Rate My Professor Robert Gutsche

Robert E. Gutsche, Jr. is Professor in Digital Culture in the School of Communication and Multimedia Studies at Florida Atlantic University, where he holds tenure and also serves as Strategic Coordinator of the Political Communication and Public Opinion Research Lab and Co-Lead of the Center for Media Studies Media Center. He is additionally a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Informatics at Vytautas Magnus University in Lithuania. Gutsche earned his Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Iowa in 2012, where his dissertation received the Gene Burd Urban Journalism Research Prize in 2013. He holds an M.S. in Student Personnel Administration from Concordia University Wisconsin (2008), a B.A. in Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2006), and an A.A.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Richland (2001). His career includes prior roles as Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in Critical Digital Media Practice at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom (2018-2022), where he developed journalism and communication programs at University Academy 92; Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism + Media at Florida International University (2012-2018), founding the Mobile Virtual Reality Lab; and earlier positions such as Assistant Lecturer and Student Newspaper Advisor at University of Wisconsin-Richland (2008-2009).

Gutsche's research and teaching focus on digital cultures spanning social media, journalism, and AI through critical and cultural frameworks, analyzing power in journalism, political and environmental communication, and emerging technologies shaping media authority. Key publications include the books Geographies of Journalism: The Imaginative Power of Place in Making Digital News (2019, with Kristy Hess), Media Control: News as an Institution of Power and Social Control (2017), and The Trump Presidency, Journalism, and Democracy (2018); as well as articles such as "Covering Synergistic Effects of Climate Change: Global Challenges for Journalism" (2022), "Cultures of Digital Architectures: Power and Positionalities in the Backend of Online Journalism Production" (2022), and "Introduction—Covering Synergistic Effects of Climate Change: Global Challenges for Journalism" (2024). His scholarship has garnered over 1,300 citations. Awards include Top Faculty Paper (2nd Place) from the AEJMC Cultural and Critical Studies Division (2014), Honorable Mention for Digital Journalism Article of the Year (2020, with Kristy Hess), Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2019), and the 2017 Images and Voices of Hope Award. He has contributed to committees including the AEJMC Critical Cultural Studies Division Executive Committee and FAU Faculty Senate University Research Committee, and his journalism has appeared in The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, and Newsday.