# Presentation: 075447

## Outreach Recommendations toNASA’s Earth-Sun Exploration Division

**Gail Porter****Chief, Communications & Inquiries**
**Public and Business Affairs Office**

## What I knew about NASA Earth science programs at the start of this project

- Not much.
- Other than a vague idea that NASA has lots of satellites and that it studies the effects of the sun on the Earth, I had not thought much about this
- In fact, when I give tours at NIST I have been known to say the following. “Some agencies like NASA have it easy, they can describe their mission in three words, We explore space. At NIST our mission is a bit more complex  . . .

## What I think I know now

- NASA has an entire alphabet soup of satellites studying Earth, all day, all night in every possible way
- NASA works closely with NOAA, USGS and other agencies to study the health of planet Earth
- Scientists may not “agree” on how fast the Earth is warming, but all the data says that it is warming
- Without NASA’s remote sensing satellites, the U.S. “would be blind” to coming hurricanes and other large weather patterns that threaten people’s lives
- NASA can animate %$#@*&^& near anything

## What I liked about NASA’s Web Site

- Lots of pretty pictures, pretty easy to find
- Lots of video, generally well done
- Lots of readable content on specific information, hurricanes, paleoclimatology, forestry, etc.
- Generally easy to find information that is not tied to a specific NASA unit
- Given NASA’s size, the Web site is remarkably well mixed. If you’re interested in a particular topic you get information on that topic no matter where in NASA that content originated
- Different types of content are available for different audiences. Lots of materials for teachers and students, for example.
- Generally well designed. Not too cluttered.

## What I didn’t like about NASA’s Web Site

- PDFs everywhere, including press kits
- These take longer to load, are harder to read, do not allow hyperlinks, or direct downloading of high res images, cutting and pasting text, etc.
- Mission mentality
- Acronyms everywhere. Heavy emphasis on describing the mission, versus describing the results
- Very difficult to find email addresses for press contacts. Provided on specific press releases, but otherwise must call during business hours. In some cases, even items identified as “News” do not provide contact information to follow up for more information

## What I didn’t like about NASA Web Site (contd.)

- Lack of dates on some materials like descriptions of “missions.”
- Extremely difficult to find information about the work of specific NASA divisions
- The organizational material has been buried so deep that I had almost given up hope of finding it
- Site seems to have been designed exclusively with the general public in mind. Very difficult to find specific scientists names and contact numbers
- Very difficult to find peer reviewed list of recent research papers that might be of interest to science writers

## What I didn’t like about NASA Web Site (contd.)

- Difficult to tell what work had been done by NASA Goddard and what work was done elsewhere
- Had problems getting the Goddard search engine to work at all
- Website requires reporters to call NASA public affairs first. Seems out of date given Griffin’s recent media policy change.
- Found a fair number of dead links over the course of 14+ hours cruising through the site

## Results of public library research

- Went to Gaithersburg public library. Asked reference librarian to help me find out about NASA earth science division. She referred me to www.nasa.gov. She tried the search herself but could not find anything on the division quickly. She then tried firstgov.gov. That didn’t work either. She suggested that I try surfing the site in more detail by myself. Tried using the library’s computers, but was limited by the rules of the library to one hour per day. Found some interesting stuff including the Earth Observatory site, but nothing on the Earth Science Division.
- Went back to the reference librarian. Asked for books in the library on NASA Earth science generally. Referred me to the online catalog. Found a few reports, but none were available in the Gaithersburg branch. She suggested I go to the federal depository library at Enoch Pratt in Baltimore.

## Results of other research efforts

- Did quick Lexis Nexis search of major daily newspapers for NASA +earth science. Got some hits in daily newspapers, but they were generally about budget cuts in earth science rather than about science results.
- Sent out 8 emails to general news media journalists, most with large national publications, who cover earth science. Asked them if they were familiar with the media relations specialists for NASA earth science, what did they think of NASA press release/web articles on earth science topics, were their calls to the office returned promptly, how interested were they in the topic of earth science generally, did they have any recommendations for improvements, etc.

## Results of other research efforts (contd.)

- Six reporters out of 8 got back to me——Those with the most interest/need for earth science information were somewhat frustrated. Not clear to them that there were NASA earth science PIO specialists available. Only one person offered a specific name of someone they worked with regularly and that person was an educator, not a PIO. Several described NASA Goddard’s press office as primarily “reactive.” They do their best to answer questions when asked but don’t necessarily let reporters know when important things are happening. One person said that on more than one occasion a referral by the Goddard press office to someone turned out to not be the right person and time was wasted trying to get good information.