Joining American University in Fall 2013

I’m thrilled to announce that coming Fall 2013, I will be joining American University as associate professor of journalism in Washington DC. This brings me back full circle to the town where I was born and had my first real job as a young NASA intern in the 1980s.

The opportunity to pursue research in digital content towards knowledge in the public interest at AU’s School of Communication was too lucrative to pass up. I look forward to collaborative endeavors with Washington DC-area media organizations and the GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, museums) sector to investigate how crowd participation changes our notions of authority, media literacy and public knowledge. Working in a city with entities such as the National Archive, the Smithsonian, National Geographic, PBS and National Public Radio as digital innovators is an exciting prospect, and meshes with my current work with Wikipedia and content co-creation.

The reputation of American University’s ambitious and socially conscious student body was a big attraction, and I’m eager to work with colleagues involved with world-class efforts such as PBS’s Frontline, the Center for Social Media and J-Lab.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my four years at the USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. I will treasure the colleagues, students and friends I’ve made and remain a great supporter of the school. I believe Los Angeles is the most interesting metropolitan reporting ground for journalists and provides a fascinating prototype for the future of the US.

I’m proud that in the four years at USC, I brought high quality instruction and direction to the online program and worked with excellent colleagues to create a new curriculum for a one-year masters program. I cherished the privilege of getting to know all first year journalism masters students at USC through our combined digital class. Together, we explored issues about the impact of digital technologies on journalism and society and I’m confident we will remain in touch through the years, as have my previous students at Columbia and in Hong Kong. I look forward to sharing their joys and watching their career progress. For all its intellectual scope, this is a small business, and I will continue to meet and work with many of the folks I’ve taught, as they become leaders in the field. I’d like to thank journalism director Geneva Overholser for allowing me fruitful years in California with USC, and dean Jeff Rutenbeck for opening new horizons at American University.

Just some of the great students at USC over the years

When I first started researching Wikipedia in 2003, few people knew what it was. The notion of a widely used encyclopedia that “anyone can edit,” was so foreign, Wikipedia editors exhorted themselves to “BE BOLD” in editing it.

Journalism educators and academics now need to BE BOLD in editing their own discipline, as news content has become mobile, location-aware, push-notified and peer-produced. I’m looking forward to pushing those boundaries with an impressive team assembled at American University for years to come.

See the official American University announcement at their web site.