Allissa Richardson

Last updated
Allissa Richardson
Dr. Allissa V. Richardson.jpg
Born
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater Xavier University of Louisiana
Northwestern University
University of Maryland
Occupation(s)Journalist, professor
Website http://www.allissarichardson.com

Allissa V. Richardson is an award-winning journalist, author, and scholar. She is an associate professor of journalism in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California and the founding director of the Charlotta Bass Journalism and Justice Lab. [1] She is best known as a proponent of mobile journalism and citizen journalism. Her research, writing, and teaching focus on the use of smartphones by African Americans to document police brutality and other social justice issues, a practice she has termed "mobile witnessing." Additionally, Richardson is a Nieman Foundation Visiting Journalism Fellow at Harvard University, the 2012 Educator of the Year for the National Association of Black Journalists, [2] and a two-time Apple Distinguished Educator. [3]

Contents

Biography

Early life and education

Richardson has a wealth of knowledge, specializing in both the literary and scientific fields. She first obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Xavier University of Louisiana, graduating with honors in 2002. Following this, in 2004, Richardson earned her Master's degree of Science in Journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Richardson then went on to earn her Doctorate of Philosophy in Journalism Studies from the University of Maryland College Park in 2017. Her dissertation is titled, "Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones and the New Protest #Journalism." Richardson explored the lives of 15 mobile journalist-activists who documented the Black Lives Matter movement using only their smartphones and Twitter. She was honored with the Dr. Mabel S. Spencer Award for Excellence in Graduate Achievement.

Journalism career

Richardson began her journalism career in 2002 as a general assignment intern for the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, New York, after winning a Freedom Forum scholarship. [4] In 2003, Johnson Publishing Company selected her as its inaugural intern for Jet magazine . She was promoted to assistant editor of Jet at the end of her internship. Richardson chronicled what she described as a "once-in-a-lifetime experience" of working alongside Jet's founder, John H. Johnson, in a personal essay titled "Farewell and Thank You to John H. Johnson", after he died in 2005. She wrote: "When Mr. Johnson died Aug. 8 at the age of 87, I was torn between feeling selfishly saddened by his departure and enormously grateful for the inroads he made in American journalism". [5] Richardson has reported on Capitol Hill as an assistant editor of food policy for Food Chemical News. She also has written on health, technology and culture for O, The Oprah Magazine , The Baltimore Sun and the Chicago Tribune .

Academic career

At 25, Richardson began her career as an educator as a faculty member of Morgan State University. She served as coordinator of its journalism program, and launched and directed the Morgan MOJO Lab in 2010. [6] Students enrolled in her MOJO Lab classes learned to report news using only iPod Touch devices. [7] Morgan State University became the first and only historically black college in the country to offer mobile journalism courses. [8] Richardson accepted a professorship at Bowie State University in Fall 2012. She relocated the MOJO Lab to its campus. She was a mobile media professor in the Emerging Media and Technology division in the School of Communication until 2017. [9] After earning her doctorate, Richardson joined the journalism faculty at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She holds a dual appointment in both the journalism and communication departments within the Annenberg School. She studies black feminist media, communication and social justice, mobile journalism, networked journalism, race and the media, and visual communication theory.

Medical career

Richardson worked as a laboratory researcher for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration while studying biology at Xavier University of Louisiana. Her initial career goal was to become a clinical neonatologist who studied ways to decrease nosocomial infections in newborn babies. Her FDA research focus was antimicrobial resistance. [10] Richardson was accepted to the Howard University College of Medicine in 2002, but declined the offer to matriculate. [11] She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in biology, but decided to follow her passion for writing instead. She enrolled in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University that year and won its Weinstein-Luby Outstanding Young Journalist award. [12]

Fellowships and Affiliations

Lectures and media appearances

Richardson has given lectures on mobile journalism throughout Africa, Europe [13] and the United States. [14] [15] She has appeared at Harvard University, [16] South by Southwest, Online EDUCA Berlin, the MacArthur Foundation-supported Digital Media and Learning Conference, and many colleges, universities, libraries and United States embassies. Richardson has appeared on NPR to discuss innovation in journalism and education. [17] You can find more of her work on various other platforms such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and ABC News. Her company, MOJO MediaWorks, has been featured in Black Enterprise .

Awards and recognition

Creative Works and Publications

Richardson is also known for her contributions to documentary filmmaking and virtual reality projects. In 2020, she co-executive produced the virtual reality docu-series "In Protest: Grassroots Stories from the Frontlines," which aired on Facebook Watch and Oculus TV. The series documented the lives of grassroots activists involved in racial justice movements across the United States.

Some of her key works include:

Her journalistic achievements have been widely cited and recognized for their depth and focus on how smartphones and social media have democratized public witnessing, highlighting systemic racism and police brutality in media. One of her most significant contributions to date is her book, "Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, and the New Protest #Journalism". This book explores how Black citizen journalists have been able to utilize smartphones and other forms of media technology to document cases of police brutality, and the significant impact it's had in movements like Black Lives Matter. The book has won multiple awards, including the 2022 Best Book Award from the American Sociological Association's Communication Division, the 2021 Hazel Gaudet-Erskine Best Book Award from the International Communication Association, and the 2020 AEJMC Tankard Book of the Year Award.

