Doing Public Scholarship

Drawing on the author’s own experience, this book offers a short introduction to the field of public sociology, considering the importance of op-eds, the challenges of engaging with news media, questions of public understanding, negative consequences of public sociology and the implications of social media for conducting public sociology.

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A basic premise of public scholarship is making academic work and related ideas accessible and available to publics. Media engagement, whether interviews with news journalists, or the use of hashtags, is a necessary feature of any public scholarship. Media formats play a fundamental and interactive role in how people ultimately come to view and understand the social world, having had a discernable influence on election outcomes, responses to global pandemics, and so on. The question is not whether scholars should engage with media but how to do so. Drawing on fifteen years of experience that includes hundreds of print, radio, and television news interviews, dozens of published opinion pieces, and the use of social media for public engagement, this book outlines a practical, easy-to-follow approach to doing public sociology in media that consists of, and brings together, interrelated forms of media engagement. This book also offers some advice pertaining to career advancement and provides strategies to avoid negative experiences. Doing Public Scholarship will be of general interest to those wanting to go public with their research.