Researchers are naïve, racist or know nothing!

UIO ResearchersDemonstration against hate. Photo: Unsplashed /UIO

Researchers are naïve, racist or without knowledge!

There is a battle raging on scientificness, researchers are targets in polarised debates according to a professor at UiO.

 

Allegations of steered research

“We know from representative investigations among journalists and bloggers that the highest incidence of threats and harassment is in matters relating to immigration and political conflicts. Furthermore, we also know that the public has low confidence in the coverage of immigration matters by the mass media, says Mette Andersson.

Mette Andersson is a professor at the Institute of Sociology and Social Geography at the Faculty of Social Scientific studies at the University of Oslo (UiO). She has interviewed 31 researchers in the migration field about their experiences and perception of research communication in a politically inflamed field of study. Many experiences a tough baptism when meeting with the public, she says.

– The dissemination of researchers is consciously read based on diverging political positions. If someone sees the research findings as «wrong» in relation to their own political point of view, researchers can be accused of politically driven research. Migration researchers are often, like researchers in other sensitive fields, criticised for being normative, politically correct or passive servants for the state or particular interest groups, the professor concludes.

 

© UiO / #Norway Today