Allissa Richardson

Allissa Richardson
Born	Washington, DC
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Xavier University of Louisiana Northwestern University University of Maryland
Occupation(s)	Journalist, professor
Website	http://www.allissarichardson.com

Allissa V. Richardson is an award-winning journalist, author, and scholar. She is an associate professor of journalism in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California and the founding director of the Charlotta Bass Journalism and Justice Lab. She is best known as a proponent of mobile journalism and citizen journalism. Her research, writing, and teaching focus on the use of smartphones by African Americans to document police brutality and other social justice issues, a practice she has termed "mobile witnessing." Additionally, Richardson is a Nieman Foundation Visiting Journalism Fellow at Harvard University, the 2012 Educator of the Year for the National Association of Black Journalists, and a two-time Apple Distinguished Educator.

Biography

Early life and education

Richardson has a wealth of knowledge, specializing in both the literary and scientific fields. She first obtained a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Xavier University of Louisiana, graduating with honors in 2002. Following this, in 2004, Richardson earned her Master's degree of Science in Journalism at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

Richardson then went on to earn her Doctorate of Philosophy in Journalism Studies from the University of Maryland College Park in 2017. Her dissertation is titled, "Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones and the New Protest #Journalism." Richardson explored the lives of 15 mobile journalist-activists who documented the Black Lives Matter movement using only their smartphones and Twitter. She was honored with the Dr. Mabel S. Spencer Award for Excellence in Graduate Achievement.

Journalism career

Richardson began her journalism career in 2002 as a general assignment intern for the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, New York, after winning a Freedom Forum scholarship. In 2003, Johnson Publishing Company selected her as its inaugural intern for Jet magazine. She was promoted to assistant editor of Jet at the end of her internship. Richardson chronicled what she described as a "once-in-a-lifetime experience" of working alongside Jet's founder, John H. Johnson, in a personal essay titled "Farewell and Thank You to John H. Johnson", after he died in 2005. She wrote: "When Mr. Johnson died Aug. 8 at the age of 87, I was torn between feeling selfishly saddened by his departure and enormously grateful for the inroads he made in American journalism". Richardson has reported on Capitol Hill as an assistant editor of food policy for Food Chemical News. She also has written on health, technology and culture for O, The Oprah Magazine, The Baltimore Sun and the Chicago Tribune.

Academic career

At 25, Richardson began her career as an educator as a faculty member of Morgan State University. She served as coordinator of its journalism program, and launched and directed the Morgan MOJO Lab in 2010. Students enrolled in her MOJO Lab classes learned to report news using only iPod Touch devices. Morgan State University became the first and only historically black college in the country to offer mobile journalism courses. Richardson accepted a professorship at Bowie State University in Fall 2012. She relocated the MOJO Lab to its campus. She was a mobile media professor in the Emerging Media and Technology division in the School of Communication until 2017. After earning her doctorate, Richardson joined the journalism faculty at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She holds a dual appointment in both the journalism and communication departments within the Annenberg School. She studies black feminist media, communication and social justice, mobile journalism, networked journalism, race and the media, and visual communication theory.

Medical career

Richardson worked as a laboratory researcher for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration while studying biology at Xavier University of Louisiana. Her initial career goal was to become a clinical neonatologist who studied ways to decrease nosocomial infections in newborn babies. Her FDA research focus was antimicrobial resistance. Richardson was accepted to the Howard University College of Medicine in 2002, but declined the offer to matriculate. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in biology, but decided to follow her passion for writing instead. She enrolled in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University that year and won its Weinstein-Luby Outstanding Young Journalist award.

Fellowships and Affiliations

• Harvard Kennedy School's Carr Center for Human Rights (2022-2024)
• Harvard Law School's Berkman Klein Center for Interest and Society (2020-present)
• Faculty Associate at the Annenberg Innovation Lab (2020-present)
• Affiliated Scholar at New York University's Center for Critical Race and Digital Studies (2019-present)

Lectures and media appearances

Richardson has given lectures on mobile journalism throughout Africa, Europe and the United States. She has appeared at Harvard University, South by Southwest, Online EDUCA Berlin, the MacArthur Foundation-supported Digital Media and Learning Conference, and many colleges, universities, libraries and United States embassies. Richardson has appeared on NPR to discuss innovation in journalism and education. You can find more of her work on various other platforms such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, and ABC News. Her company, MOJO MediaWorks, has been featured in Black Enterprise.

Awards and recognition

• 2002 Freedom Forum Chips Quinn Scholar – Gannett Company
• 2002 Beta Beta Beta Biological Honor Society – Xavier University of Louisiana
• 2003 Weinstein-Luby Outstanding Young Journalist – Medill School of Journalism
• 2007 Dean's Award for Excellence in Teaching & Advising – Morgan State University
• 2010 New Voices, Newsroom Innovator – JLab at American University
• 2012 Journalism Educator of the Year – National Association of Black Journalists
• 2012 Top 100 Women in Digital – Digital Sisterhood Network
• 2013 Apple Distinguished Educator – Apple, Inc.
• 2013 Outstanding Junior Faculty Professor of the Year – Bowie State University
• 2014 Nieman Foundation Visiting Journalism Fellow – Harvard University
• 2016 Dr. Mabel S. Spencer Award for Excellence in Graduate Achievement – University of Maryland College Park
• 2016 Global Apple Distinguished Educator – Apple, Inc.
• 2020 Outstanding Book of the Year Award – National Association of Black Journalists
• 2021 Frank Grand Prize in Public Interest Research – University of Florida
• 2022 Dorothy Lee Award for Outstanding Book in the Ecology of Culture

Creative Works and Publications

Richardson is also known for her contributions to documentary filmmaking and virtual reality projects. In 2020, she co-executive produced the virtual reality docu-series "In Protest: Grassroots Stories from the Frontlines," which aired on Facebook Watch and Oculus TV. The series documented the lives of grassroots activists involved in racial justice movements across the United States.

