Chris Anderson

Profile

I am a Professor of Media and Communication at the University of Leeds and member of the board of advisors at the Tow Center, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. I study journalism, politics, and how the production of public knowledge is being transformed in the digital age. I was most recently the author of Apostles of Certainty: Data Journalism and the Politics of Doubt (Oxford University Press), which tells the intertwined history of data journalism and the social sciences in the United States

I am also the author, co-author, or co-editor of 4 other books: Rebuilding the News (Temple University Press),The SAGE Handbook of Digital Journalism (with Tamara Witscghe, David Domingo, and Alfred Hermida); Remaking News (with Pablo Boczkowski, The MIT Press), and News: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Michael Schudson and Len Downie, Oxford University Press). I have written academic articles on digital journalism, sociology, political communication, and science and technology studies. I have more popular pieces for a variety of online websites and blogs including The Atlantic, Nieman Journalism Lab, The Columbia Journalism Review, and Public Seminar. From 2001 - 2008 I was an editor and organizer at NYC Indymedia, one of the world's first ''citizen journalism'' websites.

I received my PhD from Columbia University in 2009 under the supervision of Prof. James W. Carey and Prof. Todd Gitlin. From 2009-2018 I was an Associate Professor of Media Culture at the City University of New York.

Responsibilities

• Director of the School Media and Communication PhD Program

Research interests

My primary research interests include:

• journalism studies, particularly the sociology of digital news
• The history of data journalism, and quantitative methodologies more broadly
• the aesthetics and emotions of journalism, visuals in the news, and the ''feelings'' that underlie the deployment of numerical information
• science and technology studies
• the sociology of knowledge
• political theory and normative theories of the public sphere

I would welcome doctoral students interested in any of these or related subjects.

• Generic Visuals in the News: the role of stock photos and simple data visualizations in assembling publics

Qualifications

• PhD, Communication, Columbia University

Professional memberships

• International Communications Association
• Society for the Social Studies of Science (4S)
• Deputy Editor, Journal of International Press / Politics
• Editorial Board, Journalism: Theory, Practice, Criticism
• Editoral Board: Digital Journalism

Student education

I teach classes in media sociology and communications history.