Further academic revolution

[energyresearch]

Further to an earlier post, temporary academic professors continue to revolt in order to improve relatively poor working conditions.

Since it has been stated before that the situation of temporary academic staff is not "new" news(!), why is the media becoming more aware now of this scenario?

Comments

[melebeth]

Large unionization campaigns at high profile schools.

[yasminke]

Except many of the adjuncts I know cannot be unionized.

There's been an increase in sensational news about "temporary" employment, specially of academics.

[melebeth]

Sorry, what I meant was that the unionization campaigns at the high profile schools are likely part of why this is getting increased media coverage.

[yasminke]

Could be. Here it's the rapid rise in the number of "causal" contractors, and the disproportional responsibility they're carrying. Most casuals (adjuncts, TAs) are hesitant to associate with the unions.

[saciel]

Maybe because the topic is becoming international/internetional, my country has seen a rising media coverage of academic poverty in the past two years and our union is only starting to grow, same I can say for at least three European neighbor countries. So may be the media realized it's just a very topical topic and floats with the flow.

[st_crispins]

Because higher education is headed online. This is part of an ongoing story of 'what's wrong' with higher ed to justify the coming overhaul. Of course, in the near future, most professors will be employed and paid like adjuncts.

[trundle]

In the U.S., both the NSA/Edward Snowden case and Benghazi have been receiving loads of media coverage (from outlets with opposing political affiliations, of course) for months now. I'm not sure that the media being "aware" of something is a good metric for its relevance/likelihood of action/anything except for what content producers think will catch eyeballs.