Award-winning author and multimedia narrative journalist Alissa Quart, the 2015 James H. Ottaway Sr. Visiting Professor of Journalism at SUNY New Paltz, gave a public lecture entitled “Truly Social Media: Social Justice Reporting in the Digital Age” on Monday, April 13 at 7 p.m. Her talk centered on exciting innovations in journalism that Quart said are “bringing back a truly social media: one with a greater engagement in social issues.”
“Alissa understands clearly how great reporting and narrative can thrive both on the printed page and in media in its many forms,” said President Donald P. Christian. “In a short period of time, she has created a lasting impression on our students.”
The lecture highlighted the rise of contemporary journalistic modes including multimedia and transmedia, long form journalism and intensified inequality reporting. Quart cited examples of each of these forms as part of a larger argument about the social justice applications of journalism.
Photographer Alice Proujansky, Quart’s longtime multimedia collaborator, joined her to discuss the role of strong visual elements in complementing narrative journalism.
The lecture was sponsored by the Ottaway Visiting Professorship, an endowment that allows New Paltz to invite renowned and accomplished journalists to campus each spring semester to instruct an upper-level journalism seminar.
James Ottaway Jr., son of the Professorship’s namesake and a distinguished journalist, publisher and newspaper executive, touted the value of having a practicing journalist talk to students about new journalistic realities in the digital age.
“The students really need a journalist like Alissa who is in the process of doing journalism today, to show them what’s really going on and what they are going to face when they go out there and look for a job,” Ottaway Jr. said.
Quart is the 14th endowed professor to join the College faculty as an Ottaway Visiting Professor. In her seminar, entitled “Narrative Nonfiction in the Digital Age,” she has worked with students on current best practices in storytelling, reporting, originality and use of images.
“Because Professor Quart came directly out of the working field, she has a lot of relevant things to teach us,” said Jillian Nadiak ’15 (Journalism). “She encourages her students to find and develop real stories.”
About the James H. Ottaway Sr. Visiting Professorship
The James H. Ottaway Sr. Visiting Professorship, SUNY New Paltz’s only endowed professorship, is named for the founder of Ottaway Newspapers Inc., now the Dow Jones Local Media Group, which operates print and online community media franchises in seven states. The flagship newspaper of the chain is the Times Herald-Record in Middletown, N.Y.
