John Wihbey is an assistant professor of journalism and new media at Northeastern University, where he teaches in the Media Innovation program and is a faculty member with the NULab for Texts, Maps, and Networks. Previously, he was a lecturer at Boston University and an assistant director at Harvard’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, where he oversaw the Journalist’s Resource project. Supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Knight Foundation, that project has played a leading role in bridging media and social science, and promoting the concept of knowledge-based journalism.
John writes for the Boston Globe, Pacific Standard, Nieman Journalism Lab and Yale Climate Connections. His professional media background includes stints as a reporter for the Star-Ledger (N.J.), where he covered local politics and environmental issues, and as a producer and digital editor for the NPR-syndicated show “On Point with Tom Ashbrook,” from WBUR-Boston.
His areas of interest and research include: social media and social networks; digital storytelling; data journalism; media effects on society; Internet and telecommunications policy; and climate change-related communications issues. Under a grant from the Stanton Foundation, he is currently co-leading a research project about government transparency and online access to data.
John taught at the Roxbury Latin School in Boston after college. He is a graduate of Bowdoin College and holds master’s degrees from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. He lives with his family in Arlington, Mass.