About Me
I’m an Assistant Professor in the Department of Media Culture at the College of Staten Island (CUNY), and also a lead researcher at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism (where I received my PhD). In 2009-10 I’ll be a visiting fellow at Yale Law School’s Information and Society Program. I’ve been a pioneer in the theory and practice of citizen journalism, guiding one of the earliest “diy journalism” websites, the NYC Independent Media Center, from 2001-2008. You can usually find me somewhere in Brooklyn.
My dissertation research focused on changing patterns of work and cross-institutional collaboration in local news reporting, with a multi-year case study of journalism in Philadelphia, Pa. My method was ethnographic — I hung around newsrooms and did in-depth interviews– but also utilized the latest in social network mapping technology. In essence, I was able to “blow up” the traditional newsroom ethnography by also studying Philadelphia bloggers, independent journalists, and foundation funders, in addition to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time this has ever been done.
I’m currently juggling about a dozen balls in the air, which is little unnerving, especially considering that I was more or less doing one big thing (the dissertation) for about six years. I’m starting on faculty at the Senior CUNY college on Staten Island, I’ll be a fellow at Yale, and I’m working hard on completing a Columbia University report on the future of journalism authored by Michael Schudson and renowned ex-Washington Post editor Len Downie. I’m revising the dissertation for publication as a book, and trying to publish a few articles in unread but important academic journals. I’m also thinking about future research. Nonetheless, I still manage to find time to tweet incessantly and even blog occasionally.
This page will be fairly static, but will basically serve as the one place where all my work– my blog posts, academic research, syllabi, tweets, etc– can be found. I think its important that my blogging and other social media making not be seen as distinct from my academic work. In many ways, they’re all part of what Frank Zappa called “the big note” theory of the universe.
I hope you enjoy what you see; if you have questions, comments, or concerns, you can always email me at heychanders [at] gmail [dot] com.
