Narrowing the Academic-Policy Divide

THERE IS ENDURING INTEREST IN making political science more relevant to policymakers and the public.1 Most political scientists seeking to bridge the academic-policymaker gap believe that the main obstacle they face is a failure of communication. According to this view, a significant amount of the research they conduct is potentially relevant to policymakers, but scholars struggle to engage key audiences. In other words, the problem is with the packaging: it is too long, too inaccessible, and not timely. This follows media theorist Marshall McLuhan’s famous distinction between the “message” and the “media.”2 Many scholars thus look to various types of online new media as a promising means to address this challenge. These outlets offer a quick and easy way to translate and disseminate existing research to a broader public. The format makes it possible to bring social science research to bear on pressing issues more quickly than going through the lengthy and ponderous peer-review process. New media sites also force political scientists to convey their findings succinctly and in plain English and apply them to contemporary issues. Warming to this possibility, George Washington University political scientist and blogger Marc Lynch effuses that “this is in most ways a golden age for policy-relevant public spheres.”3 Social media such as Facebook and Twitter can, in turn, help disseminate online posts or serve as a direct platform for commentary. There are now so many new outlets for scholars to engage in the policy debate, it is both easier for them to do so and also unnecessary for them to concern themselves with doing so in their scholarship. This new media relevance model counsels that scholars publish basic research—what Vannevar Bush defined as research “performed without thought of political ends”4—in scholarly venues and then highlight its applied implications online

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