Shorenstein Center Names Fall Fellow Group

The Harvard Kennedy School’s Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy announced its slate of fall fellows earlier this week—a group of two journalists and two academics who will stay at Harvard to research issues confronting the modern press.

The Shorenstein fellowship program, now in its twenty-fourth year, funds a semester-long term for experts in news media.

Fellows are selected by a committee of the Shorenstein Center’s senior staff and Kennedy School faculty.

This year’s fellows are John G. Geer, a Vanderbilt professor and an expert on political attack ads; Loen Kelley, a television producer who has worked with CBS, CNN, and CNBC; Bill Mitchell, a faculty member at the Poynter Institute who studies the evolving economics of news; and Steve Williams, executive editor for the BBC’s Asia Pacific channels.

In addition, Daniel Okrent, the first public editor of the New York Times, will be serving as the visiting Edward R. Murrow lecturer. Okrent, previously a Shorenstein fellow and an associate with the center, will teach a class on writing and reporting politics.

Alex S. Jones, director of the center, said he thought this year’s class of fellows was particularly well-suited to address the polarized nature of modern political discourse.

“We’re in an even more partisan, poisonous environment than we ever have been,” said Jones, who pointed to the health-care debate as a particularly striking current example. “With these fellows, we feel like we’re right on the tip of the arrow.”

Geer, whose research will focus on how news media coverage actually augments negative campaign advertising, said he was excited to interact with members of the Harvard community and to immerse himself in Cambridge life.

“Academics and political scientists like me tend to keep ourselves in ivory towers and not interact with practitioners,” Geer said. “I’ve got a lot of data I want to present here to the community, so that would give me the chance to ask people if these results square with their own experiences and their own intuitions, and if not, I want to know why.”

Kelly said she was particularly thrilled about the prospect of engaging with the Harvard community beyond her own research.

“The whole University is available on all levels of faculty and students and all the events going on, and it’s just a rare opportunity to be exposed to so many exciting people and interesting issues and topics and events,” Kelly said.

­—Staff writer Evan T.R. Rosenman can be reached at erosenm@fas.harvard.edu.