The Batten School’s student-run academic journal the Virginia Policy Review hosted the 2015 National Journal Conference for Schools of Public Policy and Affairs this past weekend, featuring several guest speakers and attendees from policy schools around the country.
VPR, which publishes papers, opinion pieces, interviews and book reviews surrounding policy debates, started the conference three years ago, said Editor-in-Chief Frank Bontempo, a Batten graduate student.
“The purpose [of the conference] was to try to bring together a bunch of journals from all over the country to talk about the best practices in policy journalism,” he said. “It’s a great opportunity to talk to a bunch of other review staffs.”
VPR aims to publish work produced by graduate students at the Batten School alongside professionals and policymakers.
The conference featured four expert speakers who discussed their experiences with policy journalism and management — among them Jeffrey Bergner, former assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, and Anita Kumar, White House correspondent for McClatchy Newspapers.
“We invite speakers from across the country to talk about their experience with publishing or journalism as broad as possible,” Bontempo said. “Our speakers were all very great this year.”
The conference also featured several policy journal workshops led by Georgetown University, the University of Chicago, American University and the College of William & Mary. Topics included how to recruit staff and how to motivate policy students to take part in policy journalism.
“We’ve been getting more schools across the country to come and share their experiences,” he said. “It’s been a really great event for everyone involved.”
Kumar tailored her speech to the similarities and differences between covering policy and politics.
“Between politics and policy I would say covering policy is definitely harder,” she said. “Policy is understanding something that can really capitulate people. … I think it’s probably more important.”
Kumar also commented on broader challenges in journalism, including making material accessible and attracting new readers.
“It’s really hard … to not change the words to make it something readable,” Kumar said. “So you really have to understand what you are writing about. Try to write professionally in a more conversational way.”
She said many policy issues can be of great interest to readers, but that reporters must find the ways in which they are important.
“Verifying how [policy] affects people is actually talking to some of those people,” she said. “To me that’s really important. … Sometimes its really easy, sometimes it’s much harder.”
Bergner spoke about the intersection of theory and practice — the world of theory that is often presented in academic journals and the world of practice that exists in government.
“The rules of theory in social science are one thing, and they might not be that closely related to their world of practice,” he said. “The purest form of theory doesn’t really have anything to do with practice.”
Like Kumar, Bergner also offered advice to attendees on writing content for public policy academic journals.
“Do stuff that that has consequences,” he said. “It’s got to be practical, it’s got to be relevant.”
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