Dr. Robert E. Gutsche, Jr. is a leading scholar in the field of Journalism Studies where he identifies insertions of power in the news in terms of racisms and inequalities through place-making, international and climate discourses, and technological innovations that serve as expressions of journalistic authority. He is Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Critical Digital Media Practice at Lancaster University in the U.K., a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Informatics at Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania, and since 2018 has developed and overseen academic programs in journalism and communication at University Academy 92 in Manchester, U.K. At Lancaster, he is affiliated with the Data Science Institute, Centre for Alternatives to Social and Economic Inequalities, Centre for Mobilities Research, and the Institute for Social Futures. He currently serves as Associate Editor of Journalism Practice, where he produces and hosts “The J Word: A Podcast by Journalism Practice.” 

As a journalist, Gutsche’s work has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday, The Guardian, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and other regional and local news outlets in the U.S. He also cofounded the online non-profit Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism at the University of Iowa after helping to launch the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. An award-winning educator, Gutsche has led initiatives in community engagement and collaboration with journalists, students, and citizens through virtual reality and other immersive media in storytelling and research, particularly at Florida International University, in Miami, in the U.S. He has been recognized for his practice-led research that has been published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism Studies, Digital Journalism, Journalism Practice, Visual Communication, and other journals as a Digital Journalism Research Fellow in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies at Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway, as a Tow-Knight Disruptive Educator at the City University of New York’s Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism, and as a Fellow at Lancaster University’s Institute for Social Futures, where is co-lead on the institute’s environmental futures research vein. He also led and contributed to dynamic storytelling research initiatives through the University of Missouri’s Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.

Gutsche is the author and editor of several books, including Media Control: News as an Institution of Power and Social Control (Bloomsbury), The Trump Presidency, Journalism, and Democracy (Routledge), and The Future of the Presidency, Journalism, and Democracy: After Trump (Routledge). He is also a frequent media expert for international news stations about U.S. politics and media, having conducted more than 300 interviews for channels, including CNN, Deutsche Welle, CNBC, TRT, RT, France 24, Sky News, Al Jazeera, BBC radio, and Australia ABC. Gutsche is joined in life with his wife, their two sons, and their dog, Stella. Visit robertgutschejr.com. 

He invites research students interested in journalism, power, race, and geography.