CAMBRIDGE, MA — The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, located at the Harvard Kennedy School, is pleased to announce the appointment of its spring 2016 fellows.
“We have a remarkably diverse and talented group of fellows for the spring semester,” said Thomas E. Patterson, Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press and the Center’s interim director. “In combination, they bring journalism and academic expertise to the Center across a broad range of topics. We’ll learn a great deal from having them in our midst.”
Joan Shorenstein Fellows spend the academic semester researching, writing, participating in events and interacting with students, faculty and the Harvard community. Since 1986, the fellowship program has welcomed more than 250 accomplished journalists, scholars and politicians from around the globe.
These distinguished reporters and scholars will be joining Bob Schieffer, Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow, who remains in residence at the Shorenstein Center on a visiting basis throughout the 2016 election season.
Joan Shorenstein Fellows
Johanna Dunaway is a newly appointed associate professor of communication at Texas A&M University. She was on the faculty of Louisiana State University from 2008 to 2015. Over the course of her career she has written extensively on the relationship between the structural and contextual features of media outlets and news content. Her current research examines the impact of the changing contemporary media environment across individuals, groups, and local communities. While at the Shorenstein Center, Dunaway will write about Latino voters through the lens of the changing media environment.
Joanna Jolly is the BBC’s South Asia editor, based in London, who was also recently assigned to the BBC’s Washington bureau as a feature reporter. Over the past decade she has worked as a radio producer in London, Brussels and Jerusalem. Jolly has also spent several years based in South Asia, first as the regional producer in Delhi and later as the BBC Nepal correspondent in Kathmandu. Jolly specializes in radio documentaries and long-form journalism. She won the 2015 Amnesty International Award (radio) for the BBC documentary “Red River Woman.” While at the Shorenstein Center, Jolly will explore how media campaigns around sexual violence shape public policy.
Dan Kennedy is an associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University who writes for the Nieman Journalism Lab, WGBHNews.org and various other publications. His book The Wired City: Reimagining Journalism and Civic Life in the Post-Newspaper Age examines online local and regional journalism. Kennedy is also a former online columnist for The Guardian and was the media columnist for The Boston Phoenix. His blog, Media Nation, covers issues related to journalism, politics and culture. While at the Shorenstein Center, Kennedy will write about strategies that could change the fortunes of the declining newspaper business.
Marilyn Thompson is a deputy editor at Politico, working to expand investigative reporting capacities. Prior to her role at Politico she served as Washington bureau chief for Reuters and a national editor for The Washington Post. She left the Post in 2003 to serve as editor and vice president of the Lexington Herald-Leader, later returning to Washington as deputy bureau chief of the Los Angeles Times. In addition to her career as an editor, Thompson has also worked as a reporter for the New York Daily News, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. While at the Shorenstein Center, Thompson will examine money, politics and the press in 2016.
Walter Shorenstein Media and Democracy Fellow
Bob Schieffer has been a reporter for more than half a century and was a part of CBS News for 46 years. He is one of the few reporters in Washington to have covered all four of the major beats: the Pentagon, the White House, Congress and the State Department. Schieffer anchored the Saturday edition of the “CBS Evening News” for 23 years, became the network’s chief Washington correspondent in 1982 and was named the anchor and moderator of “Face the Nation” in 1991. Within these roles he has interviewed every president since Richard Nixon and moderated three presidential debates. Throughout his career Schieffer has written four books, won numerous awards and covered every presidential race and nominating convention since 1972. He will be in residence at the Shorenstein Center on a visiting basis for three semesters, throughout the 2016 election season. During his time on campus Schieffer will meet with students and faculty, speak at various events for the Harvard community and participate in Shorenstein Center activities.
About the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy
The Shorenstein Center is a research center based at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, with a mission to study and analyze the power of media and technology and its impact on governance, public policy, and politics. Research, courses, fellowships, public events and engagement with students, scholars, and journalists form the core of the Center.
