Communities of scholars, researchers, or professionals engage in sustained discourse with new insights and discoveries occurring over time as a result of varied perspectives and interpretations.
Research within political science, policy studies, international relations, and related disciplines is produced by organizations in formats beyond traditionally accepted publications like books and journals. Governments, research institutes, and intergovernmental organizations are prolific creators of information that contribute to the scholarly conversation. The information produced by individuals and organizations engaged in political scholarship are essential voices in the conversation—providing perspectives from policymakers, businesses, governments, organizations, scholars and individuals.
Researchers should seek out these voices, including social media, datasets, blogs, and more, when identifying contributions to scholarship. When engaging with these alternative forms of scholarship, researchers should consider how the information contributes to generating an understanding of a topic, rather than a binary truth versus falsehood. As consumers of information and participants in the political process, researchers have an active role in the scholarly conversation and the research they produce adds to the overall quality and continuation of the conversation..
Evidence of Frame in Action
- Identifying and following hashtags on social media surrounding debates and current/past events in order to understand the rhetoric related to that event or debate.
- Accessing the Congressional Record to read hearings and language in bills to answer a question about how the requirement for individualized education plans became a required national policy.
- A researcher accesses a local newspaper's archives from the 1940s to understand how Nazism in Germany was reported then and compares it to reporting on white nationalism in particular United States newspapers today.
