Spotlight On...Geoff Pearson and Jane Green
(19 May 2017)
Dr Geoff Pearson, School of Law, and Professor Jane Green, School of Social Sciences.
What was your first media interview about? How did it go, and what (if anything) would you do anything differently if you had the chance?
Geoff Pearson: My first interview was a live interview on local TV in 1999 about the use of mounted police in football crowds. My first words were, “Well a horse is a big animal”. My friends still make fun of me about it to this day, so I guess what I have learnt is to not let anyone know when I’ll be doing a media interview!
Jane Green: I don’t remember the first one. I did BBC World Service election night twice, once in 2005 and once in 2010. My first live TV interview was in the 2010 general election from a café in Bolton for BBC Breakfast news. It went fine. At that time BBC Breakfast were based in London so I think much of the BBC saw Manchester as another universe (that’s changed now with BBC Breakfast in Salford), so it didn’t lead to any more interviews until 2014. What would I have done differently? Get up much earlier and be more ‘telly ready’ at 6am!
What advice would you give to academics who would like to increase their media profile?
Geoff: Unfortunately the media are rarely interested in the quality of your research and are more interested in the visibility of it. Blogs and a social media presence which media researchers can ‘Google’ increase your likelihood of being approached when your area of study becomes topical. An appearance on a national TV channel will usually lead to further enquiries later that day and once the producers and researchers know of your existence they will usually make repeat enquiries whenever they need content.
Jane: Contact a couple of key journalists/planning editors and ask to meet with them, ask your colleagues to recommend you if they can’t do an interview or don’t want to, and try to find an advocate; someone who will talk you up and suggest you. I also think it’s a good idea to keep your hand in. Sometimes I say yes to interviews just to remember how to do it (especially between elections).
What are you most enjoying about your role at the moment?
Geoff: I’m still enjoying conducting ethnographic fieldwork both with ‘risk’ football supporters and also frontline police. I spent three days last summer working in the middle of the Marseille riots at the 2016 European Championships and being that close to the action provided great data about how football riots develop and also led to a dramatic increase in my media visibility. More generally, I find that getting away from the academy to do observations in the field can be refreshing, exciting, and a nice contrast to normal day-to-day academic activity.
Jane: Well, we’re in the midst of a snap election. I’m about to begin planning and rehearsals for live ITV graphics on election night. It’s very exciting.
You’re interviewed regularly, but who would you most like to interview and what would you ask them?
Geoff: Currently I would most like to interview Alice Goffman about the controversy surrounding her monograph ‘On the Run’. Alice utilised ethnographic fieldwork within inner-city black communities in the US and made some really powerful arguments about the failures of the justice system there. However her methods have come in for a huge amount of criticism, much of which she has been unable to refute due to the need to protect the identities of her research participants.
Jane: Hillary Clinton. I’d ask her about the tactical campaign in 2016 and the Electoral College, and what she really knows about Comey etc, and then I’d use the interview as an excuse to say that one day I think there will be a woman US president for whom she will be a much-loved and hugely admired role model.