I think we are at the point where Patreon & podcasts can keep the best researchers self-funded and working on these niche subjects full time, creating content that is actually consumed rather than stored as dense, esoteric, unintelligible nonsense locked into pay-for academic journals. The college model is wildly expensive and devoid of societal value
> where Patreon & podcasts can keep the best researchers self-funded and working on these niche subjects full time
This is how you turn your society’s intellectual storehouses into propaganda. Lost to the West, about how Byzantine scholars preserved Roman knowledge through to the Enlightenment, is worth picking up.
> I think we are at the point where Patreon & podcasts can keep the best researchers self-funded...
What I believe you are saying is that the "popular" researchers will get ad-spend to fund their "research" that won't be peer reviewed. Why even bother publishing research, if no one reads anymore? It would just devolve into a popularity contest and following trends. Those trends will just be co-opted by monied interests.
The esoterism is due to the fact that there is a body of research that you need to know to understand the new research. Just because you can't understand the topic in a short sound bite does not mean it is not worth researching. Not all of the research is intended to be consumed by a lay public either.
Many podcasts and Patreon exclusives are behind paywalls and there is no expectation of peer-review.
In regards to calling this a "college model", not all research is done at college there is also thinktanks (institutions) and industry research which are funded by governments as well.
I think governments should be accountable for making sure the research is rigorous, has a social benefit, and is publicly available.
You are quite correct that Substack will favor the popular, not the best. But universities will favor what is popular too. Just popular with the different audience who controls university budgets instead of the general public. And how can governments do any better? The way they are held accountable is an election, or in other words a popularity contest.
I don't see why my tax dollars need to fund Proust studies, nor Elvis and Hip Hop researchers for that matter. It's all for elites to feel like they are doing something useful, "research", that no one would ever voluntarily fund otherwise. Or if they would, they should find a way to get paid voluntarily.
I think that is a pretty wild take. I get that people question the social value of esoteric academic research, but do you really think it is fungible with entertainment research?
They are producing something that no one reads with zero impact. It is funded by undergraduate lectures and subsidies from other parts of the university and taxpayers at large.
They could instead produce lectures for society - "podcasts" - and continue their mind-numbing paper writing, if that's truly what they want to do all day (hint: no they don't).
