Interesting BBC Radio 3  programme about Academics and the Media: Friends or Foes? (available also outside the UK!)

Rana Mitter, Night Waves presenter and Professor of the History of Modern China joins Professor Rick Rylance, head of the AHRC, and a panel that includes former Channel 4 commissioning editor Tim Kirby and the historian of academics on TV Jon Conlin to debate this tricky relationship.

Is the media really the fabled opportunity for academics to reach millions beyond the lecture hall that it is meant to be? Or, in reality, does it involve compromises that reduce scholarship to little more than glorified story-telling? Are academics and the media, friends or foes?

Listening to the programme I started thinking about the relationship between European Studies scholars and the media. What are the experiences of EU studies scholars when dealing with the media? How does journalism relate to academics especially with a topic as complex as the EU? Do EU scholars need to be more present in the media? And if yes what sort of skills do academics need? How does the higher education system value media appearances of academics especially if you think about the notion of “impact”? And what role is there for social media? What about researchers that blog or tweet about the EU and engage with the public through non-traditional channels?

Feel free to share your experiences here. Maybe we can collect some ‘best practices’ or identify some of the shortcomings in the relationship between the media and EU scholars.