CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard has selected six journalists and media executives as Visiting Fellows for the 2014-15 academic year. Each will spend a short period of time at Harvard University to work on an innovative project designed to advance journalism.
Dean Haddock, director of web and information technology for StoryCorps, will design a system for recording, editing and accessing user-generated interviews online that will extend StoryCorps’ proven interview methodology to the Internet and mobile devices. The project will offer new ways to produce high-quality, well-organized audio content that journalists, communities, families and the public at large can freely use and share.
Melody Joy Kramer, an editor and digital strategist at NPR, will develop a new model for public media membership to include non-financial forms of contributions and use of local stations’ physical space for community building. The goal of the project is to instill a sense of ownership and identity among listeners, allowing them to feel more connected to and invested in public media’s content, work and mission. She will also be working with MIT Media Lab graduate students to investigate new ways for audiences to tag audio.
Donna Pierce, a contributing editor at Upscale Magazine who writes about food in a syndicated column for the Chicago Defender, will research papers at the Harvard University Archives and elsewhere for a publishing project on the migration of African-American cooks and recipes from the South to the Midwest, West and Northeast. She also will work on a companion project to teach journalistic skills to young people through interviews with senior citizens about their food traditions.
Jack Riley, the London-based head of audience development for The Huffington Post UK, will research the future impact of smartwatches and wearable devices on journalism and content. His work at Harvard will include research, interviews, case studies and surveys about product potential and likely adoption, as well as monetization. Riley also will work on a prototype of a smartwatch publishing app.
Freek Staps, the head of the business news start-up NRC Q in the Netherlands, will research a set of issues related to journalism’s digital transformation, including leadership skills, newsroom buy-in and how content producers can work hand-in-hand with reader-oriented departments on the business side of media companies. His goal is to identify best practices in the United States order to introduce them to European markets.
Amy Webb, founder and CEO of Webbmedia Group and co-founder of Spark Camp, will develop a program to reform journalism education by researching and publishing a blueprint that can be adapted within universities. Webb has developed seven key areas for change, as well as new metrics and key performance indicators to measure outcomes, and will spend her time in Cambridge advancing her research.
The Visiting Fellowship program at Nieman was established in 2012 to invite individuals with promising research proposals to advance journalism to take advantage of the many resources at Harvard and the Nieman Foundation. Those who are welcome to apply include publishers, programmers, designers, media analysts, academics, journalists and others interested in enhancing quality, building new business models or designing programs to improve journalism.
The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard educates leaders in journalism and elevates the standards of the profession through special programs that convene scholars and experts in all fields. More than 1,400 accomplished and promising journalists from 93 countries have been awarded Nieman Fellowships since 1938. The foundation’s other initiatives include Nieman Reports, a quarterly print and online magazine that explores contemporary challenges and opportunities in journalism; the Nieman Journalism Lab, a website that reports on the future of news, innovation and best practices in the digital media age; and Nieman Storyboard, a website that showcases exceptional narrative journalism and explores the future of nonfiction storytelling.