We shouldn’t confuse a desire for non-traditional modes of research engagement with a demand to abolish traditional avenues for academic publication. While we can acknowledge the current system is imperfect, many would argue that academic books and peer-reviewed journal articles are necessary for disseminating research findings. The primary audience for many researchers is, after all, other researchers with the aim of sharing new knowledge among academic peers.
However, it is increasingly important to share knowledge beyond intimate circles of scholars to achieve research impact.
The case for creative engagement isn’t to say that a self published video should replace traditional academic publications. But researchers do need to accept the reality that academic books and peer-reviewed journal articles reach a fraction of a researcher’s potential audience. This challenge is compounded by the prohibitive cost and inaccessibility by design of academic publications. A system that many academics passionately oppose, as seen by the popularity of open access publishing.
Let’s consider industry engagement. No matter how revolutionary your thesis is, industry won’t read it. That they’ll read your journal article is doubtful. And unless you’ve already established a profile in your field they probably aren’t going to read that book you spent years writing.
Dr Brendan Keogh1 attributes much of his early success in academia to the inadvertent raising of his profile within the videogame industry as a PhD candidate.
“During my PhD I was doing a lot of public facing writing. I was building a public profile as a games journalist, as a games critic… which meant I was probably a lot more visible than your average PhD student… So what that meant was, by the time I’d finished my PhD and I was applying for jobs, applying for book contracts, applying for fellowships, I already had a bit of a name to myself.”
He continues, reflecting on the value of his public profile:
“I got a DECRA in 2018, three years after I got my PhD, I got it on my first attempt, and I don’t think that’s simply because I’m an amazing researcher… I was clearly already a known entity to those people assessing that.”
“There’s two ways you can open a DECRA or a job application, or anything, and the first is you see the name and you’re like ‘oh it’s Brendan’… Or you’re like, ‘Brendan Keogh? I’ve never heard of this person let’s see what they say’ which means you’re starting at zero and trying to convince them to bring you up to 10. So, my DECRA application clearly started me at 10 and I just had to not stuff up and fall down to zero.”
Keogh recognises that it’s his public engagement through videogame journalism, as well as his academic credentials, that has given him a profile worthy of the games industry’s attention.
Ultimately, industry audiences might listen to podcasts, watch online videos, and read popular blogs. But they don’t read academic publications, unless they already know who you are2. So there’s value, both inside and outside of academia, in raising your profile. And if you do intend on engaging non-academic audiences, it’s essential.
But, with some disdain, Keogh reflects on the current culture of the “academic hustle”.
“In the modern neo liberal university you can’t just do good research and do good teaching. Everyone needs to be a bit of a rockstar, everyone needs to have their brand, everyone needs to have the thing they’re known for researching.”
The reality is that emerging and early career researchers need a public profile, in addition to the traditional requirements of a PhD and publication track record, for a career in academia.
“Ultimately it’s just fundamentally important to an academic career now, especially for early career researchers, to have that public profile and to have already built those networks with academics. But building those networks with academics by being publicly visible in order to get a job, in order to get fellowships.”
A concern that Keogh shares with other scholars is the lack of time for researchers to undertake public engagement, especially as it becomes a critical part of the academic role. There is a potential for institutions to take advantage of a researcher’s engagement endeavours. If proactive researchers are already undertaking creative research translation and public engagement on top of their academic commitments, will institutions provide more time for something that they will just do anyway? Or, might institutions exploit this?
So, how can higher education institutions and the academic community address these challenges and embrace opportunities for rich and meaningful engagement?
In a few ways, such as by acknowledging the value of public engagement and providing adequate resources, including time, for researchers to undertake non-traditional forms of research communication and engagement. And by supporting higher degree by research students to develop their profile while studying.3
Brendan isn’t actually that interested in making videos due to the technical requirements, the sophisticated setups required for today’s successful gaming videos, and the exaggerated performative personality he believes is required to engage audiences.
But he does recall the series of YouTube videos he made during his PhD, Critical Let’s Play. Keogh was interested in the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare series but faced challenges when trying to convey his thoughts with words.
“I couldn’t figure out a way to convey how they were interesting in just a written essay because it was a lot of moment to moment design decisions rather than a broader, picking apart the themes of the game or anything. So I decided I was going to play through the whole thing, record it, and just talk while I recorded it.”
It is worth noting the success of this content, with around 7500 views. Compare that to this university corporate video, both published in 2014, Research at RMIT - Brendan Keogh | RMIT University, with less than 600 views. It is beyond doubt that there is far greater engagement potential for topical research content than the types of videos typically produced by institutions.
This raises what is, perhaps, the most important point about why to make videos in the first place. Your engagement activities require a purpose to reach an audience. Video can be so much more than just answering the same five questions in front of the camera4.
Check this out if you’re interested in making better research videos.
Dr Brendan Keogh is a senior lecturer and a Chief Investigator of the Digital Media Research Centre at QUT. Currently focused on the cultures of videogame production and consumption, previously Keogh has focused on the phenomenological and textual aspects of videogame play and culture. He has written extensively on the cultures and development practices of videogames in academic journals including Games and Culture, Creative Industries, and Covergence, and for media outlets including Overland, Polygon, Edge, and Vice. His latest book The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist is “A cultural intervention, The Videogame Industry Does Not Exist challenges core assumptions about videogame production—ideas about creativity, professionalism, labor, diversity, education, globalization, and community.”
While this might be true for industry audiences from the social sciences, speaking with science researchers it turns out that often their industry colleagues also have PhDs and do read journal articles. But, typically, those from arts and culture industries don’t. An important consideration is whether a one-size-fits-all approach to research engagement is suitable. While marketing, media and public relations teams are quite effective in communicating scientific breakthroughs and ensuring academics’ commentary features in the media, we need to think about new ways of communicating research with less obvious or dramatic impact.
It’s worth reinforcing the value that public engagement brings to a researcher’s host institution. Industry partnerships and research commercialisation are increasingly important. And my guess is that industry partnerships are fostered via personal relationships. If institutions can better support their researchers to effectively engage prospective industry partners, the institution will benefit greatly from what might turn out to be an incredibly high value relationship.
1: Please introduce yourself and your research. 2: Why are you interested in this field? 3: What are you hoping to achieve, or discover? 4: What challenges have you faced, and how have you overcome them? 5: What impact will your research have on society?