Jeanna Sybert, Ph.D.

Jeanna Sybert explores the affective, discursive, and material dimensions of newswork through qualitative inquiry. Her research uses critical junctures to theorize the workings of power and possibility in contemporary U.S. journalism.

Jeanna Sybert is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Media at Risk. She studies the ongoing threats to journalism as an institution. She is particularly interested in how journalists navigate and make sense of these challenges as they work. Her dissertation approaches these issues through the lenses of journalistic precarity, labor, and emotionality. The project—which examines a clustering of recent critical incidents—investigates the cascading impacts of an increasingly precarious occupation for journalists, the institution of journalism, and the broader information landscape.

Sybert’s interest in disruptive moments has produced an array of other work grappling with the cultural politics of social media platforms as well as collective memory practices in the wake of catastrophe. Her research has been published in New Media & Society, Journalism, and Journalism Practice.

Sybert is also deeply invested in her role as an educator. In 2022, she received the James D. Woods Award for outstanding graduating teaching.

Prior to joining Annenberg, Sybert received her B.A. in Communication & Rhetoric and Political Science from the University of Pittsburgh where she graduated summa cum laude. Her senior thesis in Communication served as the basis for her contribution to Critical incidents in journalism: Pivotal moments reshaping journalism around the world.