When Homo Academicus meets Homo Journalisticus: An inter-field study of collaboration and conflict in the communication of scientific research

Abstract

The longstanding tension between journalists and academics is explored by analysing data from qualitative interviews with 25 journalists and scientists using an analytical framework derived from Bourdieu’s field theory. The article empirically shows how journalism and science are both constructed around the opposition between knowledge (content) and communication (form). Based on the analysis of narratives in the communication processes between the two fields, the article shows that scientists and journalists take different positions according to the existing ideals within their respective fields, revealing different science-communication habitus. The article presents a typology of proximity and distance, in which communication between the fields becomes easier or more difficult as both fields try to protect their historic professional identities.