“Dear Hanny, I wanted to ask whether you would be happy to talk to journalists. I think the fact that an armchair astronomer has made such a discovery is likely to cause quite a bit of interest – would you be up for doing radio or TV interviews if it was possible to arrange this?”
Asked Pete, our helpful press officer in Oxford, before that interest started. Chris had asked me the same thing earlier. He warned me lots of reporters would call me, if I was OK with being in the media. And he added that it would be good for the project, but that it was my call. Obviously I didn’t mind.
The first few interviews I did were international and just a few over a relatively long period of time. For science magazines who had happened to come across the Galaxy Zoo site, I guess. So not the madness I was warned for really. But after the interview for BBC’s Sky at Night and the Dutch press hearing about that, it turned out Chris was right after all.
Since then and until now, it became quieter, but never silent. Which is good. It’s fun to see your face in papers, on the internet and TV though. And the TV show De Wereld Draait Door was a lot of fun to do as well. There’s an amazing team working there, which made me feel very welcome right away. The presenter, Matthijs van Nieuwkerk, was genuinely interested and that live interview was never rehearsed. We only had a chat when I was ‘in the make-up’. (I never really wear a lot of make-up, but this woman was an artist!) All the guests had dinner there (including the whole band of Guus Meeuwis – their new single gave me goose bumps!) and we had drinks afterwards too. And yeah, I’ve been told a million people watch that show, but it was too much fun to be nervous.
So, is there a downside to this hobby? No, not that I can think of really. Even if I have to travel, everything is always taken care of very well and I like travelling anyway. The journalists I’ve spoken to so far have always been nice (even if they had some facts wrong in their newspapers) and people always like hearing about it at birthday parties and such. Another upside is the photographers coming to my house. The shoots are fun to do (I have patience and don’t mind standing still – in this case). Sometimes they let you do nice stuff like risking breaking every bone in your body to look over the telescope. Another good one I remember was for the cover of Intermediair. That guy turned my living room into a studio. You can see the results of this on page three by the way.
I hope this piece gives a little ‘inside’ to people wondering what it is like to be in the press a lot. I like doing all of this. But I’d also like to make clear that even though it’s nice to hear that people think you’re doing a great job at spreading the word too, the best part is that I am able to tell the world about this great project, which brings science closer to ‘the public’, ‘cause that’s what it’s really about.
Here I’m at the BBC studio in Gloucester to record an interview with the American NPR.
Credit: Edd Edmondson.
This is a screen image of Matthijs van Nieuwkerk interviewing me.
In the background you can see the interview with Patrick Moore.
My living room turned into a photo studio. Credit: Hanny van Arkel.
The magazine.
One Comment
congrats on your appearance on ‘de wereld draait door’ !
completely natural, as always…