Hans Meyer
Hans K. Meyer started at Ohio University in Fall 2009. He earned tenure and the title of associate professor in 2016. He became the associate director of undergraduate studies in Fall 2020 and became a full professor in Fall 2023.
His research focuses on what motivates citizen contributions to online news sites and the ways news organizations can meet these needs. This is just one part of an effort to find and encourage news organizations to create community among their readers, both online and off. He is also working toward a new definition of credibility for online media that incorporates the connection audiences feel toward the reporter and the site. He examines social media as a platform for connecting journalists and their audiences. He has embraced the impact of other new forms of technology on community building, such as 360-degree video, virtual reality, and YouTube-style personal experience vlogs.
As the associate director of undergraduate studies, he oversees course scheduling, curriculum development, academic advising, course evaluation and diversity and inclusion efforts.
He is also the editor of two online peer-reviewed scholarly journals:
- Community Journalism, the official journal of the community journalism interest group of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
- The Web Journal of Mass Communication Research, started in 2009 by eminent Ohio scholar Guido Stemple
Before joining the academy, he worked for nearly 10 years in leadership roles at community newspapers, starting as the Mesquite, Nev. bureau chief for the St. George, Utah Spectrum and working up to the general manager of the 6,000-daily-circulation Desert Dispatch in Barstow, Calif. As a journalist, he saw the need to involve more citizens in the news process, and through his research, hopes to suggest how the Internet can re-establish a news organization’s position as information leaders and guides.
Selected Publications
Textbook
- Meyer, Hans K. (2020). Strategic Social Media Storytelling: A guide for journalists, brand managers, and entrepreneurs. TopHat Publishing, available in the TopHat and Classavo marketplaces
Book Chapters
- Meyer, Hans K. (2023). “Community Journalism.” Oxford Bibliographies. 25 JULY 2023, DOI: 10.1093/OBO/9780199756841-0299
- Meyer, Hans K. and Burton Speakman (2019). “Community Journalism.” Oxford Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies. Edited by Stephanie Craft. Online Publication Date: July 2019. DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190228613.013.789
Journal Articles
- Peko, Samantha, Hans K. Meyer & Karlyga Myssayeva (2020). “You can’t censor live: technology acceptance drives Central Asian journalists to mobile and helps them overcome press restrictions. Media Asia 46: 63-77, DOI: 10.1080/01296612.2020.1774038
- Meyer, Hans K. Aaron Atkins, and Samantha Peko (2019). “Virtual Community: A case study approach to adapting non-linear, VR storytelling to community journalism and for community journalists,” Grassroots Editor, Winter 2019, 60 (4).
- Meyer, Hans K. and Christine Zempter. (2018) “Staying true to the mission: How C-SPAN translated espoused into lived values to pull off a ‘boring’ social media strategy,” Journalism, First published Feb. 8, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884918754849
- Carey, Michael Clay and Hans K. Meyer (2016). “The Influences of Participation and Moderation on the Development of a Sense of Virtual Community.” International Journal of Web-based Communities, 12 (4): 326-341.
- Meyer, Hans K., Burton Speakman and Nisha Garud. (2016). “Active Choice, Passive Consumption: Exploring New Media Consumption Habits among College Students,” College Media Review. Sept. 27, 2016. http://cmreview.org/active-choice-passive-consumption/
- Meyer, Hans K. and Burton Speakman (2016). “Quieting the Commenters: The Spiral of Silence’s Persistent Effect on Online News Forums,” International Symposium on Online Journalism 6 (1), 51-70.
- Totten, Jeff, Craig Davis and Hans K. Meyer (2016). “Ain’t There No More: The Times-Picayune Downsizes.” The Journal of Case Studies. 34 (1), May 2016.