Rachel Davis Mersey

Rachel Davis Mersey aims to improve the practice of journalism in a manner that enhances publications’ relationships with their audiences by understanding audience identities. To this end, she uses quantitative and qualitative research strategies to examine journalism in a changing media environment.

Mersey’s research has been published in journals across a variety of disciplines. A paper, "Maybe the Internet cannot save journalism: The geographic sense of community gap left when taking news online," received the top paper award from the International Newsmedia Marketing Association in 2007. Her first book, Can Journalism Be Saved? Rediscovering America’s Appetite for News, was published by Praeger in August 2010. She has also conducted research on young adults and newspapers for the Newspaper Association of America and on local information needs for the Chicago Community Trust. She is an advisory member to the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy, jointly organized by the Knight Foundation and the Aspen Institute.

A former features writer at the Arizona Republic in Phoenix, Mersey helped to launch the paper’s weekly tabloid targeting women 18 to 34 years old, which won Gannett’s 2003 Innovator Drive for Excellence Award. During this time, she also worked across platforms with azcentral.com and the local NBC affiliate. Before joining the Medill faculty in 2008, she was an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. 

http://www.ipr.northwestern.edu/facul...