Valérie
Bélair-Gagnon
Ph.D.
Dr. Valérie Bélair-Gagnon is Assistant Professor at the Hubbard School of Journalism & Mass Communication and Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. She is also an Affiliated Fellow at the Yale Law School Information Society Project. Previously, she was Executive Director and Research Scholar as well as Postdoctoral Fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School. She has been a fellow at Oslo Metropolitan University Digital Journalism Research Group and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University. Born in Montréal (Québec, Canada), she earned a BA in Sociology (honors) from McGill University, an MSc in Sociology from Université de Montréal, and a PhD in Sociology from City, University of London. Outside of work, she loves to hike/walk, enjoy nature, engage in winter sports (Minnesota oblige), and discover new places through traveling.
Areas of Expertise
Media innovation, engagement, business models and the future of news
Dr. Bélair-Gagnon is the author of numerous academic and policy publications with a particular interest in the business of media and emerging technology. She uses qualitative methods and use hybrid methodologies and theories at the intersection of the sociology of work and organizations, media management, and journalism studies. Her work focuses on:
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Media innovation, business models and engagement;
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2) Platforms, professional identity and digital work; and
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3) Social media, including misinformation and user-generated content.
She is the author of Social Media at BBC News (Routledge, 2015) and Journalism Research that Matters (Oxford University Press, 2021, with Nikki Usher).
She has been speaker and presenter at conferences worldwide including the International Journalism Festival, the Online News Association and the International Communication Association annual meeting. Her work has appeared in outlets including at the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University.
Contact
Murphy Hall
206 Church Street SE. 111
Minneapolis, MN 55410