Alfred Hermida
Professor
School of Journalism, Writing, and Media
Faculty of Arts
Research Themes: Evolving Language in an Information Economy
Co-Principal Investigator, Global Journalism Innovation Lab
Co-founder, The Conversation Canada
Alfred Hermida Ph.D. is an award-winning online news pioneer, digital media scholar and journalism educator, with two decades of experience in digital journalism.
He is a professor at the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media at the University of British Columbia, serving as director from June 2015 to December 2020. He is the co-principal investigator of the SSHRC-funded Global Journalism Innovation Lab and co-founded The Conversation Canada in 2017. His research addresses the transformation of media, emergent news practices, media innovation, social media and data journalism. His books include Data Journalism and the Regeneration of News (Routledge 2019), co-authored with Mary Lynn Young, and Tell Everyone: Why We Share and Why It Matters (DoubleDay, 2014), winner of the 2015 National Business Book Award.
Hermida was a BBC TV, radio and online journalist for 16 years, including four as a correspondent in North Africa and the Middle East when he reported on a military coup, Islamic insurgency, presidential assassination and the PLO-Israeli peace talks, among other issues. He went on to be a founding news editor of the BBC News website from 1997 to 2001, during which time the site win the Bafta for best news website four years in a row.
