Joshua Benton is a writer
in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
He is the founding director of the NIEMAN
JOURNALISM LAB at HARVARD UNIVERSITY
— an effort to help the news business make the radical changes required by the Internet age.
Before that, he was an investigative reporter, columnist, foreign correspondent and rock critic for two newspapers, The Dallas Morning News and The Toledo Blade. ☆ Before that, he attended Yale University, studying history — particularly the history of the American south. ☆ Before that, he was much shorter. ☆ He grew up in a small town in south Louisiana.
He can be contacted through any of the means detailed here.
INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT MR. BENTON : He used to run (perhaps) the world's largest illegal mix-CD-trading operation. ★ He is a Cajun. ★ He wrote his first HTML in 1994 and has fond memories of the first Netscape beta. ★ His stories on cheating on state exams in Texas led to the closure of a school district, the firing of several officials, and perhaps the resignation of a state education commissioner, depending on who you talk to. ★ He has reported from 10 foreign countries, if Canada counts. ★ He is right-handed. ★ He has, in the recent past, named pieces of computer equipment after New Orleans Saints running backs, giants of 20th-century British fiction, members of the Long political dynasty, and characters in A Confederacy of Dunces.
He speaks regularly about journalism issues, at universities (Harvard, Swarthmore, Penn, Columbia, Rhode Island, Southern Methodist, New York U., Miami University) and elsewhere (South by Southwest, Poynter, Nieman Narrative, Education Writers Association). He has been interviewed by The New York Times, Time, CNN, the BBC, the Associated Press, and more.
All of the stories he wrote during his newspaper days are stored online for the perusal of others. More biographical information is available here.
Since 2001, he has kept a blog at www.crabwalk.com. You may find it entertaining, or informative.
He wishes you a good day.
