Dirty mirror or focal lens: The role of literary journalism in the public understanding of psychological science.

© 2016 Dr Gina PerryThe overarching question posed by my research and explored from both an academic and creative perspective is to what extent can literary journalism transform its ‘dirty mirror’ reputation in communicating and commenting on the psychological sciences for a general reading public. Theories of the popularization and communication of science have largely focused on the ‘hard’ sciences and frequently conceptualize journalism as a subordinate discipline and an often unreliable ‘dirty mirror’ in the dissemination of knowledge to the public. In the scholarly component of my thesis I will argue for a new ‘focal lens’ model that recognises the relationship between the psychological sciences and journalism as a symbiotic one between two equal spheres of influence. The model I propose will conceptualise a conversation in which literary journalism can make a range of important contributions. These include celebrating psychological science and its achievements to offering alternative truths, new interpretations, raising new ethical issues, stimulating new knowledge and new ways of understanding psychological research. Just as the psychological sciences can focus a lens upon questions of human behavior and our mental life, journalism can focus its lens back upon the psychological sciences as a human phenomenon requiring the insights that journalism is designed to bring forward. I will apply this model to three case studies of literary journalistic accounts of psychological research to test the effectiveness of the model. The creative component of my thesis will apply the model and techniques identified in the scholarly component to the retelling of a classic psychological study - Muzafer Sherif's Robbers Cave experiment