the media will not save public sociology

A few days ago, I totally and accidentally started a tweet storm by suggesting that the lack of institutionalized mechanisms for translating sociology into policy or public impact reflected the possibility that public impact was a secondary goal of sociologists. During the discussion, a few people noted that mass media appearances are important. For example, my colleague and hallway neighbor Jess Calarco noted that media impact can be important.

My response: Definitely true, but let’s not over state the national media as a process by which sociology’s impact will be cultivated and maintained. Why? A lot of research on op-eds by academics shows that the mass media is very selective in terms of which academics it will pick up. Mass media coverage is rare and goes mainly to elites in the field.

Example #1: In the American Sociologist, Joshua Woods examines data on ALL sociologists published in the NY Times over a 32 year period. The major findings?

The study also shows that the length and number of op-eds published by sociologists depend on the authors’ sex, professional rank, university affiliation and other elements of social status. Finally, supporting Merton’s Matthew effect, the findings reveal in part how the gap between the upper and lower levels of the academic hierarchy – as it pertains to op-ed publication – has widened in the last decades.

When you dig into the article, the picture becomes pretty stark. Woods tests the hypothesis that national media favors elite sociologists by comparing the rate of op ed publication by Ivy League authors and top-fifteen department authors vs. everyone else:

The evidence is pretty clear, national media attention for sociologists is way, way more likely to go to disciplinary elites.

Example #2: Bob Summer and John Maycroft in Politics & Policy analyze all academics who get op eds in a range of news papers in the year 2006. They also explore how getting an op ed leads to policy impact. The finding is (almost) the same. First, from the abstract:

 

We argue that timeliness, agreement with the editorial page, readability, and an understanding of the target newspaper are essential to op-ed publication and an expansion of academics’ influence over public policy. 

In other words, academia has to fit with what journalists already want. This is actually consistent with other media research, which is summarized in texts like Schudson’s The Sociology of News.

Now, there is definitely material in Summer and Maycroft that support Jess’ main point. For example, when you interview policy makers about the effect of op-eds, it’s good:

The potential for influence need not stop there, however. An op-ed serves as a “calling card” for its author, assisting with access to executive branch officials, lawmakers, and their staff. If lawmakers do not contact an author of their own initiative, a well-circulated op-ed serves as a fine introduction for an author trying to expand his or her influence through personal contact with politicians.

But who gets the chance to get a calling card? Yup, people in top programs. Let’s look at some tables:

 

And for a conservative tilt:

The New York Times loves very elite schools. Every school to land more than one op-ed is R1, with one exception. And the Ivy League is very well represented. The Wall Street Journal is also R1 and elite intensive, but not Ivy League oriented, except for Harvard. I omitted Table 2 in this discussion because Summer and Maycroft include a local New Jersey paper, the Star Ledgers, which publishes tons of Rutgers-Camden faculty.

To repeat, I am not against media attention for sociology. And I  have participated in the op ed process. It happened as Jess suggests: I got a major newspaper op ed and it opened doors. At the same time, I recognize that it’s the academic equivalent of winning the lottery and it’s a lottery favors people like me – older and who work at higher tier institutions.

This is why I am very interested in institutions like NBER, Soc ArXiv, and Contexts. And blogs, yes, blogs. These are mechanisms for building up a knowledge base that sociologists control. Anyone can submit to Soc ArXiv and anyone can publish in Contexts (not just elites). That is the foundation of a broad and sustainable public sociology.

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