Cronkite Names New Assistant Professor of Digital Media

Monica Chadha A former international journalist for BBC World Service in India is joining the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University as an assistant professor of digital media. Monica Chadha spent more than a decade reporting from India for the BBC and The Indian Express, one of the country’s largest English language newspapers. In 10-plus years of reporting, Chadha produced multimedia stories for online, radio, print and television. “We’re thrilled Monica Chadha will be joining the Cronkite School in fall 2014,”said Marianne Barrett, Cronkite senior associate dean and Solheim Professor. “Her professional background and research focus will beautifully complement the school’s outstanding digital media faculty.” Chadha will help lead one of the country’s strongest digital journalism programs and teach multimedia journalism to introductory and advanced-level students. She also will conduct innovative research in digital media. “I am very excited to join the Cronkite School and a team that is committed to journalism research and practice in equal measure,” Chadha said. “It is a great opportunity to work with exceptional colleagues, talented students and continue my research in the field of new media and media entrepreneurship.” At the BBC, she wrote and produced news stories on a variety of subjects, including the Indian economy, politics and entertainment. She also worked with journalists across South Asia, assigning and editing news stories. Chadha is completing her Ph.D. at the School of Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin with a research focus in entrepreneurial journalism, newsroom convergence and new technologies and media effects. Chadha has been published in Journalism Practice and the Journal of Information Technology and Politics and presented her research at international academic conferences in London, Washington and Santiago, Chile. She holds two master’s degrees, one in political science and sociology from the University of Mumbai, another in American studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University at New Delhi. In the past six years, the Cronkite School has added more than 20 top journalists and scholars to its faculty. Cronkite faculty lead innovative programs in which students gain valuable multimedia journalism skills and produce content for professional media outlets. Programs include: Carnegie-Knight News21, an annual investigative multimedia reporting initiative that sends students around the country to report and produce in-depth multimedia reports on topics of national significance; Cronkite News Service, an immersive professional program in which students produce stories for Arizona news organizations on multiple platforms; Cronkite NewsWatch, an award-winning 30-minute student newscast; and the New Media Innovation Lab, a program where journalism students create cutting-edge digital media products with students from other disciplines.