Professional Profile
Ellen Hume
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Ellen Hume is an Annenberg Fellow in Civic Media at the Center for Media and Communication Studies at Central European University in Budapest. Until June, 2009 she was research director of the Center for Future Civic Media at MIT.
RESEARCH DIRECTOR: Center for Future Civic Media, at MIT. Press release.
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR: Hume founded the Center on Media and Society at UMass Boston in 2004 in order to work with students and community media. In January, 2007 she founded the New England Ethnic Newswire, an experimental web portal for ethnic media, student projects, and civic engagement.
MEDIA ANALYST: Writer and lecturer about journalism's role in democracy; the Internet; civic engagement and ethics. Recent projects: "The Media Missionaries," a report on U.S.-sponsored media development around the world (Knight Foundation, 2003); consultant, USAID; advisor, Facing History and Ourselves; lecturer, Media and Democracy seminar for high school teachers, Harvard University (2001-2002); newsroom trainer, Committee of Concerned Journalists (2002-3); chapter author, "Resource Journalism" in Democracy and New Media (MIT Press, 2003);, "Talk Show Culture" chapter for the Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications, Vol. 4 (Elsevier Science, 2003); USAID trainer, investigative journalism, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (Oct. 2003); speaker, International Communications Forum, (Sarajevo, Sept. 2000), lecturer, Central Bohemia University, (Pilsen Nov. 2000), Masaryk University (Brno, November, 1999); The Nordic Journalists Center (Aarhus, Denmark 2001), University of Oslo (Norway, November, 2002.) Returned to USA in 2001 after two years in Prague working on democracy, media and women's rights issues in formerly Communist Central Europe.
EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR: The
Democracy Project, PBS (February 1996-June 1998): Founding
director of American public television's effort to create engaging
political news programming for television and the Internet, to
encourage deeper citizen involvement in both national and local
public affairs. Oversaw PBS's 1996 and 1998 election coverage,
creating PBS Debate Night, a national Congressional leadership
debate paired with local candidate debates on PBS stations across
the country. In 1997, launched "Follow
the Money)," PBS's experimental weekly series and website
on the role of money in American politics. Ran workshops and supervised
grants for local television shows, outreach programs and websites.
TELEVISION COMMENTATOR AND LECTURER: Frequent commentator on New England Cable News. Former weekly panelist on CNN's "Reliable Sources" program from 1993 - 1997 and PBS's "Washington Week in Review" from 1979 - 1988; moderator of the second televised 1998 Massachusetts Gubernatorial Debate; co-anchor of PBS's live broadcasts in July 1995 of the Waco hearings in Congress; former moderator of "The Editors" for Canadian public television; periodic commentator on NBC's "Meet the Press" and other programs. Panelist, Freedom House conference on Central Europe journalism and the courts (Warsaw, Oct. 1999); moderator, media panel at the Freedom Forum's anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall conference (Berlin, November, 1999). Lectured at the Aspen Institute, the Freedom Forum, The Carter Center, the Kennedy Library, the Massachusetts Superior Court Judges' Educational Conference, National Conference of State Legislatures, the Brookings Institution, the Women's Campaign Fund, the Council on Foundations, universities including American, Berkeley, City College of London, Columbia, Duke, George Washington, Georgetown, Harvard, M.I.T., New York University, Princeton, Texas, and Masaryk and Western Bohemia Universities in the Czech Republic, as well as other academic and civic groups.
SENIOR
FELLOW:The Annenberg
Washington Program in Communications Studies, (1993-February
1996): Analyzed journalism and its evolving role in policy-making
and America's political culture, including the tabloid trend
and the Internet. Authored prize-winning report, "Tabloids,
Talk Radio and the Future of News" which describes
how technology-assisted improvements in journalism could serve
both the journalist's market imperatives and the public interest.
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND SENIOR FELLOW: Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy (1988-1993): Served as Director Marvin Kalb's administrator for this $1.4 million research center at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Taught graduate seminars. Designed and staffed research projects on U.S. presidential campaign coverage, Race, Press and Politics and the U.S. press coverage of Tiananmen Square. Raised over $1 million for the Center from foundations, individuals and companies. Edited various papers and reports. Created and moderated conferences on journalism ethics and other related subjects. Served on the admissions committee for the Kennedy School of Government's mid-career master's degree program.
TEACHER: Senior Research Fellow, UMass Boston (2003-2008), created and taught “News Media and Political Power,” “Local and Ethnic News Media,” “Media, History and Identity,” and other courses. Adjunct Lecturer,
Harvard University's Kennedy
School of Government, (1990-93). Taught graduate seminars
for public policy students on how the media, politics and government
interact and what might be done to improve the process. Taught
Media/Politics classes in Kennedy School Executive Programs for
state officials, military and other groups, and media sessions
in the New Members of Congress seminars throughout the 1980s.
