The Real Reason Nobody Reads Academics

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof recently ignited a bit of a firestorm with a column asking why academics are irrelevant to public debates. I'd turn the question around: Why aren't journalists better at taking advantage of academic expertise?

The most efficient arrangement would have academics communicate directly with the public. Thankfully for journalists, they don't. That presents a kind of arbitrage opportunity for journalists: Although academics write in jargon, they speak in English. And they're typically happy to donate absurd amounts of time walking reporters through the thickets of their expertise. Their knowledge becomes our stories -- and, ultimately, our page views and advertising impressions. It would be a disaster for our profession if academics became good at communicating what they know.