Social Scientists Meet the Media by Alan Bryman Cheryl Haslam

Author:Alan Bryman, Cheryl Haslam [Alan Bryman, Cheryl Haslam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, General
ISBN: 9781134891832
Google: dcxGNoVZx6cC
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-01-11T05:19:03+00:00

Chapter 9

Media representations of psychology: denigration and popularization, or worthy dissemination of knowledge?

Jane Ussher

INTRODUCTION

Consorting with the media should carry a government health warning. Any academic who embarks upon the media circus is treading a perilous tightrope. On the one hand, the media men (sic)—initially flattering, almost seductive, but ultimately scathing and dismissive, desirous of expertise to fill column inches, to fill radio or TV minutes, whilst ultimately despising and deriding. On the other, learned colleagues—questioning the very notion of ‘media simplification’, ever ready to give examples of the (ex) colleague who had a ‘worthy’ research record, but spoilt it all (and any chance of the elusive professorial chair) through the cheap peddling of mass-market knowledge, selling their discipline for a handful of silver. To be described as a ‘media psychologist’ is one of the lowest forms of insult Sexy simplification may sell newspapers or spice up an otherwise dull Radio 4 documentary, but it is the death knell for a serious academic career. And quite right too we might say—or is it?

As one who has both been bitten and betrayed by media involvement, experienced the (metaphorical) seductions and subsequent rejections of media representatives, yet still continues to have involvement in this potentially dangerous—yet fascinating—game, I am struck most strongly by the question of: Why? Why is it that academics, serious scientists and scholars, experts within their own fields, become involved in the world of the media? Why is it that they risk the approbation of colleagues, endure humiliation, broken promises and evidence of the trivialization of their research and expertise, and yet continue to play the game? Is it a wish for the proverbial 15 minutes of fame (à la Warhol), or the more worthy aim of disseminating knowledge to a wider audience? Is the current trend for academics and media representatives entering into an unholy alliance a good one?

These questions have no simple answer, and answers will necessarily be heavily biased by the experiences of the individual addressing them. With that caveat in mind, I will attempt to arrive at a balanced conclusion using my own chequered media confrontations, and the case of psychology in the media, as examples. However, I should say at the outset that even addressing this issue opens up a Pandora's box of complicated relationships, of complicities, and of compromises, which normally appear to remain unspoken. Because of this, I have found this account one of the most difficult things I have ever written. Perhaps it reveals too much, or makes impossible the avoidance of the reality of the iniquitous exchange between academic psychology and the media.

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