{"id":1518,"date":"2026-02-06T21:13:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T21:13:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mitcommlab.mit.edu\/aeroastro\/?p=1518"},"modified":"2026-07-31T15:39:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T15:39:28","slug":"taking-the-pressure-out-of-the-press-tips-for-interacting-with-journalists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mitcommlab.mit.edu\/aeroastro\/2026\/02\/06\/taking-the-pressure-out-of-the-press-tips-for-interacting-with-journalists\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking the Press(ure) out of the Press: Tips for Interacting with Journalists"},"content":{"rendered":"

From: Journalist<\/strong>
\n\u201cHi, I\u2019ve seen your paper, and I\u2019d like to write about it. Are you available for an interview?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

From: Me<\/strong>
\n\u201cYes, that sounds great!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

From: Journalist<\/strong>
\n\u201cAwesome. Are you free this afternoon?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

From: Me<\/strong>
\n\u201c…\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Journalists live in their own world, a world where deadlines are on the order of days or hours instead of months or years. Because of this, you might find yourself in a situation where you are asked to give an interview on very short notice. I certainly did.<\/span><\/p>\n

I had recently published a journal article about my research, and I shared the news on LinkedIn. A day later, a reporter saw the post and reached out to me for an interview. I was excited – I\u2019d never done an interview with the press before! But I was also wary – I had no idea what to expect from the experience and I had very little time to prepare.<\/span><\/p>\n

When the day came, I was nervous. And my nerves were only heightened when the Zoom call actually began. I had expected some kind of small talk or introduction from the journalist before we began the actual interview, but there was none. Instead, she immediately began to ask me questions. Her briskness made me feel as though I needed to answer every question quickly, even if I wanted to take more time to think about my answer. This was especially challenging because I sometimes felt that she was trying to extract a compelling quote from me, rather than wanting to understand the nuances of the research. I was glad that I\u2019d re-read my paper right before the interview because it was easy to recall numerical results and major conclusions. I felt prepared for the straightforward questions she asked about the research, and I\u2019d taken some time to formulate clear and concise answers to those. But, when the interview came to a close and she asked me if there was anything else I wanted people to know, my mind went blank.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

All in all, the interview was only about fifteen minutes long. I asked the journalist if I could see the article before it was published so that I could review it for accuracy. She said no. That once again made me nervous, but when the article came out a few weeks later, I was pretty pleased with how my work was represented. I was surprised, however, to learn that my paper was not the only subject of the article, and that the reporter had interviewed several other people in the field.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since that interview, I\u2019ve had a little time to do some research about what I should and shouldn\u2019t have done in such a situation. Spoiler: I mostly did okay but I could have done better. Here are some of the tips I wish I\u2019d known before my interview:<\/span><\/p>\n

Tips for before the interview:<\/span><\/h2>\n