Report on My Interviews

Skeeze. Humphrey Bogart Jack Brown Lauren Bacall Actor. 7/20/2014 via Pixabay. Public Domain License.

Note: I have only been able to conduct one interview thus far with Associate Professor Alex Braithwaite from the School of Government and Public Policy. The next one is scheduled for Monday at 10am with Professor Polakowski.

Genres:

-Journal Articles

-Books

-Public speeches/ conference discussions

I found the public conference talks the most interesting, mostly because I would love to be able to attend one of these major conferences to see what these political scientists have to say and see how much it greatly differs from what policy makers actually think/do.

Differences:

-Even though each of these genres is different in terms of medium of publication and formatting, they all still hold essentially the same purpose and end up being written/spoken for the same audience. Most readers of academic journals are other professionals within that field, most readers of these type of research and theory-based books are professional within the field and the only people that really attend these conferences are other political scientists or academia from a university/research type background.

-Journals may be used more for research, books for reference, and conferences for discussion and thought on the subject.

Difficulties:

-The basic feeling I got from my interview on the difficulties in writing for this subject is getting the people you actually want to read and listen to the research to do so. The majority of writing in this field tends to stay in this field, even though it is intended for real-world application.

Mass Media:

-In the mass media, some examples of these pieces can be found in newspapers, popular magazines outside of just academic journals, or even broadcast across social media like Facebook and Twitter. Fortunately, politics is everywhere, but unfortunately the nitty gritty research that actually studies the effects of government policy is often overlooked by the majority of the population.

Interview #2 with Michael Polakowski, Professor on Public Policy and Criminal Justice:

Genres:
-Journal Articles
-Conferences
-Emails
This professor really only discussed these three main genres that he typically writes in as of now. The one I found the most interesting was the journal articles he discussed, and how those articles can be sent to actual policy makers, and because of those articles discussed, the theories that can turn into policy.

Differences:
-Main audience of these genres nd mediums is other professionals within the academic field and policy makers who may potentially make these theories into policy.

Difficulties:
-Pretty much the same difficulty as getting people to actually listen to and understand what is being said, especially if they come from outside of the profession.

Mass Media:
- This professor avoids mass media at pretty much all costs. He stays up to date with the news and everything, but pretty much shies away from anything like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. He is what I would say is more "old school" and relies more on real publications rather than virtual ones.