Finding experts research session

1. Craft Research: Finding
Experts
November 11, 2014

2. Who is an expert?
“Reporters spend their lives on the learning curve. They frequently find themselves investigating a
subject they know little about. If it involves complicated material — a public budget, a disease,
uranium enrichment — it can be a harrowing experience trying to write a story for the next day's
paper.
Reporters working on an investigative or enterprise story usually have weeks or months to dig into a
subject. That's not enough time to become an expert, but it should be enough time to produce a story
that experts would respect. For the most part, there's nothing fancy in getting up to speed on a new
subject or a new place. It's a lot of reading and interviewing. The best reporters are humble enough
to ask "dumb" questions (two or three times, if need be), smart enough to know what they don't know
and brave enough to let go of their first impressions.”
–Matthew Purdy, The New York Times, May 14, 2007

5. Tom Patterson-Research Director of
journalistsresource.org [watch clip 2:05--3:32]

6. Google Scholar

8. Politics & policy
Find experts--1 advocate and 1 opponent on
the issue of marijuana legalization

9. Politically-charged issue...
Legalization of Marijuana
keywords: marijuana legalization study laws

11. Marijuana legalization issue
Who’s part of the marijuana majority?
Link: The Washington Post 11/7/14

12. Health & science
Using LexisNexis, find an expert on a potential
Ebola vaccine who has been quoted in the
press.

13. Try these search strategies in LexisNexis:
hlead(ebola and vaccine) and atleast2(ebola
and vaccine) and (expert or professor or doctor
or physician) w/5 (say! or said)
hlead(ebola and vaccine) and (ebola w/2
(expert or professor or doctor or physician))

14. Thomas W. Geisbert
“There’s never been a big market for Ebola vaccines,” said
Thomas W. Geisbert, an Ebola expert here at the
University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, and one
of the developers of the vaccine that worked so well in
monkeys. “So big pharma, who are they going to sell it
to?” Dr. Geisbert added: “It takes a crisis sometimes to get
people talking. ‘O.K. We’ve got to do something here.’ ”
(The New York Times, October 23, 2014)

15. More Ebola experts...
Dr. James E. Crowe Jr., the director of a vaccine research center at Vanderbilt University, said that academic
researchers who developed a prototype drug or vaccine that worked in animals often encountered a “biotech valley of
death” in which no drug company would help them cross the finish line. (The New York Times, October 23, 2014)
The head of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota – Dr. Michael
Osterholm – is a prominent public health scientist and a nationally recognized biosecurity expert.
Dr. Osterholm just gave a talk shown on C-Span explaining that a top Ebola virologist – the Head of Special Pathogens
at Canada’s health agency, Gary Kobinger – has found that the current strain of Ebola appears to be much worse than
any strain seen before … and that the current virus may be more likely tospread through aerosols than strains which
scientists have previously encountered. (The Washington Post, October 18, 2014)

16. Foreign / International affairs
For a story on ISIS, name 2 foreign policy
experts/think tanks you've seen quoted in
stories?

17. Council on Foreign Affairs:http://www.cfr.org
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, and
publisher. CFR members, including Brian Williams, Fareed Zakaria, Angelina Jolie, Chuck Hagel, and Erin Burnett,
explain why the Council on Foreign Relations is an indispensable resource in a complex world.

18. Think Tanks….Are they unbiased?
● Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
● Hudson Institute
● The Heritage Foundation
● The Brookings Institution
● Peter G. Peterson Institute for International Economics
● Cato Institute
● Center for American Progress
● American Enterprise Institute
● Rand

19. NYC Marathon
You're writing a story on the NYC Marathon.
Depending on your story angle who is an
expert you would seek to interview?

20. Who is Mary Wittenberg?

21. Polls
Find a polling expert who can speak on
President Obama and job Rating polls
Opinion polls detect trends in the population
Polls and polling experts are often cited

22. Pollingreport.com

23. Polling resources
● Gallup and Harris are two reputable sources that
conduct polls on a variety of topics.
● The Pew Research Center has several polling related
sites
● The Quinnipiac University Polling Institute conducts
New York City polls.

24. Leadership Directories

26. 1. Google search: site:cuny.edu and hurricane expert
First Google Result: CITY TECH’S DISASTER RECOVERY EXPERT ILLYA
AZAROFF
http://www1.cuny.edu/mu/forum/2013/07/30/city-techs-disaster-recovery-expert-
illya-azaroff-helps-prepare-new-yorkers-for-hurricane-season/