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Welcome! Thanks for visiting our research group page, where you can find information about of our research fellows and the scholarship produced as a result of this collaborative effort.
The Knight Center Research Group is focused on issues related to journalism and press freedom in Latin America and the Caribbean. The research fellows are faculty, graduate students and alumni of the Moody College of Communication's School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin. Current and past Knight Center fellows have been conducting research on Latin American media issues for several years, resulting in the publication of peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers, as illustrated below in the scholarship list.
The group was created and is coordinated by Knight Center's founder and director, professor Rosental Calmon Alves, Knight Chair in Journalism and UNESCO Chair in Communication at the University of Texas at Austin. The main goal is to incentivize collaboration between scholars interested in contributing to the scholarship on journalism and media in Latin America and the Caribbean
In addition to this initiative, the Knight Center promotes academic research as part of its global conference, the International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ), which has been held in Austin annually since 1999. Since 2011, the conference has published #ISOJ a peer-reviewed research journal, co-edited by professor Alves and Dr. Amy Schmitz Weiss, a professor at San Diego State University, who is also the research chair of the conference.
Rosental Calmon Alves is the first holder of the Knight Chair in Journalism title. A pioneer of online journalism in his native Brazil, Alves had a 27-year career as a journalist and educator before moving to the United States in 1996, where he began his role as Knight Chair at the University of Texas at Austin. Since 1997, he has taught classes in online journalism, international reporting, press freedom in Latin America and entrepreneurial journalism at UT Austin.
He is also founding director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas, an outreach program that helps thousands of journalists around the world with online training. The Knight Center’s innovative massive open online courses have reached more than 275,000 students from 200 countries and territories.
In Rio de Janeiro, Alves became a journalist at 16 and a journalism professor at 21. After more than a decade as a foreign correspondent in Europe, North America and South America, Alves returned to Rio to become an editor, then executive editor and director of Jornal do Brasil, then a leading national newspaper. Alves launched the first Brazilian online news service specializing in financial news, and Jornal do Brasil Online, the first Brazilian newspaper on the web and a pioneer in Latin America.
Amy Schmitz Weiss is a professor in the School of Journalism & Media Studies at San Diego State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2008.
She has received multiple internal and external grants for her research in digital journalism innovation from AEJMC, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Online News Association, SDSU University Grants Program and the SDSU's Projects for the Public Good.
She also is a former journalist who has been involved in new media for more than a decade. She has worked in business development, marketing analysis and account management for several Chicago Internet media firms.
Her research interests include spatial journalism, online journalism, media sociology, news production, multimedia journalism and international communication. Her research has been published in several peer-reviewed journals, as book chapters and in a book she co-edited.
She teaches journalism courses in basic writing and editing, multimedia, web design, data journalism, mobile journalism, sensor journalism, media entrepreneurship and spatial journalism.
Lourdes M. Cueva Chacón is an assistant professor for the School of Journalism and Media Studies at San Diego State University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin in 2020 and also holds a M.A. in Communication (UTEP, 2010) and a M.S. in Information Science (UNC Chapel Hill, 2005).
Her research addresses questions about social, historical, and systemic forces, as well as individual traits that influence journalistic practices and routines and their effects on the coverage of minority and marginalized communities in the U.S. Her research is informed by her professional experience covering the U.S.-Mexico border and teaching at Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
Dr. Cueva Chacón also researches Latin American journalism and how digital tools are changing journalistic practices in the continent—especially within investigative journalism— and the ways these new practices are strengthening democracy in these countries. More recently, she has focused on transnational collaboration among digital native media outlets in Latin America.
Her research has been published in top peer-reviewed papers such as Digital Journalism, Feminist Media Studies, Mass Communication and Society, Journalism Practice, among others.
Summer Harlow is the associate director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and a visiting associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Previously she was an associate professor of journalism in the Valenti School of Communication at the University of Houston, and an assistant professor of social media at Florida State University. A former journalist, Summer earned her Ph.D. in Journalism and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Trilingual (English, Spanish, and Portuguese), she researches the intersections of journalism (mainstream and alternative), social movements, and emerging media technologies, with an emphasis on Latin America and diasporic communities.