Richardson is a forward-thinker. She continues to push the boundaries of traditional media as proven by the role she played in producing the AI-powered interactive interview series titled "Voices of a Movement: The Second Draft Project," which debuted in 2023 and features Lora King, daughter of Rodney King, discussing her father’s legacy through conversational AI. The series represents a groundbreaking fusion of journalism, technology, and oral history.

Richardson is credited for her prominent and thought-provoking academic journals. Some of her key works include:

• "The ‘Good News’: How the Gospel of Anti-Respectability Is Shaping Black Millennial Christian Journalism" (2020) – an exploration of Black millennial religious journalism.
• "Endless Mode: Exploring the Procedural Rhetoric of a Black Lives Matter-Themed Newsgame" (2020) – which analyzes how gaming intersects with protest journalism.
• "Dismantling Respectability: The Rise of New Womanist Communication Models in the Era of Black Lives Matter" (2019) – a study on how Black women journalists have reshaped narratives around protest.

Her journalistic achievements have been widely cited and recognized for their depth and focus on how smartphones and social media have democratized public witnessing, highlighting systemic racism and police brutality in media. One of her most significant contributions to date is her book, "Bearing Witness While Black: African Americans, Smartphones, and the New Protest #Journalism". This book explores how Black citizen journalists have been able to utilize smartphones and other forms of media technology to document cases of police brutality, and the significant impact it's had in movements like Black Lives Matter. The book has won multiple awards, including the 2022 Best Book Award from the American Sociological Association's Communication Division, the 2021 Hazel Gaudet-Erskine Best Book Award from the International Communication Association, and the 2020 AEJMC Tankard Book of the Year Award.

Coming Soon

Richardson is currently working on a follow-up book to her first. The successor is to be titled "Canceled: How Smartphones and Social Media Democratized Public Shaming", under contract with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press. This book will explore the phenomenon of cancel culture and its impacts on marginalized communities.

Activism

Richardson has called for state-level education reform that would mandate the integration of mobile devices in classrooms to create personal learning environments, which empower students to take ownership of their learning experiences.

Richardson is the founder of MOJOPro (formerly known as MOJO MediaWorks). The company creates iPad/iPod storytelling workshops for youth, and mobile learning professional development workshops for educators. In 2012, Richardson co-created the traveling iPod storytelling workshop for the nationally syndicated PBS film, Slavery by Another Name. In 2013, The Washington Post invited her to create a monthly iPad journalism workshop series for journalists, teachers and students in the Washington-Metropolitan area.

Richardson has served as an advisory board member for Global Girl Media. The organization trains girls to shoot and edit news using traditional cameras. Richardson created its first mobile journalism curriculum in 2011, and trained young women in South Africa and Morocco to report news using iPod Touch devices.

Richardson also has served as an advisory board member for Black Girls Code (BGC). BGC trains girls of color to create websites, mobile applications and robot prototypes. In March 2013, Richardson created its first youth mobile journalism workshop that launched at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. The project's novelty earned Richardson and her company national acclaim in Black Enterprise magazine as a technology firm on the rise.

Richardson has also been a prominent and powerful voice for change, sitting on panels considering the future of journalism in the new age of AI. Most notably, Richardson spoke at the Mobile Me & You Conference and the International Communication Association Annual Conference. She has also served as a keynote speaker at a myriad of academic institutions like Harvard University, Northwestern University, and the University of Pennsylvania, sharing her expert perspective and knowledge on the intersectionality of media, race, and justice.

Legacy

USC Annenberg - Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab

In 2022, Richardson became the Founding Director of the Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab at USC, named after Charlotta Bass, one of the first Black women newspaper publishers in the U.S. The lab is dedicated to exploring the intersection of media, race, and justice, with a particular focus on Black communities on the West Coast. It serves as a hub for experimenting with new forms of journalism, including mobile journalism, extended reality, and AI-driven storytelling.

Through her work at USC’s Charlotta Bass Journalism & Justice Lab and her broader academic and public contributions, Allissa Richardson has become one of the foremost scholars on the use of technology in journalism, particularly in relation to Black communities. Her concept of "mobile witnessing" has redefined the role of smartphones in protest movements, establishing her as a critical voice in both academic and public discourse on race, technology, and media.

Richardson’s work continues to influence the next generation of journalists and scholars, as she mentors doctoral and master’s students at USC, helping to shape the future of media studies and journalism through her innovative, socially-conscious approach to storytelling. She serves as an inspiration to other aspiring journalists and a cheerleader for individuals navigating how they may utilize technology to find their voice.

External links

• Allissa Richardson – USC Official Faculty Page
• Allissa Richardson – Researchgate Profile
• Allissa Richardson – Academia.edu Profile
• Allissa Richardson – Google Scholar Profile