About the Authors
Dr. Christopher Ali is an assistant professor in the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia and a Fellow of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. He joined the department in 2013, after completing his Ph.D. at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
His research focuses on communication policy and regulation, critical political economy, critical geography, comparative media systems, localism, and local news. He has published in numerous internationally ranked academic journals, including Communication Theory, Media Culture & Society, and the International Journal of Communication.
Christopher has worked for the Federal Communications Commission, submitted research to the Swiss Office of Communication, consulted with the South Korean Committee on the Impact of Media Concentration, and was part of a consortium of researchers, activists, and practitioners intervening at the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission regarding community and local media.
His first book, Echoes of Gabriel Tarde: What We Know Better or Different 100 Years Later, was published by the USC Annenberg Press in 2014. His new book, Media Localism: The Policies of Place (University of Illinois Press, 2017), addresses the difficulties of defining and regulating local media in the 21st century in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada—and the implications these difficulties have for the long-term viability of local news.
Damian Radcliffe is the Carolyn S. Chambers Professor in Journalism at the University of Oregon; a Fellow of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University; an Honorary Research Fellow at Cardiff University’s School of Journalism, Media, and Culture Studies; and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce (RSA).
He is an experienced digital analyst, consultant, journalist, and researcher who has worked in editorial, research, teaching, and policy positions for the past two decades in the United Kingdom, Middle East, and the United States.
Damian is a regular contributor to the BBC Academy, CBS Interactive (ZDNet), the Huffington Post, MediaShift, and TheMediaBriefing, where he writes about digital trends, social media, technology, the business of media, and the evolution of journalism.
His experience encompasses roles at the BBC, the NGO Volunteering Matters, Ofcom—the UK Communications Regulator—and Qatar’s Ministry of Information and Communications Technology (ictQATAR); he works across all media sectors (commercial, public, government, regulatory, academic, and nonprofit/civil society) and media platforms (digital/online, TV, radio, and print).
He blogs at http://www.damianradcliffe.com/.
Rosalind Donald is studying for a Ph.D. in communications at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. She worked as the research assistant for this project.
Her research focuses on the communication of climate change in Miami, Florida. Before coming to Columbia, she was deputy editor of Carbon Brief, a UK-based climate change fact‐checking website.
She also worked for several years as a reporter covering global antitrust.
Rosalind holds an M.A. in international studies and diplomacy from the School of Oriental and African Studies and a B.A. in French and Spanish from Cardiff University.