She is a former Inter-American Foundation Grassroots Development Fellow, and she won the Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award for best dissertation in the field from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She has written two books: Digital Native News and the Remaking of Latin American Mainstream and Alternative Journalism (Routledge, 2022), and Liberation Technology in El Salvador: Re-appropriating Social Media among Alternative Media Projects (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2017), which won the AEJMC-Knudson Latin America Book prize.
Her scholarly work has received numerous recognitions from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, and has been published in top peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Communication, International Journal of Press/Politics, New Media & Society, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, and Digital Journalism. Currently, she is the primary investigator for El Salvador and Guatemala in the Wolds of Journalism Study. She also is the Book Reviews Editor for the International Journal of Press/Politics.
Vanessa de Macedo Higgins Joyce is an associate professor focused on global journalism, media effects and democracy at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State University. Her studies look at the evolution of journalism in an interconnected world, focusing on transnational news and their effects, as well as the changing roles of journalists in comparative, cross national analyses.
Her work specializes in Latin America, which in the past few decades has undergone a particularly relevant transformation within the journalism landscape amidst a tumultuous context of insecure democracies. She received her undergraduate degree in Social Communication/Journalism from Pontifícia Universidade Católica, in São Paulo, Brazil. In her native Brazil, she worked as an analyst for two public opinion research companies and as a journalist for two digital native news organizations. She received her Masters and Doctorate degrees from the School of Journalism at The University of Texas at Austin.
She has published two books that were co-authored with leading experts in global media: From Telenovelas to Netflix: Transnational, Transverse Television in Latin America (2021) and The evolution of television: An analysis of ten years of TGI Latin America (2004-2014) (2016). Her work has been published at top peer-reviewed journals, such as Journalism, Journalism Practice and International Communication Gazette. She received the recent Latino/Latin American Communication Research Award at AEJMC 2018 for her study titled Seeking Transnational, Entrepreneurial News from Latin America: An Audience Analysis.
Ryan Wallace is a researcher and PhD candidate at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Journalism and Media. In 2013, he began his research career with a BS in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology from the University of California, Irvine. In 2017, he also received an MS in Biotechnology from Cal State University, San Marcos. With a multidisciplinary background, his research interests focus on how science is portrayed in the media, and ways in which researchers and journalists can better work together to convey science to the general public. As a science writer and editor, he has worked with publications like: The Latin Post, The Science Times, and Archaic Press Magazine.
Silvia DalBen Furtado is a PhD student and teaching assistant in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Texas at Austin, where she researches automated journalism and the use of AI in newsrooms. She has a Master's in communication (2018) from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) and her dissertation earned the Adelmo Genro Filho Award granted by SBPJor - Brazilian Association of Researchers in Journalism. She completed her B.A. in Journalism and in Radio and Television from UFMG, with an Exchange Program at the University of Nottingham (UK). As a journalist, she worked as a multimedia reporter at Estado de Minas’s website, in Brazil, and as an executive producer of films, videos, games, apps and new media at D2R Studios.
