Academics and the competition for attention

South Korea's recent presidential impeachment brought out a new academic phenomenon - the scholarly live report.

The impeachment of Yoon Seok-yul in South Korea brought out a new academic phenomenon - the scholarly live report. It intrigued me. After doing some further research on past crises for a forthcoming book, it’s not something altogether new. Rather, it’s a trend. Academics are competing with random commentators, acerbic trolls, and journalists for likes and reposts and it’s a race to the bottom. Being first counts, and many academics now want to be first, so speed eclipses analysis.

On 14 December, the second time legislators voted to impeach Yoon Seok-yul, it started with an early social media post. One academic noted something like:

“I’m still far from the gates. Demonstrators are everywhere…”

It continued throughout the afternoon and evening, providing live updates of what was happening and the peculiarities of the event. These updates were interspersed with two-bit references to history, international relations, and social criticism.