Dr. Robert E. Gutsche, Jr.
Associate Professor in Digital Culture, School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, Florida Atlantic University
Affiliated Graduate Faculty, Department of Geosciences
Strategic Lead, Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab
Visiting Professor
Faculty of Informatics, Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania
Downloads
cv | headshot
About Me
Following a career in journalism, my research and teaching identifies insertions of power in the news through place-making, international political and environmental communication, and technological innovations that serve as expressions of journalistic authority. My work expands beyond journalism to include digital cultures of social media, VR and AI, and politics, where I apply critical and cultural approaches to how digital content creators work as both power and change agents while adopting and reproducing authoritative and hegemonic explanations for local and world events.
I am an Associate Professor in Digital Culture in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies at Florida Atlantic University in the U.S. and a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Informatics at Vytautas Magnus University, in Lithuania. At FAU, I am affiliated with the Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab (PolCom Lab), the Department of Geosciences, and the Center for Peace, Justice, and Human Rights. Previously, I was an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Critical Digital Media Practice at Lancaster University, in the U.K., where I was affiliated with the Data Science Institute, Centre for Alternatives to Social and Economic Inequalities, Centre for Mobilities Research, and the Institute for Social Futures. During my time at Lancaster, I also developed and oversaw academic programs in journalism and communication at University Academy 92 in Manchester, U.K.
As a journalist, my work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, The Guardian, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and other regional and local news outlets in the U.S. I also cofounded the online non-profit Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Iowa after helping to launch the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I am honored to have led initiatives in community engagement and collaboration with journalists, students, and citizens through virtual reality and other immersive media in storytelling and research, particularly at Florida International University, in Miami, and I have been recognized for such practice-led research that has been published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism Studies, Digital Journalism, Journalism Practice, Visual Communication, and other journals as a Digital Journalism Research Fellow in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway, as a Tow-Knight Disruptive Educator at the City University of New York’s Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism, and as a Fellow at Lancaster University’s Institute for Social Futures, where I co-lead on the institute’s environmental futures research vein. I also led and contributed to dynamic storytelling research initiatives through the University of Missouri’s Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.
I am the author and editor of several books, including Media Control: News as an Institution of Power and Social Control (Bloomsbury), The Trump Presidency, Journalism, and Democracy (Routledge), and The Future of the Presidency, Journalism, and Democracy: After Trump (Routledge). I have appeared as an expert for international news stations about U.S. politics and media, having conducted more than 300 interviews for channels, including CNN, BuzzFeed, Deutsche Welle, Business Insider, CNBC, TRT, RT, France 24, Sky News, Al Jazeera, BBC radio, and Australia ABC. I am joined in life with my wife and our two sons.