I study, teach, and practice journalism as an assistant professor of Magazine, News & Digital Journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

My research centers on journalism, journalists, the information needs of citizens in a democracy, and audience engagement with the news. Recent studies have focused on the professional orientation of journalists who are dissatisfied with the traditional, neutral journalistic approach.

Studies have been published in journals including Computers in Human Behavior, Civic Studies, and the Newspaper Research Journal. Stay tuned for my Q paper Digitizing Q Research, which completed peer review and has been accepted for publication by Sage Research Method Case Studies.

Journalism is hard to do for pretend. The entire purpose is to connect with, engage, and educate you audience, and something magical happens when students pivot from writing for that audience instead of writing “just for class.” That’s why I have focused a significant amount of time at the Newhouse School pushing students to write for publication, and then working directly with them as their editor as they pursue ambitious projects like Borderlines, High Stakes, and Deconstructing the Divide, each of which has dominated the college journalism awards circuit the past three years.

The Newhouse School

My service includes spearheading my department’s assessment efforts each year and representing it on the assessment committee, serving on the board of the South Side Newspaper Project Inc., and reviewing for many conferences and journals, as well as internal SU grant programs such as the SOURCE grants.