Academia happily feeds the expert-hungry media

Florida's universities have become the source of wisdom-on-tap for a world of election reporters.

By BARRY KLEIN

Revised November 30, 2000

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 29, 2000

University of South Florida professor Dr. Susan MacManus has been interviewed more than 300 times since this state became the focus of the presidential election three weeks ago.

[Times photo] Among the most sought-after academics is USF professor Dr. Susan MacManus, a well-known political scientist.

She can tell when the story is about to take a new twist by the number of messages piling up on her c-phone. She can gauge international interest directly; every day brings calls from media outlets ranging from Dublin to Australia.

So what is it like to suddenly become one of the world's busiest commentators, the owner of opinions sought by everyone from the New York Times to Norwegian radio?

"It's exhilarating, but it's also tiring," said MacManus, one of the state's best-known political scientists and a member of Gov. Jeb Bush's transition team. "I'm spending eight to 10 hours a day just dealing with reporters."

These are exhausting days for a lot of university professors in Florida, whose collective wisdom has never been in such demand, and probably never will be again.

Some of the clamor stems from their genuine insight into Florida politics and the state's legal idiosyncrasies. But even the professors concede more of it is due to the media's insatiable need for content.

Florida State University professors have been asked to do live interviews outside the state Capitol building at 3 a.m. The University of Florida is using a television studio inside its football stadium to beam its experts worldwide.

"I got an e-mail from a professor who said one of his students had just seen me on CNN in Japan," said UF law school Dean Jon Mills, a constitutional law expert who estimates he did at least 10 interviews Tuesday.

This was before 2 p.m.

"It's been something," said UF law professor Joe Little, who said he is fielding at least 20 media inquiries a day. He says most of the questioners have been surprisingly well-informed, though he is growing increasingly leery of talk show hosts.

"They just seem interested in trying to spice things up," he said.

While much of the media focus has been on legal experts and political scientists, other professors also are managing to grab their 15 minutes of fame, and sometimes a lot more.

Alan Agresti is a statistics professor at UF. He said he has done at least 25 interviews since Election Day. He said even he was surprised to learn there was a worldwide demand for a statistical analysis of the vote in Palm Beach County.

"This is pretty unusual," he said. "In this department, we don't get much attention from the media."

Much of the credit for that spotlight has to go to the universities, which have been quite aggressive in hawking their professors' expertise.

At UF, for example, officials quickly posted on the university's Web site a list of professors available for interviews. It was broken down by academic specialty and included home phone numbers.

"The demand has been unbelievable," said UF spokesman John Lester.

At FSU, which is just a few blocks from the huge media encampments set up at the state Capitol, officials opted for a more direct approach.

"We went down there with our c-phones and our tip sheets and told the reporters that FSU was nearby, that it had a law school and that we were available to assist them," said Browning Brooks, FSU's director of media relations. "They seemed really grateful."

Although a few Florida professors have signed exclusive contracts with media outlets, none of the experts interviewed for this story expects to make a penny from the long hours with the media.

All said they consider their efforts a public service.

"If someone thinks I have something to add to their understanding, I'm happy to try and help them," said UF's Little.

But their greatest service may be to their institution, which gets its name drilled into the public consciousness every time one of them appears on television, radio or in a newspaper.

FSU officials said they have seen a significant spike in student applications since Election Day.

"We couldn't buy this kind of publicity," said FSU spokesman Mark Riordan. "It's been amazing."

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