Mark Leccese is recognized by Boston Globe

Journalism Department Assistant Professor Mark Leccese was recently tapped by Boston Globe online editor David Beard to write Boston.com‘s Gatekeeper blog, a media criticism blog about the people of Boston and the media who cover the city.

“We chose Mark for his 25 years in the business; his intimate knowledge of Boston and the movers and shakers; and the fulfillment of what he teaches in his classes, which is: basics of good journalism and when they are being applied and when not,” said Beard.

A veteran reporter, editor, and magazine writer, Leccese covered politics and government in Massachusetts for more than 25 years and won several New England and Massachusetts Press Association awards. He teaches Politics, Blogs, and Media and Interactive News among other classes at Emerson.

The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) recently featured Leccese’s study on political blogs published in the Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly as one of its “Hot Topics.”

His study, titled “Online Information Sources of Political Blogs,” coded more than 2,000 hypertext links to different sources on six widely read political blogs over seven consecutive days. Leccese found that less than 15 percent take readers to primary source material, such as government documents or candidates’ public statements. This, the study suggests, calls into question how blog readers get information on public policy.

“I think this is one of the most interesting and exciting times in journalism in half a century,” Leccese said. “Journalism isn’t going away, just how it’s packaged and delivered is changing.”