Harlow, S. (2022). Digital-Native News Sites and the Remaking of Alternative and Mainstream Media in Latin America. Routledge. (https://www.routledge.com/Digital-Native-News-and-the-Remaking-of-Latin-American-Mainstream-and-Alternative/Harlow/p/book/9780367715397)
2022
Harlow, S., Wallace, R. & Cueva Chacón, L. (2022). Digital (In)Security in Latin America: The Dimensions of Social Media Violence against the Press and Journalists’ Coping Strategies, Digital Journalism. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2128390
Higgins Joyce, V. D., Alves, R. C., & Chacón, L. C. (2022). Moving Barriers to Investigative Journalism in Latin America in Times of Instability and Professional Innovation. Journalism Practice. Published. https://doi.org/10.1080/
Higgins Joyce, V. D., Harlow, S., Schmitz Weiss, A. & Alves, R. C. (2022). Spatial Dimensions within Hierarchy of Influences: How re-conceived notions of space in networked societies impact Latin American journalists. International Communication Gazette. Published. https://doi.org/DOI: 10.1177/17480485221130
2021
Cueva Chacón, L. M., & Saldaña, M. (2021). Stronger and safer together: Motivations for and challenges of (trans) national collaboration in investigative reporting in Latin America. Digital Journalism, 9(2), 196-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2020.1775103
Harlow, S. (2021). A New People’s Press? Understanding Digital-Native News Sites in Latin America as Alternative Media. Digital Journalism. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2021.1907204
Harlow, S. (2021). Entrepreneurial News Sites as Worthy Causes? Exploring Readers’ Motivations Behind Donating to Latin American Journalism. Digital Journalism, 9(3), 364-383. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2020.1747941
Harlow, S. (2021). Protecting News Companies and Their Readers: Exploring Social Media Policies in Latin American Newsrooms. Digital Journalism, 9(2), 176-195. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2020.1738254
2020
Higgins Joyce, V. D. M., & Harlow, S. (2020). Seeking transnational, digital-native news from Latin America: An audience analysis through the lens of social capital. Journalism Studies, 21(9), 1200-1219. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2020.1734858
Mourão, R. R., & Harlow, S. (2020). Awareness, Reporting, and Branding: Exploring Influences on Brazilian Journalists’ Social Media Use across Platforms. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 64(2), 215-235. https://doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2020.1766929
Schmitz Weiss, A., Higgins Joyce, V. D., Harlow, S., & Calmon Alves, R. (2020). Defining Journalism Innovation in Latin America: Exploration into Perceptions among Educators, Students and Journalists. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, 75. https://doi.org/10.1177/10776958209353
2019
Harlow, S. (2019). Recognizing the importance of alternative media: Role perceptions and journalistic culture in Brazil. Journalism Studies, 20(1), 117-135. https://doi.org/10.1080/1461670X.2017.1364139
2018
Harlow, S. (2018). Quality, Innovation, and Financial Sustainability: Central American entrepreneurial journalism through the lens of its audience. Journalism Practice, 12(5), 543-564. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2017.1330663
Higgins Joyce, V. D. (2018). Independent Voices of Entrepreneurial News: Setting a New Agenda in Latin America. Palabra Clave: Revista de Comunicación, 21, 710–739. https://doi.org/10.5294/pacla.
Schmitz Weiss, A., Higgins Joyce, V. D., Harlow, S., & Alves, R. C. (2018). Innovation and Sustainability: A Relationship Examined Among Latin American Entrepreneurial News Organizations. Cuadernos.info, 42, 87–100. https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.42.1266
2017
Higgins Joyce, V. D., Saldaña, M., Schmitz Weiss, A., & Alves, R. C. (2017). Ethical perspectives in Latin America’s journalism community: a comparative analysis of acceptance of controversial practice for investigative reporting. International Communication Gazette, 79(5), 459–482. https://doi.org/10.1177/1748048516688131
Saldaña, M., Higgins Joyce, V. D., Schmitz Weiss, A., & Alves, R. C. (2017). Sharing the Stage. Analysis of social media adoption by Latin American journalists.Journalism Practice, 11(4), 396–416. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2016.1151818
Schmitz Weiss, A., Higgins Joyce, V. D., Alves, R. C., & Saldaña, M. (2017). Latin American Investigative Journalism Education: Learning Practices, Learning Gaps. Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, 72, 334–348. https://doi.org/10.1177/
2012
Bachmann, I., & Harlow, S. (2012). Opening the Gates: Interactive and multimedia elements of newspaper websites in Latin America. Journalism Practice, 6(2), 217-232. https://doi.org/10.1080/17512786.2011.622165
Bachmann, I., & Harlow, S. (2012). Interactividad y multimedialidad en periódicos latinoamericanos: Avances en una transición incompleta/Interactivity and Multimedia in Latin American Newspapers: Inroads in an Incomplete Transition. Cuadernos de Información, 30, 41-52. https://doi.org/10.7764/cdi.30.421
2022
Cueva Chacón, L.M., Saldaña, M., & Alves, R. C. (2022, May). Impacto de los Roles Institucionales en las Motivaciones para la Colaboración Periodística. Paper presented at the Virtual Preconference: “Media and Communication in Global Latinidades” during the 72nd Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference. (Paris, France)
Harlow, S., Higgins Joyce, V.M., & Schmitz Weiss, A. (2022). Understanding Latin American Journalism in Times of Crisis: 2013, 2017, 2021. Paper presented at International Communication Association Preconference on Media and Communication in Global Latinidades. Paris, May.
