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By Merry Bruns 
There have always been anthropologists who have worked in media. Historically, there have always been anthropologists who wanted to, and did talk, to an interested public about what they did as anthropologists. Sometimes they worked through the filter of media. Sometimes they've talked directly to the public itself. But anthropologists have always communicated. Attempts have been made, over the years, to establish "Media Anthropology" as a discipline or interest group of its own, as a unit with the AAA, or as a field one could find work in. To date, little of this has been achieved. But the interest in communicating remains strong, and anthropologists continue doing it. Anthropologists and media In general, anthropologists often have a cautious attitude about media, though some don't. Many scientists as well are concerned that those interpreting their work for a general public will get it wrong or distort their data and work. To make things more difficult, and excluding archaeology and biological anthropology, (which deal more with hard data), much of cultural anthropology is a "slippery field," and hard to categorize. Journalists have complained that the lack of absolutes and consensus in anthropology is extremely frustrating. This makes the whole idea of communicating through media very difficult, as it creates mutual antagonisms on both sides. Media Relations There are as yet few official outlets in place for media communications for anthropology, short of Public Information Officers at universities and professional science organizations. Many anthropology organizations exit on short funds, with minimal staff to handle press requests. There is no Public Relations office at the AAA, and only one Press Officer. The Individual But there's a lot that anthropologists can do as individuals, however, to gain greater press coverage and public awareness about their work.
Science Writers Science writers sometimes cover anthropology-many were anthropologists themselves. Most have had training in some science field, but many come straight out of journalism or communications. It's an exciting, if not always lucrative field. Your best information about science
writing will come from the National
Association of Science Writers (NASW)
itself. |
