My biggest work-related accomplishment for 2018 was finishing my book. #Ferguson: Journalism Tradition, Technology, and Transformation (working title) is under contract with the University of Missouri press and should be published in 2019. The book examines contemporary news coverage of racial issues in a digital era. It combines analysis of coverage and interviews with journalists who covered Ferguson to help understand how the field is changing.
It’s a tough world out there for professional communicators. Social media continues to alter the way news is produced and consumed. And our current chaotic political and cultural landscape has provided news editorial, public relations, and visual journalism majors in my Mass Media Ethics classes with no shortage of topics to grapple with in the 2018-19 academic year.
If nothing else, 2019 is shaping up to be a year of expanding international horizons for me.
As I write this, I’m living in Amman, Jordan as a Fulbright scholar. I’m teaching master’s students in the University of Jordan’s Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II School of International Studies. I’m also studying the Jordanian Arabic dialect, and learning how to play the oud. Amman is a fascinating and vibrant city, although the winter is turning out to be just as cold and rainy as it is in Bellingham.