2021
Cueva Chacón, L. M., de Macedo Higgins Joyce, V., Wallace, R., & Alves, R. C. (2021, September). New Challenges and Networks of Learning: Transnational Journalistic Collaborations Across Latin America. Paper presented at the online JOLT-CICOM Conference: Harnessing Data and Technology for Journalism. Universidad de Navarra (Pamplona, Spain)
2020
Higgins Joyce, V. D., Wallace, R., Alves, R. C., & Harlow, S. (2020). ¿En quién confían los periodistas latinoamericanos? La evolución de la percepción de la fuente en las redes sociales. XV Congreso de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Investigadores de la Comunicación (ALAIC). Medellín, Colombia, June 2020.
2019
Cueva Chacon, L. M. & Saldaña, M. (2019, May). Stronger and safer together: The impact of digital technologies on (trans)national collaboration for investigative reporting in Latin America. Paper presented at the Pre-Conference: Digital Journalism in Latin America during the 69th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, Washington D.C.
Higgins Joyce, V. D., & Alves, R. C. (2019). Evolving barriers to investigative journalism in Latin America: an intra-regional analysis of influences. IAMCR, Madrid, Spain. July 2019.
Higgins Joyce, V.M., Harlow, S., Schmitz Weiss, A. & Alves, R. (2019). Spatial Dimensions of Latin American Journalists’ Role Perceptions: A Hierarchy of Influence Analysis. Paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication Convention, Toronto Canada, August.
Schmitz Weiss, A., Higgins Joyce, V.M., Harlow, S., & Alves, R. (2019). Defining journalism innovation in Latin America: Exploration into perceptions among educators, students and journalists. Paper presented at the Global Fusion Conference, Austin, Texas. October.
2018
Higgins Joyce, V. D., & Harlow, S. (2018). Seeking Transnational, Digital-native Entrepreneurial News from Latin America: An Audience Analysis through the Lens of Social Capital.
Additional Comments: This paper was awarded 2nd place in the category Latino/Latin American Communication Research award at the annual conference
2016
Higgins Joyce, V. (2016). Entrepreneurial News as Independent Voices: Setting a New Agenda in Latin America. Monterrey, Mexico: Proposed for panel to WAPOR Latin America.
Schmitz Weiss, A., Higgins Joyce, V. M., Harlow, S. & Alves, R. (2016). Innovation and Sustainability: A Relationship Examined Among Latin American Entrepreneurial News Organizations. WAPOR Conference, Monterrey, Mexico. October.
2015
Saldana, M., Higgins Joyce, V. M., Schmitz Weiss, A., & Alves, R. (2015). Sharing the Stage. Analysis of Social Media Adoption by Latin American Journalists. Paper presented at International Communication Association Conference, San Juan, Puerto Rico. May.
2014
Alves, R. C., Higgins Joyce, V. M., Schmitz Weiss, A., & Saldaña, M. (2014). Investigative Journalism in Latin America: Perceptions from the Newsroom. Montréal, Canada: Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication Convention.
Alves, R.C., Higgins Joyce, V.M., Schmitz Weiss, A. & Saldaña, M. (2014). Investigative Journalism in Latin America: Perceptions from the Newsroom. Paper presented at the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication Convention, Montréal, Canada. August.
Higgins Joyce, V.M., Alves, R.C., Saldaña, M, Schmitz Weiss, A. (2014). Understanding the Ethical Paradigm of Investigative Journalism in Latin America: A Comparative Analysis of Controversial Practices. Paper presented at the Global Fusion conference in Austin, TX, October.
2013
Alves, R.C., Higgins Joyce, V.M., Schmitz Weiss, A. & Saldaña, M. (2013). State of Latin American Investigative Journalism: Pedagogy and Practice. Presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. October.