Leading Scholar of Digital Journalism to Speak at W&L
Nikki Usher, an assistant professor in George Washington University’s School of Media and Public Affairs and one of the leading scholars of digital journalism, will deliver a talk at Washington and Lee University on Tuesday, Dec. 8, at 5 p.m. in Huntley Hall Room 221.
Usher will speak on “Interactive Journalism: Hackers, Data, and Code,” the title of her forthcoming book, which examines the collaboration of journalists and programmers to create new forms of interactive journalism built around data and multimedia.
Her talk is free and open to the public. The event is hosted by W&L’s Department of Journalism and Mass Communications.
Usher has spent time in dozens of newsrooms around the world, researching the ways journalists are adapting to the whirlwind of changes transforming their profession. She has conducted field research at The New York Times, NPR, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and others. Usher’s 2014 book, “Making News at The New York Times” (University of Michigan Press), was given the 2015 Tankard Book Award by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) as the top academic book in the field that year.
“Interactive Journalism” is based on extensive field research, conducted between 2011 and 2014, ranging from New York to London to Doha, Qatar, examining the work of data journalists and the creation of interactive forms of digital news.
Usher has published nearly two dozen peer-reviewed academic journal articles, and is a freelance contributor to the Columbia Journalism Review and Nieman Journalism Lab. She was also a 2014–15 Reynolds Journalism Institute Fellow at the University of Missouri and a 2013 Tow Fellow at the Columbia University School of Journalism.
Before entering academia, Usher was a reporter at the Philadelphia Inquirer. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in communication from the University of Southern California and an A.B. from Harvard University.
