College Media Matters

Dan Reimold is a Fulbright research fellow currently serving as a visiting scholar with the Singapore Internet Research Centre at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.

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He is an American by birth, education, and journalistic perspective with a scholarly passion squarely centered on college student media worldwide. In his opinion, the campus press represents journalism at its purest, rawest, most innovative, and most influential. He has presented on college media at numerous conferences and has had related work published in Journalism History, College Media Review, American Sexuality Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, H Bomb at Harvard University, and as the afterword to Boink: College Sex by the People Having It (Grand Central Publishing, 2008).

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Thus far, his student press research efforts have also been featured in Inside Higher Ed and mentioned throughout the blogosphere, including on Poynter’s Romenesko, The Student Newspaper Survival Blog, the Center for Innovation in College Media blog, The News About The News, BlogNetNews, College Rag, and Teach J: For Teachers of Journalism and Media.

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His six-word memoir: Dream Big. Create. Learn. Teach. Repeat.

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Dream Big

Dan was a Super Bowl baby. He popped out, reporter’s notebook in hand, at 2 a.m. on a Super Bowl Sunday in the city of Brotherly Love. His parents were allegedly overjoyed. The rest of Philadelphia was preoccupied. Later that day, the city’s beloved Eagles were plundered by the Oakland Raiders. Rumor has it Dan’s post-womb tears were a harbinger of the loss to come. Eagles head coach Dick Vermeil still will not speak to him.

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Dan’s elementary school years were measured by the mile, specifically the two loops around the Valley Elementary School playground and grassy knoll that served as the gym class’s mile run. It was the site of his first dream come true. In fifth grade, he tied a classmate in a sprint to the finish that set a new school boy’s mile record. He later wore the sweater-vest combo below while attending a Philadelphia 76ers basketball game and lost all credibility. Running, though, remained a long-term passion, eventually resulting in 12 high school varsity letters in cross country and track, several trips to the AAU Junior Olympics track and cross country championships, a number of close friends, innumerable shouts of “Run Forest, Run,” and a recent visit to Pre’s Rock in Eugene, Oregon.

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From an early age, Dan also loved to tell stories, presenting spontaneous one-man shows for his younger brothers before (and long after) bedtime that included painfully-memorable impersonations of random characters both famous and unknown. His brothers’ favorites: Ernie and Bert. His parents occasionally tried to ground him for this storytelling because it kept everyone up so late. When Dan was older though, they told him they secretly liked to listen to the stories, making them out as best they could through the bedroom walls. Dan smiles when he thinks about that.

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In sixth grade, Dan discovered girls, alliteration, and metaphor. That year, he also wrote what he still considers the best essay of his life: an assignment for Ms. Koch’s English class titled “Who Am I?” that asked students to describe a person, place or thing without naming it (thus leaving others to guess). His object “soared with Eagles, dove with Dolphins, battled Giants, fought alongside Patriots, and was present when the Saints came marching in.” Any guesses?*** Ms. Koch interrupted Dan’s math class to tell him how much she enjoyed it. He loved the writer he saw reflected in her eyes. His Olympic track star dream suddenly had competition.

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Create

Dan has written every day for more than a decade–poems, love letters, texts, short stories, Post-It scribbles, bathroom mirror messages, newspaper and magazine pieces, research journal articles, travel features, op-eds, Facebook status updates, reference letters, headlines, cutlines, syllabi, two online j-books, a dissertation, and this blog.

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At 15, his first piece of writing was published, a creative effort prompted by a contest in a local newspaper that asked readers to select the most apt celebrity to serve as mayor of their hometown. His winning submission led with the declaration: “Mr. Ed for Mare!” (His campaign slogan, “Say Neigh to Nepotism.”) Dan’s prize: a miniature, vanilla-scented mud-boot filled with M&M’s. (Dan still has it. He uses it to store loose change.)

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A few years later, Dan wrote regular features and a slice-of-life column for reality, a section aimed at teen readers published in The Bucks County Courier Times, a suburban daily in Levittown, Pa., USA. In college, he helped run The Grizzly student newspaper as features editor, news editor, and editor in chief. During his stint as EIC, the paper introduced color photography; added pullout sections; expanded its page size; computerized its printing process; and covered big stories on a small campus such as the football coach’s firing and the circumstances surrounding a student’s sudden death. Dan helped oversee all aspects of the paper’s creation- from story ideation to layout to line editing. He even personally delivered every copy of the paper on campus. His favorite memory: An undergrad in the lobby of the student center becoming impatient as Dan lumbered over with a stack of newspapers in hand. He said with a smile as Dan approached, “C’mon, give me The Griz. I gotta get my fix.”

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Later, Dan completed a second stint at the Courier Times as a reporter and after that worked as a special projects reporter and copy editor on the metro desk at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Just before starting at the Inquirer, he earned the paper’s first Ralph Vigoda Memorial Award for passion in journalism.

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In academia, Dan has authored or co-authored refereed research papers that have been published in Newspaper Research Journal, Journalism History, and College Media Review and accepted for presentation at conferences such as the International Symposium on Online Journalism and the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism & Mass Communication (AEJMC).

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Learn

Dan earned his doctorate in journalism/mass communication and an additional graduate-level certificate in contemporary history from Ohio University (OU) in Athens, Ohio, USA. He received his master’s degree in journalism from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pa., USA, where he started the school’s chapter of The American Copy Editors Society (ACES) and assisted Dr. Edward Trayes with the Dow Jones Newspaper Fund Editing Boot Camp. He completed his undergraduate work at Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pa., USA.

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Teach

Dan has taught undergraduate journalism courses at Temple and OU and currently teaches at NTU. He is a two-time AEJMC Great Ideas for Teachers (GIFT) Scholar; a recipient of the 2007 OU Graduate Associate Outstanding Teaching Award; and the graduate student winner of the 2007 AEJMC “Promising Professors” honor.

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Specifically, while a Scripps Howard Teaching Fellow within the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at OU, he led undergraduate reporting, editing, and introductory media courses and served as an adviser for Speakeasy Magazine, a daily-updated online student news outlet.

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The comments he most appreciates on RateMyProfessor: “AMAZING TEACHER! Really cute and funny and smart and easy to pay attention too [sic].”; and “This guy is awesome. He has a high level of enthusiasm for his job, he keeps classes very entertaining, and he will reply to your emails as soon as you send them. Overall very helpful and was a fun class to take.” Meanwhile, an NTU student recently told him: “When you get excited, you talk super-fast like a machine gun.” She said it with a smile, so he is still unsure whether to take the comment as a compliment or a complaint.

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In his free time…

Dan enjoys movies, (American) football, college basketball, reading Poynter (and possibly PerezHilton.com), traveling (about a dozen countries so far!), stimulating conversation, and apparently attempting a career in modeling (see pic below).

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***Answer: An NFL football!