Activism

Richardson has called for state-level education reform that would mandate the integration of mobile devices in classrooms to create personal learning environments, which empower students to take ownership of their learning experiences. [21] [22]

Richardson is the founder of MOJOPro (formerly known as MOJO MediaWorks). The company creates iPad/iPod storytelling workshops for youth, and mobile learning professional development workshops for educators. [23] In 2012, Richardson co-created the traveling iPod storytelling workshop for the nationally syndicated PBS film, Slavery by Another Name . [24] In 2013, The Washington Post invited her to create a monthly iPad journalism workshop series for journalists, teachers and students in the Washington-Metropolitan area.

Richardson has been an advisory board member for Global Girl Media. [25] The organization trains girls to shoot and edit news using traditional cameras. Richardson created its first mobile journalism curriculum in 2011, and trained young women in South Africa and Morocco to report news using iPod Touch devices. [26]

Richardson has been an advisory board member for Black Girls Code (BGC). BGC trains girls of color to create websites, mobile applications and robot prototypes. In March 2013, Richardson created its first youth mobile journalism workshop that launched at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. The project's novelty earned Richardson and her company acclaim in Black Enterprise magazine as a technology firm on the rise. [27]

Legacy

USC Annenberg - Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab

In 2022, Richardson became the Founding Director of the Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab at USC, named after Charlotta Bass, one of the first Black women newspaper publishers in the U.S. The lab is dedicated to exploring the intersection of media, race, and justice, with a particular focus on Black communities on the West Coast. It serves as a hub for experimenting with new forms of journalism, including mobile journalism, extended reality, and AI-driven storytelling.

Through her work at USC’s Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab [28] and her broader academic and public contributions, Richardson has become one of the foremost scholars on the use of technology in journalism,[ citation needed ] particularly in relation to Black communities. Her concept of "mobile witnessing" has redefined the role of smartphones in protest movements, establishing her as a critical voice in both academic and public discourse on race, technology, and media.

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References

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  2. "NABJ Honors Morgan State University's, Allissa Richardson as Journalism Educator of the Year - National Association of Black Journalists". www.nabj.org. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  3. "HBCU Review: Spelman College Named HBCU of the Year". BET.com. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  4. "Chipsters embrace new challenges" Archived 2012-07-10 at the Wayback Machine , Chips Quinn Diaries, May 25, 2012.
  5. "Farewell and Thank You to John H. Johnson" Archived 2014-12-10 at the Wayback Machine , Chips Quinn Diaries, August 15, 2005.
  6. Allissa Richardson Faculty Profile Archived 2013-02-17 at archive.today , Morgan State University.
  7. "The Morgan MOJO Lab" Archived 2013-01-09 at the Wayback Machine , Morgan State University.
  8. "Morgan State Launches Mobile Journalism Lab, Leading HBCU's in Worldwide New Media Network", HBCU Buzz, April 13, 2011.
  9. "Professor Teaches Digital Age Journalism" Archived 2013-02-17 at archive.today , Bowie State University Newsletter, September 12, 2012.
  10. "Windows to Research and Regulatory Science", Food and Drug Administration, December 1999.
  11. "Frequently Asked Questions" Archived 2013-02-15 at archive.today , Allissa Richardson – Official Site.
  12. "Meet Allissa Hosten" Archived 2013-02-17 at archive.today , Knight Digital Media Center.
  13. Speaker Profile, Online EDUCA Berlin, November 2012
  14. Widgets and Wikis for the Web 2.0 Journo, AEJMC
  15. Akilah Bolden-Monifa, "Public Relations and Journalism: The Intersecting Highway", CBS Diversity Blog, August 23, 2010.
  16. "2014 Christopher J. Georges Conference on College Journalism | Speaker Bios". nieman.harvard.edu. Retrieved 2018-03-06.
  17. "Morgan State finds its Mojo", Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast, June 23, 2010.
  18. "Reporting Projects Aim to Reach Minority Communities via Mobile Sites and Apps", Knight Foundation Blog, August 13, 2010.
  19. "Top 100 Digital Sisters of the Year", Digital Sisterhood Network, December 20, 2012.
  20. "Spencer Winners History" (PDF). gradschool.umd.edu. 2018. Retrieved March 5, 2018.
  21. "Mobile Journalism: A Model for the Future", Diverse Issues in Higher Education, June 29, 2012.
  22. "Teaching Kids Through Mobile Media", Open Society Institute, June 20, 2011.
  23. MOJO Workshops Archived 2013-04-05 at the Wayback Machine , MOJO MediaWorks – Official Site.
  24. Slavery by Another Name Education Credits, PBS.
  25. "Global Girl Media Launches South Africa News Bureau" Archived 2014-02-01 at the Wayback Machine , Global Girl Media – Official Website.
  26. "September Spotlight: Allissa Richardson" Archived 2014-02-02 at the Wayback Machine , Black EOE Journal, September 14, 2011.
  27. Black Enterprise
  28. "Charlotta Bass Journalism and Justice Lab". annenberg.usc.edu. Retrieved 2024-09-13.