Media Awareness ;   Disasters bring recognition

By Bob Johnson, P.E., S.E

Engineers face a significant problem of public awareness.  Engineers are not prone to boasting of their achievements.  The subject of engineering reports in the press, outside of coverage of engineering failures, such as a building or bridge collapse is limited.  We would like to interact with the media with positive, 'good news' stories.  Numerous engineering societies including the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Consulting Engineers Council (ACEC), National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE), American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES) and the Structural Engineers Association of Illinois (SEAOI) have attempted media campaigns with limited success to foster a better understanding of the positive aspects of the largely invisible profession of engineering.

THE INVISIBLE PROFESSION

A past report by the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) stated that engineering is referred to as the 'Invisible Profession' as the public has little understanding as to what a professional engineer does. Some engineers have begun resorting to calling themselves the 'Stealth Profession'. Just as the 'stealth' B2 bomber is invisible so is their profession.   In a past Gallup poll commissioned by ACEC, 1 in 3 adults could not answer what a professional engineer does!  In Chicago, the Illinois Society of Professional Engineers (ISPE), Consulting Engineers Council of Illinois (CECI) and SEAOI all have tried to get some 'good press'.  Bob Johnson, communication director for the National Engineers Week\ -Illinois observance (every February) and PR chair for SEAOI states, "I repeatedly send out press releases to the Chicago media on topical engineering stories.  I would have hoped that representatives from the media would attend our functions to report on noteworthy engineering topics."  Stories during NATIONAL ENGINEERS WEEK are sporadic at best.  In a message to the membership of ASCE, Illinois section, past president William Macaitis states, "Appearances of the engineering profession in the electronic and printed media are typically restricted to negative bashings designed to stimulate the sale of newspapers (see ASCE, Illinois Section NEWS, January 1988)  SEAOI PR Chairman Johnson reports, "In my conversation with media personalities they comment, you need a 'hook or an angle', to get media coverage."  In a 'reverse press' conference where the public was allowed to face the media and question how to get into the press Chicago Tribune managing editor, F. Richard Ciccone said, "Bad news is News." (September  21, 1994 at Roosevelt University, Chicago). In an unpublished letter to the Chicago SUN-TIMES structural engineer Robert Steiner wrote, "Come on now, ladies and gentlemen, do we structural engineers have to make a big splash, create a media event perhaps by dropping some I-beams from a tall building to get some attention?  The problem  is, you see that we are of a quite different breed, too rational for the contemporary high powered PR stuff.  our nature -- and our education has continued us to concern ourselves with the job at hand,  without regard to publicity.  Because of this fact, we are taken for granted and ignored."  Speaking of recognition, Brendan Gill, the  well-known  architectural  writer  whose  pieces  have appeared in the New YorkerMagazine and elsewhere recently stated, "One of the things I feel strongly about is the scandal of the absence of the recognition going to engineers". (see Commentary in Concrete Construction, May 1994. Volume 16 Number 5)

Writing to Bob Johnson about the lack of 'good press', Dennis Byrne, editorial writer for the Chicago SUN-TIMES comments, "I understand your frustration in getting your concerns expressed publicly, outside of the context of failures in technology.  In a former position as science and technology reporter for the SUN-TIMES  and public relations director for a large technology company, I understand the difficulty in interesting people in the day-day activities of scientists and engineers."  In a commentary in the Chicago SUN-TIMES, ABC News Commentator Jeff Greenfield wrote, "It's tough to make good news stick." Greenfield concludes his editorial by stating, "And we are all the losers for it."

Engineers would appreciate hearing your comments how we might achieve better reporting of positive aspects of our profession.  How might we make as Jeff Greenfield expressed, make our stories stick.  We believe a responsible press' duty is not only to report the news (bad but also good) and to inform and educate its readership.

Bob Johnson, P.E., S.E
  

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For your information you are invited to contact the following engineering organizations for additional information:

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS ASSOCIATION OF ILLINOIS
645 N.  Michigan  Suite   540                        
Chicago, IL  60611                            
TEL   312-649-4600
Elizabeth O’Connor, Executive Director 
http://www.seaoi.org       
                                       

NATIONAL ENGINEERS WEEK
National Society of Professional Engineers
1420 King Street                                                                    
Alexandria Virginia  22314
Telephone:  703-684-2800
Attention:  Leslie Collins,  Anne Squire
http://www.eweek.org,   http://www.nspe.org

American Association of Engineering Societies
1111 19th Street,  NW   Suite 608
Washington, DC   20036-3690
Telephone:  202-296-2237
http://www.aaes.org

American Consulting Engineers Council
1015 15th Street NW,   Suite 802
Washington, DC  20005
Telephone (202) 347-7474
http://www.acec.org                                                

ASCE World Headquarters
1801 Alexander Bell Drive
Reston, Virginia 20191-4400
(800) 548-2723 toll free
(703) 295-6300 international
(703) 295-6222 fax
(703) 295-6444 faxback
Jane Howell,  Media  (703) 295-6403  
http://www.asce.org