As speculation mounts that ChatGPT might replace Google Search, Tristan Greene cuts through the hype, arguing ChatGPT at present cannot replicate Google’s search function – “Saying ChatGPT will replace search is like saying podcasts w…
Category: Academic communication
Paying to play – Professional academic communication should be factored into research funding
Reflecting on the ongoing professionalisation of academic communication and increased opportunities for researchers to engage, Andy Tattersall argues researchers and research funders should be mindful of the communication requirements of their projects…
Facts Don’t Change Minds – Social Networks, Group Dialogue, and Stories Do
There is often a presumption amongst scientists that communicating the evidence on a given issue is on its own persuasive enough to change minds. Anne H. Toomey argues thinking in this way itself ignores evidence from other fields of research and prese…
From research to the mainstream – Judging the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding
As nominations for this year’s prize open, Madawi Al-Rasheed reflects on the experience of judging the British Academy Book Prize for Global Cultural Understanding and considers how research based non-fiction writing can reach beyond local and discipli…
Book Review: New Mediums, Better Messages? How Innovations in Translation, Engagement and Advocacy are Changing International Development edited by David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock
In New Mediums, Better Messages?, editors David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock explore how international development is being represented and understood through new insights from practitioners working across a range of communications media….
Is Development an Art or a Science?
Reflecting on nearly twenty years of transdisciplinary practice and research and the recent publication of their new book, New Mediums, Better Messages? How Innovations in Translation, Engagement, and Advocacy are Changing International Development, Da…
Academics should embrace Lo-Fi podcasting
Podcasts have become an established part of university communications and public engagement activities. Reflecting on the development of the medium and the creation of the ‘Isolation Pod’ podcast during the first COVID-19 lockdown in the UK, Mark Carri…
The responsibility of intellectuals in times of war
War is a quintessentially social phenomenon that has provoked thinkers throughout history. Reflecting on the recent events in Ukraine and the history of realist thought on war, Paul Kelly, discusses intellectual responses to war and the inter-relations…
In legislating for freedom of speech on university campuses, whose opinions will the government protect?
The Higher Education and Freedom of Speech Bill is currently moving through the committee stage in Parliament. In this post, Conor Gearty reflects on previous attempts to regulate free speech in universities and highlights potential unintended conseque…
9 tips for effective collaborations between journalists and academic researchers
In this cross-post, Clark Merrefield discusses the collaborative work of reporter Rachel Dissell and academic Professor Rachel Lovell and draws out nine insights for how journalists and academics can work effectively together. In 2013, Timothy McGinty…