Blogging In Academia Is Hazardous

To go along with the theme highlighted in my prior post about the risks of professional blogging, Dan Drezner has an interesting post on the subject for academics, particularly related to graduate students (PhD track) and non-tenured faculty. Note: Dan is a somewhat rare case of a non-tenured professor that blogs …

There are a number of people that ask me whether there are risks to blogging. My general answer is related to getting "dooced" and making light of the subject because this is usually a new term for people that are just learning about blogging.

I usually cast blogging in a entrepreneurial light … that there is a potential upside to blogging and that the risks can be reasonably calculated … that the opportunity can be seized …

But for the academic world, this world is a quite different. At the majority of schools, the process (from my vantage point as an outsider) is akin to the mysteries of pledging a fraternity or sorority. Additionally, the total academic community is very small. For example, worldwide in marketing there may be 200 rookie professors vying for 75-some positions in business schools each year.

For the academic community, net-net I cannot say that I recommend blogging. For people in this community (graduate students and non-tenured faculty), if one blogs, I would generally say that the mission should be very intentional, direct, and non-entrepreneurial. Wish I could say otherwise, as my wife is part of this community (assistant professor of marketing in a business school – and I am not saying anything about her school – I am only making general statements about the academic environment).

I cannot even recommend anonymous blogging as a way to protect one’s interests. The community is just too small. People figure things out.

In the academic world, one should probably treat blogging from the frame of a trustee’s mindset (as opposed to an entrepreneur’s mindset). That is, the risks and the potential of loss should be weighed first (as opposed to opportunity).