Presentation given to the research fellows of the Graduate School of Business and Economics of the University of Maastricht on 8-1-2014. Subject matter: what role can journalism play in in spreading knowledge within the walls of the university to a wider audience?

1. Start spreading the views
In his article ‘The Public Task of the University’, Dutch sociologist
Willem Schinkel states that almost all universities in the
Netherlands have some kind of mission statement regarding their
public task.
This he quotes from the website of the University of Amsterdam: ‘A
critical, creative international climate, an open atmosphere and a
strong involvement with city and society’.
And if I may quote from the Strategic Programme 2012-2016 of the
Maastricht University: ‘Our geographical position brings us in a
position to be a frontrunner in the process of European unification
(…) Indeed, we firmly believe that our future is Europe, and that
Maastricht University, together with our Euregional partners, can
help in preparing our own future, by focusing on the Euregion’.
Schinkel believes that mission statements like these are often
desired images, not exact descriptions of day to day practice.
Schinkel also believes that the public task of the university or –
stated more controversially – the public usefulness of science – is
not a theme that is reflected on very often in The Netherlands.
He believes this is a mistake.
The spreading of knowledge trough public communication and
active participation in public debates is essential according to
Schinkel. He believes universities are obliged to play a role in what
he calls the public sphere. When they, the universities and the
people working en studying there, feel they are above such a task,
they are not conscious enough of their own autonomy. It will leave
them defenseless if market pressure or pressure from politics will
break into the domain of science.
Schinkel argues that what is called ‘publishing’ in the world of
universities has almost become a contradiction in terms. Publishing
of knowledge usually takes place in publications that are out of
reach of the general audience. The language used in these

2. publications is, for the greater part, inaccessible for people who
lack the scientific background of the author.
So what exactly is ‘public’ about this kind of publishing?
Schinkel is very clear on this subject: this kind of publishing is not
intended for the public at large but is, in essence, a form of
internal communication, communication within the science itself
and heavily related to status. It certainly is important, but
universities should at least try to uphold a diversified publishing
strategy, Schinkel proposes.
There has been considerable research into the barriers that exist
when effective university-community interaction is concerned.
Researchers Jongbloed, Enders, and Salerno state that the reasons
for hindering ‘public’ responsibility to society are both historical
and regulatory.
Notwithstanding the potential benefits of interacting with local
communities, ‘universities mostly engage in interactions with their
traditional stakeholders such as students, fellow researchers,
funding organizations etc. There are several types of institutional
barriers. Two of them I want to name here: and internal reward
structure that favors refereed publication and the lack of an
entrepreneurial culture.
Researchers Jacobson, Butterill and Goering identify similar barriers
in relation to knowledge transfer. They interviewed researchers
employed in a university faculty of medicine and found that
activities central to knowledge transfer such as outreach, building
partnerships with non-academic organizations and plain-language
communication were – I quote – ‘not widely accepted as legitimate
forms of scholarship’.
Valorization is at the centre of many debates on the future of
academic research. Valorization encompasses all activities that
contribute to ensuring that the outcomes of scientific knowledge
add value beyond the scientific domain. It includes making the
results from academic research available or more easily accessible
in order to increase the chances of others - outside academia -

3. making use of it, as well as the co-production of knowledge with
non-academic groups. As recipients of public funding, universities
must account for their activities and achievements to government
and wider society, argue researchers Benneworth and Jongbloed
This is where I come in.
I am a reporter with some experience in dealing with people
working at universities. Some of them are not interested at all in
dealing with media. I know that others have concerns about being
misquoted or misunderstood by journalists. I know some of them
fear that their thoughts will be simplified or mutilated beyond
recognition and that this could hurt their professional status.
Sometimes these fears have proven to be justified. Often they are
not. What I’m trying to point out is that there is an enormous
amount of knowledge within these walls that very often has a direct
connection with the social environment the university is part of. But
if this knowledge stays within these walls or is only shared with a
very selected audience, society loses out to a degree.
This province we are all living in, Limburg, has seen major
upheavals in recent years in the fields of economics, politics,
identity and demographics, many of them directly related to or
influenced by global trends but many of them also related to the big
debate that will dominate the year 2014: ‘Europe’. And related also
to the so-called Euregion mentioned earlier in the mission
statement of this university.
Big themes like Europe or the economic and financial crisis often
proof to be too big for journalism alone to grasp. It is our task to
explain, to tell facts and fiction apart, to give commentary, to
make sense of the world we live in. I think we can use some help. I
think we need help. Your help. We could profit from your
knowledge, you could profit by reaching out to the society you’re
part of.
Please allow me to recount a parable. The newspaper I work for,
Dagblad De Limburger, is the fifth largest of this country. There are
four papers that are bigger, all of them national publications. I work
for a newspaper that is exclusively focused on Limburg.

