Bridging the gap between academia and the media is not a simple task but it is essential if academics are to impact and improve society and inform its citizens. John Wihbey looks at how the Internet is bringing academics and journalists closer together and argues that there is still work to be done on both sides

Wihbey, John

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LSE Research Online

blo gs.lse.ac.uk http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impacto fsocialsciences/2012/04/05/media-academics-bridging-the-gap/by Blog Admin April 5, 2012Bridging the gap between academia and the media is not a simple task but it is essential ifacademics are to impact and improve society and inform its citizens. John Wihbey looks at howthe Internet is bringing academics and journalists closer together and argues that there is stillwork to be done on both sides.The dif f usion of  deep knowledge to help improve our inf ormation ecosystem and, ult imately,society, is a goal shared by those readers of  this blog, and by those of  us atJournalist’s Resource.org although we do approach scholarly communications f rom a dif f erent angle. Justas scholars seek to amplif y their voices in public discourse and policy, Journalist’s Resource wants to openjournalists’ eyes to the power of  scholarly research.Knowledge-based Reporting in the Digital AgeEven as the online world more f ully democratizes inf ormation, the media remain a central conduit f or howcitizens receive and engage with knowledge. But some dynamics are shif t ing. Newspapers are declining,opinion journalism is on the rise, and inf ormation overabundance has started to become a problem f orcit izens — as the amount of  noise makes it dif f icult to hear the signal, issues of  reliability become evenmore salient.There are two aspects to helping improve journalism as it moves into this uncertain f uture. Both revolvearound the concept of  “knowledge-based reporting”, according to Tom Patterson, research director ofJournalist’s Resource and Bradlee Prof essor of  Government and the Press at the Harvard KennedySchool:One is to extend the boundaries of knowledge, which is the everyday work of the scientist, thepolicy specialist, and uncounted public-sector and private-sector bureaucrats… The second wayto increase the reliability of news is for journalists to make greater use of accumulatedknowledge…. Although knowledge is a component of everyday reporting, it is not its mainstay.Journalists are not trained to think first about how systematic knowledge might inform a newsstory.Outside universit ies, studies remained largely inaccessible to the uninit iated — particularly those on a tightdeadline. Elite outlets routinely f eature stories that use academic studies and reports, but most scholarshipearns at best a modest number of  press reports and blog posts and inf requently inf orms stories directly.Making Knowledge AccessibleIn the Internet age, journalists have signif icantly improved access to research. Google Scholar, SocialScience Research Network (SSRN), the Public Library of  Science (PLoS) and other databases put a wholenew class of  knowledge at the media’s f ingertips. Despite this access, many usef ul studies that could shedlight on public problems remain untapped as knowledge sources.Nick Lemann, dean of  the Columbia University Graduate School of  Journalism, notes that while reporterscall academics occasionally to “get a quote,” they are not accustomed to engaging with the scholarlyliterature itself  in the name of  making these interactions richer. Yet such habits of  mind f it squarely withjournalism’s core mission, he says:So what journalists are is a connection point between the informed general public and theinaccessible. And the inaccessible can be hidden records of official misdeeds, or it can be whatpeople are doing in the mountains of Afghanistan, or it can be expertise…. We’re supposed tomake those connections. And knowledge-based journalism is an important part of doing that. Soit really does produce journalism that is richer and fuller.To achieve this vision, several simultaneous steps are required: greater accessibility of  research;journalists who are more open to scholarly f indings; and scholars who are more willing to explain importantwork in language that is accessible to the public. These issues cannot be emphasized enough.Academic vs. Mass AudiencesNew Yorker writer and author Malcolm Gladwell, one of  America’s great popularizers of  social scienceresearch, has discussed the dif f erent audiences of  journalists and academics and the dif f erent constraintsthey impose:You are limited in a sense that you can only write about things that you can explain for a lay-audience. This is one of the things that academics sometimes fail to grasp about popularwriting…. There’s almost no occasion when they are writing for their own audience where theycan’t tackle a topic because of the difficulty explaining it…. Whereas I literally cannot discusssomething that my audience cannot understand. I can’t do it, I lose them, they’re gone … andthen I’ve failed.While the online world brings with it certain perils, it also opens up possibilit ies that did not exist bef ore.Andy Revkin, a longtime New York Times science and environment journalist and the author of  the “DotEarth” blog, has suggested that the iterative nature of  blogging can better ref lect the true process ofscholarly research and inquiry:One thing that led me on these issues to blogging more and more is that I think it better reflectsthe nature of these questions — that is, that the “ah-ha!” moments are mostly fictional. And ablog treatment of an issue like climate change or biodiversity in a crowding world is a better fitfor that line of inquiry…. So you say, “On this blog, on this issue, you can rely on me as a guidemore than a translator. In other words, we’re on a journey.The Research-Communications FutureAt the end of  the day, a “deeper” mass media will constitute only a modest improvement f or society unlesscit izens are trained early on to identif y and process deeper knowledge themselves. Alison Head, of  theUniversity of  Washington’s Project Inf ormation Literacy and Harvard’s Berkman Center, has been studyingthe younger generation’s online inf ormation-seeking habits, and she has f ound that there are manyproblem areas to consider:Today’s students have tremendous difficulty with the research process, whether they are tryingto solve information problems for courses or in their everyday lives…. When we surveyed more8,300 students at 25 U.S. institutions in 2010, more than 80% of respondents reported they hadthe most difficulty getting started on course-related research assignments. Another 66% couldnot define a research topic or narrow it.Despite these challenges, the rise of  the Internet brings with it the possibility of  journalists helping tomagnif y signif icantly the power of  academic scholarship. Just one example is the wealth of  electionsresearch, which can be a boon to polit ical journalism. As George Washington University polit ical scientistand academic blogger John Sides recently told Journalist’s Resource,The value of political science — although of course we can’t do this consistently, every singleday — is that we can take what’s happening in the campaign and put it in context of theresearch that’s been done, and try to understand what’s really important and what’s notimportant here.Last year, Sides co-authored a paper with Dartmouth College prof essor Brendan Nyhan tit led “How Polit icalScience Can Help Journalism (And Still Let Journalists Be Journalists)” (PDF). The paper is a call to linkarms — or at least understand one another more deeply — that we think both parties can agree would bebenef icial. Note: This article gives the views of the author(s), and not the position of the Impact of Social Sciences blog,nor of the London School of Economics.Related posts:1. Five minutes with The Incidental Economist Austin Frakt: “Only 0.04% of  published papers in healthare reported on by the media, so blogs and other social media can help.”2. Digital scholarship will not be f unded by the toothf airy: it is now time f or academics online to tacklethe economics of  the digital f ield.3. Five Minutes with Nicholas Lemann: “Incorporating academic research adds value to the socialmission of  journalism.”4. Britain needs a more proactive academic culture in which we reach out to the next generation ofscholars.5. Five minutes with Huw Davies: “When contextualised, research has the power to animate, inf orm,empower or inf uriate”

Digital scholarship allows the media to magnify the power and reach of academic research but the partnership between academics and journalists must be developed

Digital scholarship allows the media to magnify the power and reach of academic research but the partnership between academics and journalists must be developed

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