Paper short abstract:

Based on past and on-going research, the paper deals with interactions of researchers and media on contents of prison research. In recent years, both media and academic research have been transformed by commercial logics. How does this shape expectations, interests, and outcomes?

Paper long abstract:

Media have, much like public funded research, an important role in democratic societies for the provision and distribution of information. At the same time, media production is a business with its own commercial logics and academic research has been transformed by greater emphasis on third-party funding, output, and "excellence". In this context, media-research interactions happen and shape particular forms, topics and issues. This paper focuses on the interaction between researchers of the Prison Research Group at the University of Bern and different represents of media in the context of past and ongoing research in the prison context. What are the expectations, interests, and issues? What are concrete experiences and outcomes? What is the influence on anthropologist's agenda? These questions are also analyzed in the context of the multiple ways anthropologists have been engaged with the media in the past and their scientific production has been "subject" of media production.