Thomas Rosenstiel
Tom Rosenstiel is one of the most recognized thinkers in the country on the future of news and the intersection of media and politics. He is the Eleanor Merrill Visiting Professor on the Future of News at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland and the author of 10 books, including three novels. Before joining the University of Maryland this year, he was for nine years the Executive Director of the American Press Institute and previously founder and for 16 years director of the Project for Excellence in Journalism, one of the five original projects of the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C. He was co-founder and vices chair of the Committee of Concerned Journalists. He is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
His first novel, “Shining City” (2017), about a supreme court nomination, was an NPR Book of the Year. His second, “The Good Lie” (2019), about a terrorist incident, was a Washington Post bestseller. His third, “Oppo,” about a presidential campaign, was published in December 2019. The New York Times described his fourth, “The Days to Come,” published November 2021, “genuinely thought-provoking and lives up to its ambition.”
Among his seven books on journalism, politics and ethics is “The Elements of Journalism: What News People Should Know and the Public Should Expect,” co-authored with Bill Kovach, which has been translated into more than 25 languages and is used widely in journalism education worldwide. It has been called “a modern classic” (NYT) and one of the five best books ever written on journalism (WSJ).
Tom’s media criticism, his nonfiction books, and his research work at API and at PEJ have generated more than 60,000 academic citations.
He worked as media writer for the Los Angeles Times for a decade, chief congressional correspondent for Newsweek, press critic for MSNBC, business editor of the Peninsula Times Tribune, a reporter for Jack Anderson’s Washington Merry Go ‘Round column. He began his career at the Woodside Country Almanac in his native California.
Among his awards the Goldsmith book Award from Harvard, four medals for Journalism Research from the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Columbia Journalism School Distinguished Alumni Award.
