The relationship between scholarly communication research and “real world” politics and policy is as controversial as it is important. This has never been more true than it is today, as communication in its various forms has become an increasingly central element of local, national and international affairs, rivaling capital as the coin of the public realm. Much as the journalistic profession has been forced to reconsider its role within the changing technological, economic, political and cultural environments of post-modern life, so too must the community of communication scholars more explicitly confront the question, “what are we for?”
This book is an attempt to spark, inform and shape such a discussion. It does so from a point of view – namely that we neither can nor should avoid playing a role in public and policy debates over pressing issues of the uses and abuses of communication in politics today, and that we should use our expertise to enhance the democratic potential of communications. At the same time, it remains cognizant of the real and potential dangers of stepping outside the confines of the ivory tower.
To this end I will critically explore the past, present and future of communication studies with a particular focus on its relationship to politics and policy. Drawing on archival records, interviews, specific case studies, and my own five-year sojourn into the foundation world, I will attempt to explicate the successes and failures, the promises and pitfalls, of our field’s uneasy but crucial interplay with the world beyond the academy.
