f Doing and thinking journalism in the twenty-first century, a dialogue with Barbie Zelizer

I was gratified to receive an invitation from the editor of the Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies (AJMS) to edit this special issue of the journal. What spurred me to accept the offer is AJMS’ thrust, with one of its major targets being greater integration between the academic and professional worlds. The construction of the special issue under the rubric of ‘Doing and thinking journalism in the twenty-first century’ was initially inspired in the dialogue Barbie Zelizer and I had in Hyderabad, India, the venue of the 2014 annual congress, which the International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) organizes every year. Barbie Zelizer is a Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication of the University of Pennsylvania and is one of the most recognized researchers in journalism today with a productivity marked by the quality of her critical reflections. Zelizer’s research focuses on the cultural dimensions of journalism, with a specific interest in journalistic authority, collective memory and journalistic images in times of crisis and war. She also works on the impact of disciplinary knowledge on academic enquiry. Here are excerpts from our conversation.