CRAFTING A CAREER IN ‘ACADEMIC JOURNALISM'

Todd Bridgman reflects on the highs and lows of his academic career, which has resulted in him developing an approach that he calls ‘academic journalism'. This means producing research that challenges the status quo, that holds those in authority to account, and that seeks a broad audience beyond the ‘ivory tower'. Todd argues that transformations in academia and news media provide favourable conditions for the identity of the ‘academic journalist' to flourish. Namely, recurring demands for academic research to have ‘impact' and ‘relevance' to stakeholders outside the university; the traditional subscription model of academic journal publishing being challenged by ‘open access' models; and the growth of social media and disruption of mainstream media, which provides opportunities for academics to generate new audiences for their work.