Singing to a different tune is easier once you have the skill to complement the willingness. Phillip Vannini isn’t the only academic who is trying to make research popular. Here, he explains how he has made a rule to produce a video, blog post or popular version of every article he publishes

Vannini, Phillip

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by Blog Admin August 28, 2012Singing to a different tune is easier once you have the skill to complement the willingness.Phillip Vannini (http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/blog-contributors/#PhillipVannini) isn’t the only academic who is trying to make research popular. Here, he explains howhe has made a rule to produce a video, blog post or popular version of every article hepublishes.“I know a litt le bit about biology, and a litt le more about psychology…”…but as a result of  my tradit ional social scientif ic training there are many things I know very litt le or nothingabout. For example, I know litt le about web design, public relations, or about photography and f ilm-making.Neither applied communication nor visual arts were included in my doctoral studies curriculum, so thesedays I know better than to try these activit ies myself , like an amateur would. Instead I make it a point ofseeking out graduate research assistants who have prof essional training and practical know-how ininf ormation dissemination, promotion, and presentation.What f or, you might ask? As the Canada Research Chair (http://www.chairs-chaires.gc.ca/chairholders-titulaires/prof ile-eng.aspx?prof ileId=2753) in Innovative Learning and Public Ethnography(http://publicethnography.net/projects/public-ethnography- innovative- learning-depth-statement) my job is tof ind ways to make research—qualitative research in general and ethnographic research in particular—popular. As popular as it can be. My student research assistants’ job is to work with me on all aspects ofknowledge mobilization. As communication students this means they get to cult ivate the skills that theirf uture careers will demand of  them. So I don’t ask them to do what I already know how to do. There are nointerviews to transcribe, literature reviews to write up, or data to code in their contracts. I can do that bymyself . Instead, there are media relations, visual productions, website building, and many other tasksintended to share f ar and wide the outcomes of  my research.Why am I doing this? Traditional research dissemination, as we all know, entails linear processes ofinf ormation exchange whereby academic knowledge providers typically produce technical communicationmeant f or like-minded audiences. When attempting to reach the general public, research generally appealsto mediators such as teachers, journalists, community leaders, policy-makers, and practit ioners. Directacademic-to-general-public communication is rarely done. While this model has at t imes proved benef icial,its shortcomings are well recognized. The mobilization of  knowledge requires more ef f ectivecommunication that ensures that vast and diverse general audiences learn directly f rom new research.Students inspire me to communicate dif f erently with the general public, and hopef ully more ef f ectively. Takef or example this article(http://berghahn.publisher.ingentaconnect.com/content/berghahn/trans/2012/00000002/00000001/art00003)of  mine on of f -grid living. As an academic journal article, it isn’t exactly easy to access f or the generalpublic. So Jonathan Taggart and I made it a point of  “translating” it f or a broader audience. The result is ashort video-enriched ethnographic magazine piece (http://thetyee.ca/Lif e/2012/06/14/Living-Of f - the-Grid-On-Lasqueti/), which—last t ime I checked with the editor of  this well- read magazine—has been accessedover 10,000 times.   I’ve now made it a personal rule of  publishing one such piece f or every journal article or academic bookchapter I write. And with the help of  public relation experts like my students Lindsay Vogan and KateO’Rourke other media too—like radio stations(http://www.cbc.ca/player/Radio/Local+Shows/Manitoba/Radio+Noon+-+Manitoba/ID/2251719393/) andnewspapers (http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/News/Local/2012-06-11/article-3005205/Lif e-unplugged/1)—receive alerts any time a research story af f ect is of  interest to their coverage area.Ethnography is a f orm of  knowledge that depends on an intimate and personable approach to research.Dissatisf ied with one-way dissemination, small audiences, and unimaginative representation, thepractit ioners of  this new public ethnography aim towards practical applications and broad engagement,without eschewing analysis and theory.Current innovative public ethnographic practices are situated within a rapidly evolving context marked by thegrowing availability of  user- f riendly technologies f or conducting and communicating research, increasingacceptance of  popular media- and arts- inspired research genres, a renewed understanding of  the role ofuniversity-based research and teaching in inf orming the public sphere, and a redirection of  technologicaland methodological innovations writ large toward goals of  knowledge mobilization.Besides trying my best to do public ethnography myself , I have been working on a new hypermedia bookseries (http://www.innovativeethnographies.net/), published by Routledge, which combines f ine academicwrit ing and web-based media material. While the books are printed as well, the e-books f rom this series areiPad, laptop, and tablet f riendly. The websites generate traf f ic and attention f or the book, and expand theiraudiences. Students in particular love to see and hear the f ield, rather than just read about it.Ethnography has, across disciplines, some key qualit ies that make it potentially appealing to the widerpublic. Ethnographic prose resembles that of  the novel. Ethnographic portraits of  cultures, people, t imes,and places speak to the general public’s predilection f or intimate, personable, context-bound, curiosity-evoking renditions of  lif e.Ethnography’s tackling of  contemporary topics speaks to the public’s need f or in-depth coverage ofcurrent af f airs. In my experience, working on a timely topic generates a lot of  media attention, which in turngenerates more attention and a wider and wider audience. For example, magazine pieces like this one(http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/magazine/jun12/inhabitat.asp) lead to invitations to blog f or wide-distribution media, like the very popular Huf f ington Post (http://www.huf f ingtonpost.ca/phillip-vannini-and-jonathan-taggart/livingof f grid_b_1761450.html).For anthropologist Nancy Scheper-Hughes making ethnographic work more accessible and accountablerequires pleasant writ ing, but also collaboration with journalists and the popular media. For Scheper-Hughes the news world is potentially an ally and, rather than contaminating oneself  by meddling withjournalists and the masses, a public ethnographer has much to gain f rom making one’s research public withjournalists’ collaboration.But willingness aside, what really makes the dif f erence—as I stated in the opening paragraph—is a matterof  skill. Once we know how to reach out to wider publics, then the process f eels less daunting. For thisreason I have edited a hypermedia “how-to” book (http://www.popularizingresearch.net/), which showsexamples that hopef ully will serve as an inspiring resource f or many others.Sometimes, I f ound, it just works to sing a dif f erent kind of  tune…Related posts:1. Something old, something new: opening a new path to public engagement with the most tradit ional ofacademic tools (http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactof socialsciences/2012/04/23/review-of -books-public-engagement/)2. Public engagement requires litt le more than embracing that of  which most academics are af raid –looking like an idiot (http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactof socialsciences/2012/04/30/public-engagement-embracing-academics/)3. Ideas of  public engagement in medical science remain litt le more than a public relations apparatusdeployed to neutralise risk (http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactof socialsciences/2012/05/25/public-engagement- litt le-more-than-pr/)4. The ghosts of  Christmases past, present and f uture come bearing lessons of  academic publishing.(http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactof socialsciences/2011/12/23/the-ghosts-of -christmases-past-present-and-f uture-come-bearing- lessons-of -academic-publishing/)5. Who gives a tweet? Af ter 24 hours and 860 downloads, we think quite a f ew actually do(http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactof socialsciences/2012/05/18/who-gives-a-tweet-860-downloads/)

Ethnography in the public eye; a few lessons along the way

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