bq. If I may draw an historically inspired (if probably inappropriate) analogy, journalism a few years ago was like Kate Winslet in Titanic — lovely, enjoying first class, but lost in its own world and its own problems. It was largely oblivious to political science (Leonardo DiCaprio in this scenario) — smart, wanting to impress journalism, but carrying a bit of a chip on its shoulder. In recent years, though, we’ve begun seeing each other, dancing to Irish music, enjoying the occasional hook-up in the jalopy, enriching both our lives.
bq. Obviously I don’t want to push this metaphor too far, since it results in political science frozen to death at the bottom of the North Atlantic.
From Seth Masket’s discussion of the recent roundtable on political science and journalism, which I discussed here. I myself have often mistaken Seth himself for DiCaprio. Seth also presents this:
Which is interesting to chew on. As Seth says, my thought is that it’s possible for political science to be incorporated into an article even if political scientists are not. So perhaps there are other, better measures of the discipline’s influence. Still, interesting.