"Prof, no one is reading you"

Prof. Biswas with Prof. Eduardo Araral, who chaired the talk

We had a talk on 23rd September by Prof. Asit Biswas. Prof. Biswas is very well-respected in the water sector and a recipient of the World Water Prize. I'm taking a course on water policy and governance with him (and Dr. Tortajada). Its quite demanding and we're having to do a lot of writing  which is proving unexpectedly challenging, but I think I'm improving!

Dr. Biswas' talk was on  academia creating impact by writing in the popular media, more specifically writing op-eds. Op-ed = 'opposite-editorial'.  the space in newspapers given to experts and others to give their independent views on matters of public importance. They're called op-eds because they're often run next to the newspaper's own opinion pieces, the editorials. While the talk was aimed at academics, the points are very relevant for people from the NGO sector too.

Dr. Biswas talked of the increasing irrelevance of academic publishing for public policy and impact. Quoting from the flyer publicising the talk (http://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/OP-Eds_Writing-Publishing-and-Impacts.pdf): "Latest statistics indicate that 80% of papers in Humanities do not attract even a single citation. Also, if a paper is cited, it does not mean the person citing it has read the whole paper fully. We estimate an average paper in Humanities is read by no more than 10 people".

Dr. Biswas did an op-ed in the Straits Times, (http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/prof-no-one-is-reading-you) the main newspaper in Singapore on this very topic - "Prof, no one is reading you". Apparently, it has become the most read article of the Straits Times with 65000 online shares, 7000 tweets and even translated into other languages. So it would seem the topic resonated strongly with many people.

Other points from the talk:
- Dr. Biswas talked about Project Syndicate. Quoting from the Straits Times article above: " One effective model is Project Syndicate, a non-profit organisation, which distributes commentary by the world's thought leaders to more than 500 newspapers comprising 300 million readers in 154 countries. Any commentary accepted by Project Syndicate may be translated into up to 12 other languages and then distributed globally to the entire network.". Prof Biswas has now an agreement with Project Syndicate to distribute four of his op-eds each year.

- Ministers and policy makers pay attention to what gets published. A typical method of doing this is for the Ministers' staff to create a roundup of all relevant news across key media outlets every day. Prof Biswas cited examples from his personal knowledge from Canada, India and Qatar of Ministers who do this

- Examples of recent impact from op-eds:
    An article he wrote on Think Tanks in the "Diplomat" magazine (http://thediplomat.com/2015/09/the-rise-of-asias-think-tanks/)  was shared by the wife of the Prime Minister of Singapore on her FB page, and presumably reached the PM too
    An op-ed in the Straits Times on the haze (http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/to-tackle-haze-win-over-the-indonesian-public) got a response from the Singapore Minister for the Environment and Water Resources, Vivian Balakrishnan, who wrote back that he liked it and that his minstry is seriously looking at the suggestions.

- Media needs a peg. There was once a request from a Chinese publication for an article on drought, followed by a urgent communication that rains had started and unless they moved really quickly the article could not be run until the next drought!

- Media needs you to take a stand. No 'on the the one hand, on the other hand' business. The job of the editor is to 'sell newspaper' so if you want to get published you have to be aligned with that. Being controversial does not hurt! Winston Churchill said: "You have enemies? Good. That means you have stood up for something in your life"

- Media's deadlines are significantly more demanding than for academic publication and you need to be prepared for that. Prof. Biswas has stayed up late nights on occasion to do what was needed to get a piece out in time to a media outlet.

- A corollary  is that media will occasionally edit what you say, even without asking. Sometimes that results in significant distortion of what you meant. Again, something you have to accept and be prepared for if you want to play the public impact game. 

- Invest your time in developing relationships with good newspaper editors and journalists. They get a lot of submissions and reject 95% of them. If you have a relationship with them, they will trust you. Occasionally have lunch/coffee with them to understand their challenges,what they need, what they're looking for.

- One way to get their attention in the first place is to be active on social media. At least 300 media personalities from many countries follow Prof. Biswas on LinkedIn. 

- Op-ed sizes are coming down and nowadays they are looking for around 650-700 words. You must be able to make your point in that space

- Nowadays Prof Biswas writes an average of one op-ed a week.

- Prof. Biswas writes a lot op-eds with graduate students, which gives them visibility and training and many of them go on to do a lot of such writing on their own. He expressed some disappointment with the general graduate student body at the LKY School. Students do not seem to be interested in taking up this valuable opportunity to get trained in writing op-eds and thus improving public policy

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Addenda: An article in the Guardian that nicely builds on some of the points here

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2015/sep/04/academics-are-being-hoodwinked-into-writing-books-nobody-can-buy

A recent followup article by Prof Biswas
http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/prof-no-one-is-using-your-ideas