4. Now.
Fifteen years ago, we were still living the good life. Subscriptions
were high; advertisements were coming in so fast we did not know
what to do with the money we were earning. We were fat and lazy.
This all went to pieces with the rise of the internet, free newsoutlets and the idea that somehow all information should be free of
cost. Suddenly, I just a few years time, newspapers were in
troubled waters. We were forced to rethink our way of working. The
public, we learned in harsh way, was not depending solely on us
anymore for the spreading of news and knowledge. And the public
raised questions about the routines we had used for many years to
reach them. We had in a way, become a profession that was selfcentered, self-satisfied and not prepared for the world outside, the
world of tomorrow or even the world of today. It took some years
and blood, sweat and tears, but I have seen how the newspaper I
work for has transformed itself from an institute that looked upon
it’s readers as anonymous strangers or an undifferentiated mass of
wallets, to an organization that builds relationships with it’s
audience, gets to know them and tries to help them understand the
complicated world we live in. I believe that’s a task we have in
common.
One last point that may be of interest to you is the answer to the
question how to approach newspapers if you’re interested in sharing
your expertise. Journalists use a set of news values that determine
the newsworthiness of sources that reach the newsroom. The most
well-known and complete list of these values is the one by Galtung
& Ruge you can find all over the internet. They use three categories
for news values: 1. Impact, 2. Audience identification and 3.
Pragmatics of media coverage. Impact, for instance, means: the
more people affected by the news, the more interesting it
becomes. Unexpectedness is also a value: if something is out of the
ordinary, it is news. Dog bites man is no news, man bites dog is.
Timeliness is also considered a value: news gets out of date quickly;
it's timely if it happened recently. Proximity or closeness is also
important to newspapers: if something happens within the papers
circulation area, it is more important than something happening far
away. If the University of Taiwan closes 30 out of it’s 54
departments it probably wont’get a mention in De Limburger. If the

5. university of Maastricht closes down one department, it probably
will make the frontpage.
Although a glance at all of these values may help you understand
the way a journalistic mind works, it is also very interesting to see
how, for example, Duke University in North Carolina, has developed
a pro-active strategy called ‘start spreading the views’.
This strategy is aimed exclusively at gaining media attention for it’s
faculty members and raising the institution’s profile far beyond it’s
North Carolina home. I really loved the lead to their Guidelines for
writing an article. I quote: ‘Do you have an interesting opinion to
share? If you can express it clearly and persuasively in an op-ed
article, you may reach millions of people, sway hearts, change
minds and perhaps even reshape public policy. In the process, you
may also earn recognition for yourself and your institution, all for
less effort than it takes to write a professional journal article’.
In the ‘how to’-part of the guidelines the Department of
Communications summarizes some of the rules mentioned earlier
but adds a few like this one: ‘Avoid jargon. Simple language doesn’t
mean simple thinking; it means you are being considerate of readers
who lack your expertise’.
Thank you for listening
8-1-2014

6. university of Maastricht closes down one department, it probably
will make the frontpage.
Although a glance at all of these values may help you understand
the way a journalistic mind works, it is also very interesting to see
how, for example, Duke University in North Carolina, has developed
a pro-active strategy called ‘start spreading the views’.
This strategy is aimed exclusively at gaining media attention for it’s
faculty members and raising the institution’s profile far beyond it’s
North Carolina home. I really loved the lead to their Guidelines for
writing an article. I quote: ‘Do you have an interesting opinion to
share? If you can express it clearly and persuasively in an op-ed
article, you may reach millions of people, sway hearts, change
minds and perhaps even reshape public policy. In the process, you
may also earn recognition for yourself and your institution, all for
less effort than it takes to write a professional journal article’.
In the ‘how to’-part of the guidelines the Department of
Communications summarizes some of the rules mentioned earlier
but adds a few like this one: ‘Avoid jargon. Simple language doesn’t
mean simple thinking; it means you are being considerate of readers
who lack your expertise’.
Thank you for listening
8-1-2014