Speaking in the Agora: How to Write Well-Timed and Well-Executed Opinion Pieces for a General Audience

The culture gap between journalists and academics is well-documented and fraught with misunderstanding. Meanwhile, knowledge that might be valuable to a broad public winds up locked behind the firewall of journal subscriptions and the nomenclature of individual disciplines. This inhibits interdisciplinary collaboration and, more importantly, limits the public’s ability to understand complex but urgently important issues such as climate change and political disinformation. This workshop will discuss the professional benefits of bringing your research to a general audience, and the process through which you can pitch your ideas to national publications, and what opinion editors are looking for. Delivered by Jeff Howe, Associate Professor for Journalism, Northeastern University.