Kate Middleton: a new medium for disseminating research?

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: 

Westernisation in the Daily Mirror: on the cultural reception of Kate Middleton.
 

 Kate's Anatomy

 Dilemmas in Coding Qualitative Research: Kate Middleton's daughter, a princess or a  pauper?

                or my personal favorite...

On the Origin of Kate by Means of Princely Selection
 

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).