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How Public Are We? Coverage of Sociology by the Associated Press

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Abstract

The recent and prolific attention to public sociology has involved a great deal of theoretical debate about its merits, flaws, and potential future within the discipline. Despite the loud call for becoming more public, existing research on the discipline lacks both an empirical understanding of where we are as well as a methodological rubric to guide future inquiry. This project explores one outlet for public sociology—the press—as a starting point for this line of research. Through an investigation of Associated Press stories featuring sociology and sociologists, we seek to provide a baseline for consideration of public sociology efforts by describing the current state of how our discipline and its members are portrayed in the press. Further, based on our findings we provide some insights for future research.

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Notes

  1. The theme for the 2008 Annual Meetings of the Midwest Sociological Society was “Making Sociology More Public”.

  2. Social Problems in February of 2004, Social Forces in June of 2004, Critical Sociology in Summer of 2005, The British Journal of Sociology in 2005, The American Sociologist in both 2005 and 2007, and an upcoming issue of Canadian Journal of Sociology.

  3. We are not referring to a publication like Contexts, whose aim is to publicize sociological research; rather, we are specifically thinking about a journal focusing on empirical examination of public sociology efforts.

  4. Between March 2008 and March 2009.

  5. In the case where more than one version of the same release appeared in the same day, the latest release was kept and the others excluded.

  6. This finding does not differ significantly from Weiss and Singer’s (1988) finding that eighteen percent of coverage of social science issues referenced a methodology.

  7. Journal of Marriage and the Family, Journal of Sociology, and Journal of the American Medical Association.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, Northeastern Illinois University, 5500 North St. Louis Avenue, Classroom Building Room 2090, Chicago, IL, 60625–4699, USA

    Catherine Siebel

  2. Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 624 North Broadway, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA

    Katherine Clegg Smith

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  1. Catherine Siebel
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  2. Katherine Clegg Smith
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Correspondence to Catherine Siebel.

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Siebel, C., Smith, K.C. How Public Are We? Coverage of Sociology by the Associated Press. Am Soc 40, 289–308 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-009-9075-0

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