............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... SYMPOSIUM ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... The Political Scientist as a Blogger John Sides, George Washington University ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... n November 2007, I helped found a blog, The Monkey If producing a regular flow of posts is too time-consuming, Cage, with two of my colleagues, David Park and Lee considerrecruitingotherauthorsforyourblog.TheMonkeyCage Sigelman. This site joined a nascent political science has always been a group blog, which ensures fresh content as blogosphere that is now composed of at least 80 blogs well as diverse perspectives and expertise that may even lead to (Farrell and Sides 2010). The goals of The Monkey Cage debates within the group that we subsequently publish as well. Iare to publicize political science research and use this research Our current roster of regular bloggers has expanded to five— to comment on current events. Although blogging is a prom- HenryFarrell,AndrewGelman,JoshuaTucker,ErikVoeten,and ising way for scholars to promote their work to a larger audi- me—and includes scholars of American politics, comparative ence, political scientists have been slow to take up this medium. politics, and international relations. Many other scholars have To be sure, blogging is not without its challenges, particularly served as guest-bloggers at our site—which is a good way to get in terms of the time and energy needed to maintain a site. But one’s feet wet. Although is possible to maintain a blog single- blogging can also have its benefits by not only helping polit- handedly, we have found that a group format eases the task of ical science reach a broader audience, but also aiding individ- producing a continuous stream of new posts. ual scholars’ research, teaching, and service goals. Bloggingalsonecessitatescertainadministrativechores:reg- isteringandmaintainingadomainname(ifnecessary),design- HOW TO BLOG ing the site’s appearance, reviewing and publishing readers’ Becomingabloggeriseasy.Platformssuchasblogspot.compro- comments, and deleting the inevitable spam from such inter- vide hosting space and design templates, with no money and ested readers as “Fat Loss 4 Idiots.”These are very manageable little specialized expertise required. Once the blog is created, tasks. Determining the name and appearance of the site can be the central task is producing content in the form of blog posts. aone-timedecision.Managingtheflowofcommentstakesonly Few blogs are successful if they are not updated frequently— a small amount of time each day, especially if you are content to ideally, more than once a day. At The Monkey Cage, we average allow real comments to intermingle with spam. about 2.5 posts per day. A post may take anywhere between five Finally, every blog encourages attention to other blogs and minutesandtwohourstowrite,dependingonitscontent.Other websites that discuss related content and, hopefully, your posts. avenues to blogging entail affiliating with websites that regu- It is easy to be drawn in by what other people write, especially larly publish academic perspectives. For example, Pollster.com, if they take issue with your perspective. Conversation that whichisnowapartoftheHuffingtonPost,featuresseveralpolit- results from these disputes can actually be an asset: attention ical scientists among its contributors.The difference, of course, from online conversations among bloggers will usually help is that a personal blog allows the blogger greater opportunities to build an audience. For lesser-known blogs, taking issue with and freedom than may be available at established blogs.1 an established blogger and thereby drawing a response will What should a blog post address?Writing regular blog posts often help expand the pool of readers. is not necessarily easy. It takes time to find a voice and learn This sort of attention is largely how The Monkey Cage the kinds of topics and ideas that will appeal to a broader built its audience over time. Between November 2007 and audience. One guideline should be obvious: avoid personal December 2010, The Monkey Cage was visited by about 719,000 complaints about your life, commute, colleagues, discipline, people and viewed over 2 million times. Approximately 1,500 and so on—topics that are perilous from a professional per- people visit the site on any given weekday, 2,700 people sub- spective anyway (Tribble 2005). Choose topics to which you scribe to our RSS feed, and over 600 follow us on Twitter. can add value as a political scientist. This approach will dis- The blog’s content has been cited by Newsweek, the New Yorker, tinguish your blog from other blogs about politics and from the New York Times, Salon, the Economist, the American Pros- most pundits’ commentary. You can summarize your research pect, the Washington Post, and the Financial Times, among or the work of other scholars, analyze data, and make simple others—although, relatively speaking, The Monkey Cage graphs that are understandable to a lay audience. Ideally, your remains a niche blog. posts should be pegged to current events, but topical commen- tary is not always necessary. Even when political science BUT DO I REALLY WANT TO BE A NAZI SCUMBAG research is months (if not years) behind the news cycle, its MORON? findings can still be relevant. For example, although few pun- The ease with which one can begin blogging conceals the dits are still analyzing the 2008 election, their potted histories pitfalls that a blogger may encounter. First, blogging takes and stylized impressions of that time drive their present think- time. Many scholars feel burdened by their teaching, research, ing about current events, making new research about the elec- and administrative responsibilities and frequently lament a tion topical. If your post disagrees with a pundit, all the better: lack of time for research and writing. Clearly, maintaining a nothing attracts readers’ attention like a little conflict. blog entails effort that could be spent on other pursuits. As a doi:10.1017/S1049096511000060 PS • April 2011 267 ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Symposium: “Pracademics”: Mixing an Academic Career with Practical Politics ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... blog becomes more successful, it will naturally demand more It is not serious that a professional review lends its pages to this time. statistical nonsense. Have they lost their common sense? I wish Second, although scholars typically want to publicize their Ross a sex change and moving [sic] to Saudi Arabia. He will be ideas in books and journals, daily publication can be treach- able to check his/her [sic] statistical associations in situ. erous. The average blog post reflects quicker and more hap- I find it amazing that this was published in a peer-reviewed hazard thinking, simpler (and even simplistic) analyses, and journal. Does Ross have tenure at UCLA? more ill-advised dudgeon than the typical academic article. There is no peer review to save you from mistakes, and once At my instigation, Ross kindly replied to these and other your mistakes are published, they cannot easily be removed comments. None of the people who made the original com- from the public domain. Political scientist bloggers can be spec- ments chose to engage him on the actual substance of his tacularly wrong, as I was in predicting a 2008 presidential race research. between Mitt Romney and Hillary Clinton (Sides 2008a). In other cases, readers’ responses are even more ad homi- Third, if the purpose of the blog is to discuss academic nem. Henry Farrell once wrote what seemed an innocuous research, scholars may soon learn that readers outside of the post on public opinion about health care reform, leading one If the purpose of the blog is to discuss academic research, scholars may soon learn that readers outside of the academy or the discipline do not understand and sometimes willfully misunderstand findings. A discipline’s theoretical perspectives and methodologies will often strike individuals outside of the field as wrong or even worthless, which can be surprising to scholars trained to believe that their methods are normal, even if problematic in certain ways. academy or the discipline do not understand and sometimes reader to deduce his Irish ancestry and then e-mail him the willfully misunderstand findings. A discipline’s theoretical per- following message, under the subject line “Nazi Scumbag spectives and methodologies will often strike individuals out- Moron”: side of the field as wrong or even worthless, which can be surprising