Findings Overview

WE1S presents its findings in the form of "Key Findings"—observations based on our project's big-data research on how the humanities are presented in mainstream journalistic media (wide-circulation newspapers, local newspapers, magazines, specialized news sources), online news sites, student journalism, social media (Twitter and Reddit), and other public sources. Key Findings also include some based on the surveys and focus groups we ran as case studies at two of our project’s home campuses (U. California, Santa Barbara, and U. Miami). Our research is conducted through digital humanities text-mining and modeling methods, especially topic modeling. Our case-study surveys and focus groups are "human subjects research" that complement computational "distant reading" by helping us understand our results better through on-the-ground observations of students and others grappling with the nature and value of the contemporary humanities.

These Key Findings are one-page “cards” that communicate clearly in bite-sized chunks. An important “explainability” method in data science originally inspired by documentation methods in medical and nutrition research, “cards” give essential information, examples, and evidence summaries. (See our Methods card M-1 on “cards.”) Each card ends with “Resources” that link to a “documentation deposit” holding our underlying research reports, lab notes, and other evidence.

WE1S’s Key Findings are by intention discrete and modular. But they are also inputs for more complex syntheses in our reports and other downstream or higher-level research and humanities-advocacy outputs. For example, Key Findings are components of WE1S’s Research-to-Action Toolkits, which link them to such other components also presented in “cards” form as Call-to-Action and Call-to-Communication recommendations.

Example of WE1S Key Finding card (KF-1-1): "Top newspapers do not include the humanities within crisis discourse"

Key Findings Themes (all findings)

The Humanities Crisis

The humanities are said to be in “crisis,” or at least academics say so. But how does the crisis of the humanities appear in light of other crises of concern in the media? How, where, and when do people think the humanities are in “crisis”?

The Value of the Humanities

How do people assign worth to the humanities in society? What kinds of values are the humanities said to have, and how are they related to other values in society that criss-cross each other in public discourse?

Broader Profile of the Humanities in Society

How do the humanities bridge from disciplines in the academy to broader society? Which humanities fields have the most mindshare in the media? Why are the humanities mentioned so much more than the sciences or business in obituaries, wedding announcements, and other ordinary, yet momentous, events of life?

Humanities and Social Groups

What is the relation of the humanities to racial, ethnic, first-generation student, and other social groups as understood in the media? Is there public discussion of how underrepresented groups are educated or find careers in the humanities at all by comparison with public attention to their representation in the sciences?

Humanities and Science in the Media

How do the humanities and sciences compare in their public profile in the media? Why doe the humanities seem to be so siloed in the academy (all about curriculums, majors, students), when the sciences appear as fields of general social interest? And does it matter that there are so many interesting objects for the media to cover in the sciences—from the small (e.g., viruses) to the big (e.g., exoplanets)—by contrast to the single kind of object that the humanities seem to have: books?

Students and the Humanities

What do students think about the humanities in relation to other fields, to society, and to life? Our findings draw on our analysis of mainstream news media and student newspapers, complemented by surveys of students and others at two of our project’s campuses (UC Santa Barbara and U. Miami). The surveys and focus groups we ran (following approved “human subjects” research protocols) help give an on-the-ground perspective on what we observed in published media.

The Humanities and Social media

How do the humanities appear on social media (Twitter and Reddit)? What kind of professional chatter is there (the ordinary bric-a-brac posts of students posting about courses or professors about publications and jobs). And how does that compare to the raw, full-throated voices of people, especially students, discussing the humanities, STEM, their majors, and all their hopes and fears on Reddit?

The Humanities and Ordinary Life

How pervasive are mentions of the humanities in the media as part of the common milieu of individual, social, and cultural existence? Why are there so many events, obituaries, and wedding announcements that mention the humanities?

Humanities Funding

What is the profile in the media of government agencies and private foundations that support the humanities? When funding for the humanities comes up in public discussion, which humanities fields are singled out for attention by comparison with the full spectrum of the humanities? Why is there so little media coverage of funding for humanities teaching, or for K-12 (primary and high school) humanities?

Humanities Crisis (KF-1-1): Top newspapers do not include the humanities within crisis discourse.

Value of Humanities (KF-4-1): The media assesses the value of the humanities both economically and intrinsically — but the Great Recession changed the balance of the discussion.

"History" gains more traction in public media discourse outside the academy compared to literature and philosophy

Broader Profile of Humanities (KF-5-10): “History” gains more traction in public media discourse outside the academy compared to literature and philosophy.

Humanities & Social Groups (KF-3-2): Discussions in the media about gender and sexual identity reveal conflicting attitudes about the humanities.

Humanities & Science (KF-5-7): The sciences stand out for the public as distinct fields (unlike the humanities, which blur together as just “academics”).

Students & Humanities (KF-8-1): Students writing about education value cognitive flexibility and “soft skills” associated with the humanities and liberal arts.

Reddit is a rich, robust forum for discussion of the humanities providing an unfiltered alternative to published media

Humanities & Social Media (KF-6-6): Reddit is a rich, robust forum for discussion of the humanities providing an unfiltered alternative to published media.

$The media covers only a fraction of the humanities areas the NEH was established by the U.S. Congress to support$

Humanities & Ordinary Life (KF-5-3): The media covers only a fraction of the humanities areas the NEH was established by the U.S. Congress to support.