Associate Professor Marifran Mattson in photo from Journal & Courier article on her motorcycle safety campaign

One week this fall, Associate Professor Marifran Mattson's picture stared out at readers from the front pages of two local newspapers.

Mattson was using the local press to publicize a motorcycle safety campaign she and a group of graduate students had initiated. The Associated Press picked up the Journal & Courier article and distributed it nationally; Google News reports that 74 outlets then used the story.

"There have been so many benefits from the media publicity we've received about the motorcycle safety campaign," said Mattson.

Through avenues such as items on the Purdue News Service, listings on Purdue's experts page, publication in respected academic journals, or even self-promotion, department professors' research is often picked up by news organizations for distribution in mainstream media. Other times, professors are called upon to comment on local, national, or even international events. Each year, Department of Communication professors are quoted in hundreds of articles worldwide.

First, such exposure can benefit a professor's research agenda. For Mattson, her appearances in the press meant free publicity for the campaign.

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Motorcycle Safety Campaign

"People in the community, and beyond campus, have mentioned the media coverage and offered assistance to the campaign in the forms of volunteer time and monetary donations," she said.

More importantly for Mattson, who was injured in a motorcycle accident, the media coverage creates and/or enhances attention to the issue. If the campaign is successful locally, Mattson hopes to take it statewide and nationwide.

Such media exposure benefits not on the professors' work, but the university as a whole. Professor Glenn Sparks, whose comments on media effects often appear in dozens of news articles each year, said talking to the press about research findings is an extraordinary opportunity for both the department and the university to get what amounts to free publicity for their name and their programs.

"Purdue has a very active news service division that aggressively seeks to match professors with appropriate news sources in order to gain the widest possible popular audience for research findings," said Sparks. "Well over half of my contacts with reporters today are a direct result of the promotional activities of the news service."

For example, Sparks was contacted by dozens of TV and radio stations, and news outlets such as the Baltimore Sun, UPI and Newsday, this semester on the 9/11 anniversary to discuss media images of the terrorist attack.

Good Citizens
Dutta (left) in J&C photo accompanying feature story on his dinner for international students Sometimes department professors are the subject of "feel-good" stories. Associate Professor Mohan Dutta was featured in the Journal & Courier for hosting a Thanksgiving day dinner for international students. Dutta, originally from India, has hosted students at his home for five years. Dutta began the tradition because he said he remembers what it was like for him as a student when all his friends went home and he had no place to go.

Mattson said media coverage of her motorcycle campaign let the Greater Lafayette community know that Purdue is addressing issues that are relevant and meaningful locally.

Finally, such coverage benefits the consumers of mainstream media, department professors say.

Susan Morgan, Associate Professor, and her research into how the television and motion picture industries are scaring people away from donating organs found its way onto Yahoo! News and MSNBC. Later, dozens of newspapers, from a small town in Kansas to the Morning Herald in Sydney, Australia, picked up the story.

Morgan said professors make popular sources for mainstream news because of their extensive knowledge base.

"We've spent a lot of time doing or studying whatever they're writing about and presumably we have a level of objectivity about the phenomenon that people directly affected by it might not have," she said. "All that translates into the really obvious conclusion that we're (mostly) impartial."

Mattson at "Motorcycle Safety" promotion on Purdue's campus

"Speaking for myself, I'm the only one doing media studies on organ donation, so while some members of the public or different stakeholder groups may suspect that there's something wrong with what Hollywood is doing, I can provide information about what the actual effects on public opinion are.  I can verify or contradict hunches about what's going on. Reporters that I spoke with were mostly incredulous that people would believe what they see on TV.  But the public has no other sources of information about donation, so why wouldn't they?"

Sparks said in his area of media effects, "nearly everyone has opinions about the way media work -- including reporters who write stories about media impact. Many of those opinions are based on incorrect assumptions."

In order for the general public to get the information they need to make informed decisions, especially as modes of mass communication increase, it's imperative that researchers maintain media contacts, he said.

"In the end, it is far better for reporters to be talking directly to the people who are doing the research before they write their articles. The public stands a better chance of being able to contemplate which ideas about media have more merit -- and which ideas ought to be put aside."