I'm sure
many of you have found it difficult not to have heard about storm that has been
kicked up over Forbes comments that being a lecturer is one of the "least
stressful jobs of 2013" (see link at the end) Responses to this have
highlighted the need to raise the public awareness of our research. So here's
what we do; conduct our research on Kate Middleton
She has
become a national obsession, pastime and idol. .. there's even an app to copy her clothes
(called repli-kate-me). Kate seems to a provide a' middle' ground between the Royal
Family and the rest of us it. She Simulates interest and understanding of what
it is to be Royal . Perhaps this is because she started out as one of us
non-Royal folk, so her life seems more relevant to ours.
Kidnapping
a member of the royal family would not pass ethics boards (and I am in no way
advocating that we do), but it would certainly help spike the general public's
interest. Could you imagine how widely read research with titles such as:
Kate's
Anatomy
Dilemmas
in Coding Qualitative Research: Kate Middleton's daughter, a princess or a
pauper?
or my personal favorite...
Do academics
also need a link between academic and 'non-academic folk' to stimulate interest
in academic work, to show that the work is relevant to the general population? Researchers do disseminate their work, but
this seems largely restricted to other researchers. I wonder how many even send the results, or
even a reference to the finished paper, to their participants?
The
internet is a wonderful place full of all sorts of information, but little of the information on topics that
is 'accessible' to the general public seems to come from academics. As a recent
article in the Guardian asks - where is
all the research? (see link at the end)
There are
many blogs, sites and groups 'out there'
to help disseminate and stimulate interest in Academia and help demystify
certain ideas or concepts (Dorthoy Bishops Blog, the Psychology Network in
linked in are a few I use).
In the past governing bodies such as the
American Psychological Association have taken action to clarify what science
has told us about certain topics (i.e. IQ , but this has been infrequent.
So, do we
need a platform which can get bring together information from a discipline in one place? Could we benefit from one blog/site which
contains accurate, yet brief and plainly
written 'summaries' of topics which are presented in such a way that interests
the general public? To help them see that we as academics do work hard, and
that our work is relevant to them? Or do we really need Kate Middleton to make
our work seem relevant and interesting?
If anyone
knows of any sites like the one I suggest I would be really interested to see
it. For now I shall end on a question, which I have been thinking on for a while:
Do we have
a responsibility to disseminate our research? If not for our own sake, at least
for societies? After all knowledge can
be a dangerous thing, and incomplete
knowledge even more so.
Thanks for
reading!
http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/01/03/the-least-stressful-jobs-of-2013/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/higher-education-network/blog/2013/jan/10/research-communications-uk-university-websites).
