About me

I am Carrie Brown-Smith and I am an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Memphis, where I do research on newspapers’ efforts to grapple with changes to newsroom structure, culture, and daily routines in the digital age.  I am also interested in how social media is impacting journalism and democracy.

I teach undergraduate and graduate courses in journalism and serve as the director of the Teen Appeal, a citywide high school newspaper. We bring students from Memphis public schools to campus to learn journalism, with funding from the Scripps Howard Foundation. Many of the students we work with come from lower-income households,  and one  of our top goals is helping to foster diversity in America’s newsrooms. I’m also involved in efforts to revitalize our department’s journalism curriculum to adapt to the rapidly changing media landscape and ensure our students develop multimedia skills.

Before returning to academia, I managed the traveling curriculum program of the Committee of Concerned Journalists for three years, going to newspapers of all sizes across the United States to discuss how journalists could do a better job of upholding their values in their daily work. Our workshops were based on the principles articulated in the book Elements of Journalism by CCJ Chairmen Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel. This experience was invaluable and gave me a bird’s eye view of what is happening in the newspaper industry today.

I’ve also spent time working in the newsroom myself, as a reporter for the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram in Wisconsin, an intern at the Philadelphia Inquirer, an associate newsletter editor covering policy developments on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, and, most recently, as an assistant city editor at the Columbia Missourian.

I received my PhD from the University of Missouri, where I had the opportunity to study with the director of the Center for the Study of Organizational Change and learn some lessons from outside our field relevant to challenges facing journalism today. I recieved my MA in communication from the Annenberg School at the University of Pennsylvania and my BA in journalism and biological aspects of conservation from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, in the state where I was born and raised and remain a loyal cheesehead.

When I’m not writing about, researching or teaching journalism, I’m often running with my lovable but unruly labradors Sam and Pippi, watching Packer football, or enjoying a domestic macrobrew with my friends, from whom I’ve learned just as much as I ever have in school. I live in Midtown Memphis with my husband, Grant Smith, who is  a freelance data journalist, avid fisherman and Web developer. You will frequently find his work at the Commercial Appeal  in Memphis, among other places.

You can email me at carrielisabrown@gmail.com or follow me on Twitter @brizzyc