Thomas R. Schmidt joins us from the Department of Communication of the University of California San Diego (CA, USA) and takes over the Tenure Track Professorship of Media History. Prior to his position in California, he was employed at Boise State University (ID, USA) and the University of Oregon (OR, USA), among others.
Thomas R. Schmidt completed his master degree in philosophy, political theory, and international relations at the University of Vienna in 2005. Upon completion he went to the United States on a Fulbright scholarship to study at the New School of Social Research in New York (2005-2007) and finalized a second master's degree in Literary Nonfiction at the University of Oregon (2009-2011). From 2012-2017, he conducted his PhD in Media Studies at the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Agora Journalism Center in Portland, Oregon (2018-2019), before moving on to Boise State University in Idaho. In 2019, he became Assistant Professor of Critical Journalism Studies at the University of California San Diego, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 2022. Before his academic career, he worked for several years as a journalist in Austrian media (ORF – Zeit im Bild, Kleine Zeitung, Datum, biber).
His interdisciplinary research focuses on the cultural and social history of modern journalism from a comparative perspective (Europe – USA). Building on contemporary historical research, Thomas R. Schmidt analyzes the institutional transformation of digital journalism in the face of economic constraints, political challenges, and technological upheavals. The focus of interest is on the following questions: How and under what conditions have journalistic modes of representation and practices changed in the digital age, and what impact does this have on the social role of journalism? In his current research project, The Making of Digital Journalism: A Comparative Cultural History, he examines the development of digital journalism between 1995 and 2020 and analyzes the emergence of genuinely digital forms of representation and professional practices in US and German-language journalism from a comparative perspective.
Thomas R. Schmidt's work has been recognized with numerous awards and research grants. In addition, his papers have been published in internationally renowned journals such as Journalism, Journalism Practice, Digital Journalism, The International Journal of Communication, and Communication and Change. More information about Thomas R. Schmidt can be found on his profile or via Google Scholar and ORCID.
A very warm welcome at home in Austria, dear Thomas!