Frederick R. Blevens

 blevens

Professor

Honors Fellow
Department of Journalism and Media
School of Communication and Journalism

Florida International University
Biscayne Bay Campus
3000 N.E. 151 Street, Academic II, Room 311B
North Miami, FL 33181

T: (305) 919-4430
F: (305) 919-5215
E: Frederick.Blevens@fiu.edu

Education

Ph.D., Journalism
University of Missouri

Master
Ball State University

Bachelor
Ball State University

Professional Activities

Fred Blevens, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Journalism and Media, is a leader in the emerging discipline of news literacy, which responds to the glut of digital information by empowering citizens with tools to critically analyze information that shape global opinion. Dr. Blevens teaches skills and concept courses in the SCJ, an Honors College course in news literacy, and a general education course called How We Know What We Know, a humanities course in global information literacy. During the past 25 years, he has founded or been a director or faculty member of three university-based residential workshops for Hispanic and American Indian high school students, including the Peace Sullivan/James Ansin High School Workshop in Journalism and New Media at the University of Miami. In summer 2011, he taught his 35th high school workshop. His teaching has been recognized at three universities and in 2001, the Freedom Forum named him National Journalism Teacher of the Year. During the 2010-11 school year, Dr. Blevens was appointed by the Government Accountability Project committee to build a national school curriculum on whistleblowing. He serves as vice chair of the Council of Communication Associations and he authored a chapter in Page One: Inside the New York Times and the Future of Journalism, a companion book to the documentary film edited by NPR’s David Folkenflik. For nearly 20 years, Dr. Blevens was a reporter and editor at major metropolitan newspapers in Tampa, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Fort Worth and Houston. He earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Ball State University and holds the Ph.D. from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. He is co-author of Twilight of Press Freedom: The Rise of People’s Journalism and is past president of the American Journalism Historians Association and the Southwest Education Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.