The Monkey Cage (blog)
Political science blog at The Washington Post
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Monkey Cage was a political science blog. Established in 2007, it was published by The Washington Post from 2013 through 2022. In 2023 it relaunched as the website Good Authority.[1]
History
The blog was created in 2007 by a small group of academics, in a quest to get people interested in their political science research. It soon attracted writers, gained readers, and won awards[2]
In 2013, it entered into a three-year publishing deal with The Washington Post, which was renewed several times over the years.[2][3][4][5]
After leaving The Washington Post in 2022, the blog planned to relaunch as an independent site in 2023.[6] It has since relaunched as the website Good Authority.[1]
Purpose and contents
The blog was created in part to push back on political media coverage and policy discourse that ignored political science research.[2][7] The blog's contents have been described as a form of explainer-journalism,[7] as the blog primarily published short editorials by academic political scientists who summarized their political-science research or apply political science to current events. The blog also occasionally published pieces by scholars in related academic disciplines.[8][9]
Political scientist Erik Voeten was an editor on The Monkey Cage for some time.[10]
Recognition
In 2011, the blog won "Blog of the Year" by The Week magazine.[11]
The blog's content has been cited in numerous newspapers.[9] According to John M. Sides, the blog was visited by 719,000 people and viewed over 2 million times from November 2007 and December 2010.[9]