Experts in the Mass Media: Researchers as Sources in Danish Daily Newspapers, 1961–2001

Abstract

This study of journalists' 1961–2001 use of researchers in three national Danish daily newspapers identifies a dramatic and accelerating sevenfold increase in the number of articles referring to researchers—an increase that is related to a significant shift in which types of researchers are cited and for what purpose. Researchers communicate research results much less than they did in the past; instead, they increasingly serve as expert commentators on knowledge produced outside of research institutions, on political and administrative decisions, and on other events. Second, because researchers more frequently comment on such wide-ranging, socially and politically important matters, it is now social scientists, rather than hard scientists, who appear most often.