Life on the moon, the nation’s political dyspepsia, and the environmental dangers of plastic were among the most newsworthy Washington State University research stories last year, according to a communications office analysis.
WSU writers produced and publicized nearly 100 stories on research in 2018. All told, they had a potential audience of nearly 4.5 billion people.
Virtually every major news outlet picked up at least one WSU research story last year. One story alone was picked up by Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, Seattle Times, New York Times and The Washington Post, while other stories saw coverage in National Geographic, Popular Science, Smithsonian magazine and the full suite of state media.
As it did last year, the WSU Marketing and Communications office analyzed every research news story distributed to reporters from the central news office or posted to EurekAlert, the subscription news service of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Each story was analyzed in the Cision news database, which monitors the vast majority of news outlets and computes their potential audience based on outlets’ circulations or unique visitors. The potential audience serves as a guide to relative popularity; the number of actual readers is significantly smaller, as readers and visitors rarely take in every story in a periodical or website.
The value of science, let alone rational thought and evidence, is not self‑evident. In fact, it is under attack. It needs to be reclaimed every day and at every opportunity, and media attention for the WSU research enterprise is a vital tactic in that pursuit.
Observations from the data:
- The story is all. News values like human interest, timeliness, conflict and currency far outweigh the usual measures of scientific accomplishment, like citations or a researcher’s credentials. Of the 300 most‑cited studies featuring WSU researchers last year, only three made news. The second-most popular research was by a graduate student.
- For the most eyeballs, timeliness may be the most important news value. The top stories consistently coincide with the moment a study is published online or relate to current events.
- There is no “WSU story.” There are hundreds. But while no single story reflects the University’s overall research prowess, the body of coverage demonstrates time and again how WSU research intersects with things that matter: the potential for life in outer space, family strife, the lives of ancient people, threats to our health and environment, and the power of science and technology to make life better. The stories fulfill a major strategic goal – disseminating our newly created knowledge – and validate the core message that WSU has smart people doing important, interesting things.
- Media attention varies widely across colleges, even those dedicated to hard sciences.
- You can’t make news if no one knows about you. The researchers behind the most successful stories alerted a communicator, often before their work was published (see “timeliness,” above). Conversely, several truly groundbreaking stories missed their media moment. If you’re wondering whether your work is newsworthy, ask a college or central administration communicator.
Here are the top 10 research news stories with links to news releases, potential viewership numbers, top outlets in which they were featured, and possible reasons behind their success. Other WSU stories are listed in order of popularity.
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Mysteries from the moon’s past
728 million
GeekWire, Air & Space, Forbes, IFLScience
The thought of life in space—in this case, on the moon—has an endless appeal and astrobiologist Dirk Schulze‑Makuch is continually conceiving of ways it can get a foothold. Combined with the fourth study below, about life on Mars, Schulze‑Makuch’s work had a potential audience of 1 billion, nearly a quarter of the news attention given WSU research last year.
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Another cost of 2016 Election: Shorter Thanksgiving visits
411 million
Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, Seattle Times, New York Times, Washington Post
Publishing in the journal Science doesn’t hurt, but WSU economics graduate student Ryne Rohla got nearly as much attention in 2017 with a working paper showing “politically divided” families cut their Thanksgiving celebrations short by an average of 20 to 30 minutes after the 2016 election. America’s political division is both historic and riveting. Rohla has corralled smartphone data and finely grained spatial voting data to see how our political dysfunction is affecting families.
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WSU Researchers see new plastics causing reproductive woes of old plastics
352 million
Gizmodo, National Geographic, Seattle Times, Discover
Health and the environment may be the two most common ways news consumers interact with science. Pat Hunt marries the two with her groundbreaking work on the estrogen-disrupting effects on plastic.
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Life always finds a way
274 million
More Schulze‑Makuch. See above.
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WSU researchers build -300ºF alien ocean to test NASA outer space submarine
233 million
Space.com, Popular Science, New York Post, Air & Space Smithsonian
The headline kind of says it all.
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Fungus provides powerful medicine in fighting honeybee viruses
177 million
Seattle Times, Spokesman‑Review, IFLScience
Just as polar bears are charismatic megafauna, honeybees are charismatic macrofauna, making them compelling players in the environmental drama known as Colony Collapse Disorder. The College of Agricultural, Human, and Natural Resource Sciences broke out several eye‑catching stories last year, led by this one from Scott Weybright.
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Assessing how cannabis affects emotional well‑being
145 million
Cannabis is a hot topic. More than 70 WSU researchers are capitalizing on Washington’s role as one of the first states to legalize non‑medical marijuana. It showed in several high profile stories.
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Interior northwest Indians used tobacco long before European contact
139 million
Smithsonian, Seattle Times, Discover, Columbian, Northwest Public Broadcasting
“Long‑held View Upended” is the “Man Bites Dog” story of science.
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Battle for Spinach: Tiny crop, huge value, no virgin soil, big trouble
(also posted as The race to protect Pacific Northwest spinach seed)
116 million
Never doubt that a single news reporter can get you tons of coverage. One story in the Spokesman‑Review found its way to more than 60 outlets.
