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Rachel Davis MerseyRachel Davis Mersey
Research Director
Media Management Center
phone: 847-491-2196
rdmersey@northwestern.edu


Rachel Davis Mersey is the research director for the Media Management Center. She has also been an assistant professor of journalism at the Medill School since 2008.

Rachel specializes in audience understanding. The focus of her work is on the craft of journalism. She is intrigued, in particular, by journalism's impact on identity, sense of community, and social capital. She believes that these relationships deserve to be understood in a manner that can enhance professional decision-making when it comes to new product development and ongoing news management. Her aim is to improve the practice of journalism in a manner that enhances news operations' connections with individuals.

Rachel's research has been published in journals across a variety of disciplines and presented at academic and industry conferences, including those for the Paley Center for Media in New York and the American Society of News Editors. Research she presented at the 2007 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference was awarded "top paper" by the International Newsmedia Marketing Association (INMA). In addition, she has done work for the Newspaper Association of America on young adults and newspapers, and the Chicago Community Trust on local information needs. Rachel also served as an advisory member to the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, jointly organized by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute. Her first book, Can Journalism Be Saved? Rediscovering America's Appetite for News, was published by Praeger in August 2010.

Before coming to Medill, Rachel was on the faculty at the University of Minnesota's School of Journalism and Mass Communication, where she was an affiliate faculty member of political psychology. She also worked at The Arizona Republic in Phoenix where she was part of the news team that launched the newspaper's weekly tabloid targeting women 18 to 34. In addition, Rachel worked across platforms with azcentral.com and the local NBC-affiliate.

Rachel earned her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2007.

MMC Research

Common threads: Linking NAA Foundation research to today's young media consumers
 
Upcoming events

May 14-16, 2012
Tourism Branding
Forum 2012

An IMC program designed for executives in the tourism industry. A joint project with Medill IMC and grupobt.
»Download a brochure.
 
©2012 Media Management Center • 304 Fisk Hall • Northwestern University • 1845 Sheridan Road • Evanston, IL 60208-2110 
phone: 847.491.4900 • fax: 847.491.5619 • email: contact@MediaManagementCenter.org