I have been involved in two different projects focused on bringing political science research and insights to a broader audience: Good Authority and The Monkey Cage.
Good Authority was founded in September 2023. It is the successor to The Monkey Cage, which I helped to found in 2007. TMC was originally a group blog including David Park, the late Lee Sigelman, and me. It grew into a larger group blog that included Henry Farrell, Andrew Gelman, Joshua Tucker, and Erik Voeten and occasionally featured guest posts by other political scientists. As the site’s visibility increased, it won accolades: it was named 2010 Blog of the Year by The Week and a 2012 Best Blog by Time.
From September 2013 through the end of 2022, TMC published its content at the Washington Post‘s website. During this time, the site grew in many respects, with a larger editorial team that included not only political scientists but professional editors. TMC published work by over 5,300 individual contributors. The site was viewed more than 171 million times in its history.
Good Authority and TMC have benefited from generous foundation support from the Democracy Fund, the Hewlett Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation, the MacArthur Foundation, the New Venture Fund, George Washington University, and Vanderbilt University.
For more, see features about TMC in the Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Ed as well as these pieces about political science and public engagement that I’ve authored or co-authored:
“The Political Scientist as a Blogger.” PS: Political Scientist and Politics 44(2): 267-271.
“How Political Science Can Help Journalism (and Still Let Journalists Be Journalists).” 2011. The Forum 9(1), Article 2. With Brendan Nyhan.
“Building a Political Science Public Sphere with Blogs.” 2010. The Forum 8(3), Article 10. With Henry Farrell.
JOHN SIDES 