Some expert advice

"In the news and entertainment industry, nothing happens by chance."

If there was nothing else we took away from his talk, Paul L. Doering, M.S., wanted us to really understand and evaluate this phrase. As a media-savvy pharmacist who serves as an expert source for big name news outlets, Doering shared some of his insight and experiences with our Health and Fitness Writing class.

Though his talk encompassed a number of topics from side effects to radio talk shows, the part that was most compelling was his relationship with ABC News. Doering serves as a health consultant for ABC News and inquired as to how many health-related press releases ABC News receives. The answer: about 650 per week. Though he said that some of these must be PR people trying to get some free publicity for their drug, some are the results of major studies, some are medical discoveries - and everything in between. Though I ultimately wasn't surprised, he said that only five stories get national airtime each week, and only a handful more are published on the Web. I guess it just made me think of the 640 stories that don't get told. Those could have been the stories that made the difference in someone's life, but then again, maybe not. Well, as Doering says, nothing happens by chance. I guess we just have to rely on the media to determine what our chance is.