Newcastle

How to bridge journalism and research

I have to admit, I am focusing more on my thesis now instead of journalism. I guess this is already part of the problem. Either you do this or do that, writing academically and publishing in journalism are two different things and: time is precious. As a young researcher I realized that I have to handle many things, not only my reading and writing, but also networking, planning and learning how to articulate. I continuously speak about my ideas. Compared to my working as an online journalist or TV journalist, I don’t have to shorten my thoughts to make it digestible. It’s like learning a new language. And forgetting how I used to write?

No, I don’t want to miss journalistic work. I enjoy digging deeper into my topic but knowing that no one will read my thesis makes me uncomfortable. How would I put my thoughts out there? I think it can be a complementary process, writing in a journalistic style or more essayistic and writing in academy. It should actually be the aim of every researcher to be able to express him/herself in a way that everyone can understand it. So, some academicians should try to change their style a little. The same is valid for fancy feuilletonists of course, or for those outside of the German speaking space, journalists who write on art and culture.

Mixing networks can be a start, why not get your research out there and publish on https://culturecase.org/ or https://theconversation.com/?

Or just pitch the article and contact a newspaper. I was surprised how much media is interested in well-researched, more academic work. Writing down my ideas helps a lot, what I don’t like is staying in the ivory tower, somewhere in North England.