Teacher, Northwestern University's Medill
School of Journalism, 1993-94): Taught "The Journalist
and the Politician" seminar to broadcast and print students
in Medill's Washington semester, including ethics, race and gender
issues, new technologies, civic journalism, political agenda-setting
and other issues.
AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST: Chapter author, The Morality of the Mass Media, (University of Texas, 1993); True to Ourselves (September, 1998, Jossey-Bass); and Democracy and New Media (MIT Press, 2003); "Talk Show Culture" chapter for the Encyclopedia of International Media and Communications, Vol. 4 (Elsevier Science, 2003). Also, "Tabloids, Talk Radio and the Future of News" monograph (Annenberg Washington Program, August 1995) and "Restoring the Bond: Campaign Lessons for '92" report on U.S. presidential campaign coverage (The Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard University, November 1991); "The New Paradigm for News" in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Vol. 546, July 1996); "Wired World: The Serf Surfs" paper for City College of London World Technology Conference (London, June, 1999); "Journalism and Citizenship" Nieman Reports (May, 2000); "The Weight of Watergate," Media Studies Journal (Spring 1997). Op-ed pieces and reviews have included; "Put the Privacy Zone Off Limits" (The Los Angeles Times, April 1992), "Women and Perestroika" (The Los Angeles Times, November 1990) and "Why the Press Blew the Savings and Loan Scandal" (The New York Times, May 1990).
**White House and political correspondent, The Wall Street Journal (1983-88). Covered the White House during President Reagan's last two years in office, as well as congressional and presidential policy-making and campaigns. Specialized in writing about political trends, examining what the voters were looking for, doing "focus groups" to go with NBC/Wall Street Journal national polls. Covered Jesse Jackson, Geraldine Ferraro and other candidates.
**Reporter, Los Angeles Times (1975-83). Covered Congress and George Bush's 1980 presidential campaign. On Thanksgiving Day, 1979 flew into war-torn Phnom Penh in the back of a Flying Tigers cargo plane, as one of the first U.S. reporters into the capitol after the Vietnamese invasion. Covered the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and investigative projects. During congressional recesses, covered politics from the ground up, walking precincts with candidates and writing about the tax revolt, reapportionment, campaign dirty tricks and other issues. As a metro reporter in Los Angeles, covered everything from health care to murders, forest fires, movie stars, the Patty Hearst and Chowchilla kidnappings, and an exclusive jailhouse interview with would-be presidential assassin Sara Jane Moore.
**Business and financial reporter, Detroit Free Press (1973-5).
Black capitalism, retailing, the energy crisis and other business
stories. Also: Education reporter, The Ypsilanti (Mich.) Press
(1972-3); public service director and copywriter, KTMS AM-FM radio,
Santa Barbara (1970-2); feature writer, Santa Barbara News Press
(1969-70); general assignment reporter, Somerville (Mass.) Journal
(1969).
OTHER PROJECTS: Commissioner, President's Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy (1995 - 97). This commission, chaired by Sen. Patrick Moynihan, created Secrecy, a report and strategy for how to reform both the nation's classified national security information system and the granting of security clearances. Member, Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on the Presidential Debate Process (1995); Delegation leader, assisting Russian journalists in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk as they covered their first free legislative election (November 1993). The journalism seminars were sponsored by the Center for War, Peace and the News Media at New York University.
HONORS and AFFILIATIONS: Honorary Doctorates (Kenyon College, 2001) and Daniel Webster College (1990); Radcliffe Alumnae Recognition Award (1993), Big Sisters' Association Award (1989), Dana Hall School Alumni Award (1988). Winner, Angel Award, Center for Excellence in Media (1997); Bart Richards Award for Media Criticism (1996) for "Tabloids, Talk Radio and the Future of News;" special citation, Lowell Mellett Awards Program, for "Campaign Lessons for '92" report. Currently featured in "Who's Who." Judge, Schorr Awards, WBUR public radio; Judge, World Technology Network journalism awards (1999). Fellow, Kennedy Institute of Politics at Harvard University (1981). Selector, Nieman Fellowships (1993), Shorenstein Center Fellowships (1989-93). Former judge for the Robert Kennedy Journalism awards, White House Press Association Dirksen Awards, and the National Press Club Fourth Estate awards. Member, the Council on Foreign Relations, Czech Women's Forum, Study Circles, the National Press Club. Member, Advisory Board of the Shorenstein Center; Advisory Board, Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy. Incorporator, Harvard magazine. Former adviser, Newspaper Research Journal, Who Cares magazine and Harvard International Review.