Updates academia

Master students from all the universities in the country can present their Master theses in a blog, which to start with is open for submissions of theses from the humanities and the social sciences.

– The blog format is a new way to approach both the general public and the media at the same time. We have made an interdisciplinary blog with the purpose of narrowing the gap between academia, the media and the public, says Anne Aaby, editor of Masterbloggen. The blog was launched last Monday.

New expression on a new arena

Behind the blog is the recently established and independent Organization for the Impartment of Master´s Degrees (MaFo), who work on an independent idealistic level to bring academia and knowledge from Master´s theses out to society and the public exchange of views. The new editor thinks blogging represents a completely new way to present theses.

– We´re creating a new expression. The arena that we make is different than the daily press, both in form and content. Master graduates can present their theses in contributions they themselves choose the form of. The blog form enables the graduates to express themselves with new methods, and the contributors are challenged to use other ways to express themselves than the traditional text, like video interviews and pod casts. Textually, a blog is completely different, says Aaby, who has a Master´s degree in Human Geography from the University of Oslo.

Wants to put theses on the agenda

The editorial staff consists of Aaby and nine other women with different profession backgrounds in the humanities and social studies. They will all function as profession editors within their specific fields. Aaby hopes that they and the contributors can put the results presented in the theses on the agenda.

– Master theses are produced at a large scale, but they tend to be passed over in the public debate. This might be because the academic form is hard to translate or update to the daily news´ language. Or, maybe the theses aren’t recognized as the piece of serious research that they actually are, and therefore their content fails to be presented seriously.

Snowball effect

Masterbloggen has during it’s first weeks found contributions to the blog through databases and acquaintances of the editorial staff. Aaby and the other girls hope that people will contact them to have their theses published, after the blog has become better known. For starters, three contributions a week will be published, but the goal is to publish one new contribution every day. MaFo hopes that by giving the writers freer reins concerning form and room, the content will also be more interesting.

– New Internet research shows that people nowadays read longer texts online than before, Aaby adds.

Line Krauss, Master student of literature impartment by the University of Oslo, is positive towards the attempt at presenting Master theses in a blog.

– This sounds like a really good initiative. It will be exciting to see if a blog about Master theses gets other people than students.