Social Science and the Media

Social Science and the media: How can journalism provide an effective bridge between research and policy?

At its best, the media can act as a valued intermediary, sifting the best and most relevant empirical work or new ideas to inform public policy and services. However, the growth of social media has weakened the gatekeeping role of traditional journalism. Academics themselves are bypassing journalists and taking to their own personal blogging sites and Twitter.

Despite challenges to the traditional status of journalism, there have been initiatives building stronger links between journalists and researchers, including Britain in a Changing Europe, the Conversation, Education Media Centre, and Full Fact.

This event will hear from some of these bodies and explore what more we can do to support the relationship between journalism, research and policy – including the role that intermediary organisations might play.

Attendees include academics, researchers, journalists, intermediaries, and funders.

The speakers are:

Professor Catherine Barnard FBA, Deputy Director, UK in Changing Europe

Fran Abrams, Chief Executive, Education Media Centre

Dr David Levy, Trustee, The Conversation UK; and Senior Research Associate, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, University of Oxford

David Walker, former ESRC Council member

Full biographies can be found below.

The event will be introduced by Professor Annette Boaz, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and co-lead of Transforming Evidence, and chaired by Jonathan Breckon, Senior Associate, Transforming Evidence.

The meeting is part of a series organised by Transforming Evidence, an interdisciplinary collaboration aiming to share learning, connect communities and generate meaningful research about how we make and use evidence.

Speaker Biographies

Fran Abrams, Chief Executive, Education Media Centre. The centre is a charity run by journalists and dedicated to 'making evidence make news.' It aims to help build a stronger, more evidence-based education system by ensuring good research has a high profile in the media. Fran began reporting on education for the Birmingham Post and Mail in 1988, and went on to be Education Correspondent of the Sunday Times, the Sunday Correspondent, the Sunday Telegraph and the Independent. She later worked as Westminster Correspondent of the Independent, and for 15 years was part of the reporting team on BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme. In addition to her work with the Education Media Centre she now writes articles on education for The Guardian and other publications. Her six published books include three on education: Seven Kings, published by Atlantic Books in 2006, Learning to Fail, published by Routledge in 2010, and Refugee Education, published by Routledge in 2020.

Professor Catherine Barnard is Deputy Director, UK in a Changing Europe, a non-partisan think tank which does research and provides information about all aspects of Brexit. She is Professor of EU law and Employment Law and senior tutor and fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. She is a member of the European Commission funded European Labour Law Network (ELLN). She has appeared extensively on the main media channels - BBC, ITV and Sky - as well as some of the more specialist programmes such as Law in Action, Woman's Hour and the Briefing Room. She has also written for the Guardian and the Telegraph, and has her own podcast, 2903cb, and blogs on Brexit, mainly for the http://ukandeu.ac.uk/. She has given evidence to numerous select committees on the legal issues connected with Brexit, immigration and the European Union (Withdrawal) Act.

Dr David Levy is Trustee, the Conversation UK. He is currently the Senior Research Associate at the University of Oxford's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, following a decade as its director. His career has spanned broadcasting and academia and he has a particular interest in connecting research, policy making and wider public debate. He previously worked at the BBC as a reporter, editor and Controller Public Policy.

David Walker is Chair, Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. After a long career in journalism, including The Economist, The Times and the Guardian, he became director of public reporting at the Audit Commission. Other roles include Head of Policy at the Academy of Social Sciences and chair of the Economic and Social Research Council's methods and infrastructure committee. He is member of council at Royal Holloway, University of London, and an assessor on the sociology panel for 2021 Research Excellence Framework. His latest book, with Polly Toynbee, is The Lost Decade, Britain 2010-20.