Bridging the Gap between Academia and Policy-Making: Opportunities for Junior Scholars

Drawing on Buckingham’s (2013) observation that academic research either has to become public knowledge or its originators must have a high visibility in the public realm before their research can find inclusion into policy-making processes, this article offers a variety of examples of how academics have managed to bridge the gap between media and communication policy scholarship and policy-making. Contrary to the long standing belief that policy impact is extremely difficult and rare to achieve, we argue that junior scholars have more opportunities than ever to have their work become part of the policy-making process through new forms of collaboration, coalition building and changing perceptions of what is public knowledge.