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Dramatic decline in genetic diversity of Northwest salmon
98 million
Yale Environment 360, Science Online, Oregon Public Broadcasting
We know salmon have been taking it on the chin. Now we learn that their genes have too.
- New study reveals how shift work disrupts metabolism
- Cacao analysis dates domesticated chocolate trees back 3,600 years
- WSU researchers focusing on range of cannabis health issues
- Clif Bar & Company and King Arthur Flour establish $1.5 million Organic Endowment for WSU Bread Lab
- Cognitive changes in offspring of heavy cannabis‑using rats documented
- Researchers develop smart phone for quicker infection testing
- Computer chip vulnerabilities discovered by WSU researchers
- WSU researchers use coal waste to create sustainable concrete
- New nanoparticles wait to release drugs, target infection
- Reverse engineering reveals pine tree’s chemical production — worth billions
- Researchers find new way to estimate magma beneath Yellowstone supervolcano
- Sexual harassment, gender stereotypes prevalent among youth
- 3D‑printed glucose biosensors created by WSU
- How plastic waste moves in the environment
- Six feet under: Deep soil can hold much of the Earth’s carbon
- Researchers use recycled carbon fiber to improve permeable pavement
- WSU Spokane researchers develop potential drugs to help curb smoking
- Host plants tell insects when to grow longer wings and migrate
- Early warning system for deadly amphibian pathogen
- WSU researchers develop sugar‑powered sensor to detect, prevent disease
- Emotional suppression has negative outcomes on children
- Catalyst advance could lead to economical fuel cells
- Researchers develop one‑step, 3D printing for multi‑material projects
- Epigenetics study helps focus search for autism risk factors
- Researchers map DNA damage links to onset of skin cancer
- Researcher warns of possible reprise of worst known drought, famine
- PTSD rate among prison employees equals that of war veterans
- Measuring the value of ‘imaginativeness’ in new business success
- Salmon face double whammy from toxic stormwater
- Wine’s origin might affect acceptable price more than taste
- Researchers use single‑atom catalyst, convert CO to CO2
- Environmentally friendly farming practices used by nearly 1/3 of world’s farms
- Positive policing changes after cannabis legalization seen by WSU researchers
- Cancer‑fighting drugs also help plants fight disease
- Monarchs ride west coast winds: Proof of butterfly migration
- Chronic pain remains the same or gets better after stopping opioid treatment
- Study shows promise in preventing heart disease in cancer survivors
- Genetic mutation drives tumor regression in Tasmanian devils
- New technique developed to understand nanoscale biology
- Fair classroom practices disarm threat of evaluation retaliation against teachers
- Tiny Samurai wasps deployed to fight stink bug invasion
- Climate change affects breeding birds
- New tool lets citizens help reveal toxic cause of salmon death
- Improving information security by giving employees options
- WSU researchers extract nicotine from ancient dental plaque for the first time
- Green technologies friendly to environment, profits
- Rural youth with mild head injuries face higher medical costs, less care
- Discovery opens door to efficient research model
- WSU scientists clone virus to help stop overwhelming grape disease
- Fair classroom practices disarm threat of evaluation retaliation against teachers
- WSU to lead new Center for Alzheimer’s Research in Native People
- New method could open path to hydrogen economy
- How sleep works in the brain — WSU researchers discover clues
- Study focuses on impacts of 12‑hour shifts on nurses
- WSU professor lands $500,000 grant to pursue lignin to biofuel conversion
- Natural cures combined with biomedical devices prompt bone health, growth
- Self‑managed health care technology should consider chronic disease patients’ values
- WSU research heads to International Space Station
- WSU receives $1 million from Keck Foundation to develop self‑replicating materials
- Crop‑saving soil tests now at farmers’ fingertips
- Sodium battery research could provide cheap, effective lithium alternative
- More than half of marijuana users think it is safe to drive high
- New WSU disease surveillance research points to targeted vaccination campaigns to fight endemic foot‑and‑mouth disease in rural East African cattle
- Blending art, science to reverse biomedical career shortage
- Volcanic microbes reveal how humans adjusted to atmosphere change
- Researchers target on‑site treatments for contaminated soils
- Coho salmon die, chum salmon survive in stormwater runoff
- WSU researchers use gold to target, kill cancer cells with less drugs
- Plants that fight back: WSU researchers combat parasitic worm
- New building system using construction waste explored
- Sagebrush hospitality: a home for good bugs can save vineyards
- Being overweight increases odds of chronic pain
- Self‑fertilizing fish reveal surprising genetic diversity
- Aging infrastructure: WSU economist finds best ways to help ag crops flow
- Renewable energy offers common ground for Democrats, Republicans
- WSU researchers establish new tool to study Cryptosporidium in healthy tissues
- Sleep study targets brain processes causing poor decision‑making
- WSU Tri‑Cities team researching use of fungi to restore native plant populations
- WSU/UI team receives USDA grant to lead national milk conference
