Barkha Dutt and Alfred Hermida join the Reuters Institute as Visiting Fellows

A highly accomplished journalist and a respected scholar are joining the Reuters Institute this term as Visiting Fellows. Barkha Dutt and Alfred Hermida bring decades of experience to the institute, with extensive on-the-ground reporting experience and spearheading of initiatives that have pushed the boundaries of digital journalism. They will each undertake research looking at crucial aspects of the news media while getting involved with wider institute activities.

Barkha Dutt is one of India's best known broadcast journalists, with over 20 years of experience. She is the Founder-Editor of digital platform Mojo Story and a columnist with the Washington Post and the Hindustan Times. She earned global acclaim for her reporting on the frontlines of India's devastating COVID-19 outbreak.

Barkha is an Emmy-nominated reporter and the winner of over 40 national and international awards. She has been recognised twice as a Global Leader for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum, and has been honoured with the Indian civilian honour, the Padmashri. She has been chosen as an Asia Society ASIA 21 Fellow as well as a Meera and Vikram Gandhi Fellow at the Brown University's Watson Institute.

In her book This Unquiet Land: Stories from India's Fault Lines, Barkha looks at some of the casualties of India's sectarian, political and social divisions as well as the stories of heroism that have emerged.

During her Visiting Fellowship she will look at the intersection of media, populism, politics, freedom and democracy. She will consider the role that mass media plays in fuelling division in public discourse, and ask whether polarisation and other social and political phenomena would be possible without the media.

Alfred Hermida has decades of experience as a journalist. He worked across the BBC for 16 years, including as a correspondent in North Africa and the Middle East, before going on to be a founding news editor of the BBC News website in 1997. He is currently a professor at the University of British Columbia and his research addresses the transformation of journalism, emergent news practices, media innovation and social media. Alfred has published several books, his most recent being Data Journalism and the Regeneration of News published in 2019.

During his time at the institute he will explore how the future of journalism is being shaped by innovation practices, business models and policy frameworks.