed
releases

10. The News Process

11. Factors in Story Selection
– Importance
– Impact
– Influence of journal
– High interest (obesity)
– Hot topic (bird flu)
– Entertaining, quirky

12. NYT, WSJ, LAT
Only one story appears in all three newspapers
– Scientists identify skeleton of Richard III (NYT, WSJ, LAT)
One story appears in two newspapers
– Tiny mammal is common ancestor to man and beasts
(NYT, LAT)
Highlights of remaining coverage
– Mentally ill more likely to smoke (NYT)
– Scientists convert skin cells to myelin cells (WSJ)
– Medicare patients increasingly choose hospice (LAT)

13. Hype
BREAKING cure for #cancer close says md anderson.
plan to “drastically reduce” cases & deaths n 5yrs!
im reporting excl details all day @cnn
Sanjay Gupta on Twitter

14. Cumulative Forces of Hype
e
re e as
ure su rel s
ss es ss s i on
pre ial pr l pre t ice c tat
tio n rc na rac pe
l ic a me u tio ia p ex
ub om st i t ed bl i c
P C In M Pu

15. Science Journalists
Kenneth Chang, NYT, Physics
Ira Flatow, Radio Lab, Engineering
Gina Kolata, NYT, Molecular Biology and Math

16. Science Journalists
Carl Zimmer, Author & NYT Contributor,
English
Mariette DiChristina, Scientific American Editor-
in-Chief, Journalism
Robert Lee Hotz, WSJ Science Writer,
English

17. The News Process
People who can speak plain English to the public
in common everyday language. If they can’t
speak very well, we go to someone else.
Scientists need to keep in mind that other
people don’t use their terminology in every day
conversation.
What has to come across is what the new
research or finding would mean to the average
person.

18. Plain Talk
Terms that have different meanings for scientists and the public
Scientific Term Public Perception Everyday Language
abstract vague summary
assay ? analyze
confidence certainty within acceptable limit
control authority untreated comparison
hypothesis guess informed prediction
mutant X-men change in gene
fitness health, strength reproductive success
sensitivity delicate accuracy of
measurement
significant meaningful statistically supported

19. Plain Talk
•Analogies
•Examples
•Vivid language
•Manage expectations
Sebastian Seung, PhD

20. Relevance
Scientist Journalist

21. The impact of free-ranging
domestic cats on wildlife of .
the United States
Nature Communications
That Cuddly Kitty
Is Deadlier Than
You Think
New York Times

22. Survival against the odds: Modeling the
social implications of care provision to
seriously disabled individuals
International Journal of Paleopathology
Ancient Bones That Tell
a Story of Compassion
New York Times

23. Clarity
• Everyday language
• Active voice
• Analogies
• Examples
• What’s the bottom line?
• Manage expectations

24. Becker muscular dystrophy (BMD) is a progressive X-linked muscle
wasting disease for which there is no treatment. BMD is caused by
mutations in the gene encoding dystrophin, a structural cytoskeletal
protein that also targets other proteins to the muscle sarcolemma.
Among these is neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOSm), which
requires certain spectrin-like repeats in dystrophin’s rod domain and
the adaptor protein a-syntrophin to be targeted to the sarcolemma.
When healthy skeletal muscle is subjected to exercise, sarcolemmal
nNOSm-derived NO attenuates local a-adrenergic vasoconstriction,
thereby optimizing perfusion of muscle. We found previously that this
protective mechanism is defective, causing functional muscle ischemia.
In a randomized placebo-controlled crossover trial, we show that
functional muscle ischemia is alleviated and normal blood flow
regulation is fully restored in the muscles of men with BMD by boosting
NO-cGMP signaling with a single dose of the drug tadalafil, a
phosphodiesterase 5A inhibitor.

25. Cialis Shows Promise in Rare Muscle Disease
By RON WINSLOW
A drug typically prescribed for erectile dysfunction showed promise in a small study in
treating a rare form of muscular dystrophy, a muscle-wasting disease that affects young
boys and men, researchers said Wednesday.
A single dose of the drug, marketed by Eli Lilly & Co. as Cialis for erectile dysfunction
and as Adcirca for a condition called pulmonary hypertension, restored blood flow to
oxygen-starved muscles in a study of 10 patients at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los
Angeles.
The treatment needs to be tested in larger, longer trials before it is known whether it
leads to significant benefit for patients, said Ronald Victor, associate director of the
Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and lead author of the study. He said it is "premature" to
recommend prescribing the drug to patients based on the new findings.
But if the promise suggested by the initial human study and a large body of laboratory
research pans out, it would amount to the first treatment for the condition, called
Becker muscular dystrophy, and a potential new approach for the more common and
more debilitating form of the disease, called Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
"The key is, is this going to translate into clinically meaningful benefits over time when
patients take it every day," he said.

26. Reporters Will Ask
• What is the result?
• What does this mean?
• What’s next?

27. Tips
Before the interview
• Background materials
• Topic, not questions
During the interview
• Ground rules
After the interview
• Offer to clarify
• Contact information