Rodney Benson, Curriculum vitae, page 1 of 23
RODNEY D. BENSON
CURRICULUM VITAE
(updated January 2014)
New York University
Department of Media, Culture, and Communication
239 Greene Street, 7thfloor
New York, NY 10003-6674
e-mail:
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Associate Professor, Department of Media, Culture, andCommunication, fall 2008 –
New York University
Affiliated Faculty Member, Department of Sociology, 2005 –
New York University
Director of Graduate Studies, Dept. of Media, Culture, and Communication, 2009-2013
New York University
Assistant Professor, Department of Media, Culture, and Communication, 2002-2008
New York University
Chair, Department of International Communications
The American University of Paris, spring 2002
Assistant Professor, Department of International Communications / Department of Social Sciences and History
The American University of Paris, spring 2000-spring 2002
EDUCATION
Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, 2000
M.A., Sociology, University of California, Berkeley, 1994
M.I.A., International Affairs, Columbia University, 1994
B.A., Journalism and Mass Communication, Iowa State University, 1983
PUBLICATIONS
I. Books
2013. Rodney Benson. Shaping Immigration News: A French-American Comparison.
Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
2005. Rodney Benson and Erik Neveu, eds. Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
-Chinese translation completed and scheduled for publication in 2014.
“Introduction: Field Theory as a Work in Progress.” (Co-authored with Erik Neveu). In R. Benson and E. Neveu, eds., Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2005): 1-25.
“Mapping Field Variation: Journalism in France and the United States.” In R. Benson and E. Neveu, eds., Bourdieu and the Journalistic Field (Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2005): 85-112.
II. Books Under Contract
Rodney Benson, Mattias Hesserus, and Julie Sedel. How Media Ownership Matters.
(Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, under contract, manuscript due in 2014).
Rodney Benson.Bourdieu and the Media. (Cambridge, UK: Polity, “Theory and the Media” series, under contract).
Rodney Benson. Comparative News Media Systems. (Cambridge, UK: Polity, under contract).
III. Refereed Journal Articles
2014. Matthew Powers and Rodney Benson.“Is the Internet homogenizing or
diversifying the news? External pluralism in the Danish, French, and U.S. print and online press.”
International Journal of Press/Politics (forthcoming April).
2013. Rodney Benson. “On the Explanatory and Political Uses of Journalism History.”
American Journalism 30, 1: 4-14.
2012. Rodney Benson.“Murdoch in the United States: Kingmaker or Ringmaster?”
Global Media and Communication 8, 1: 4-7.
2012. Rodney Benson, Mark Blach-Orsten, Matthew Powers, Ida Willig, and Sandra
Vera Zambrano. “Media Systems Online and Off: Comparing the Form of News in the U.S., Denmark, and France.”
Journal of Communication62: 21-38.
2010. Rodney Benson. “What Makes for a Critical Press? A Case Study of French
and U.S.Immigration NewsCoverage.”
International Journal of Press/Politics15, 1: 3-24.
2009. Rodney Benson. “What Makes News More Multiperspectival? A Field Analysis.” Poetics37, 5-6: 402-418.
2009. Rodney Benson.“Shaping the Public Sphere: Habermas and Beyond.”
The American Sociologist40: 175-192.
2007. Rodney Benson and Daniel C. Hallin. “How States, Markets and Globalization
Shape the News: The French and U.S. National Press, 1965-1997.”
European Journal of Communication 22, 1: 27-48.
2006. Valerie Streit and Rodney Benson.“Etats-Unis: Un Echo du 11 Septembre.” Hermès46:95-100.
2006. Rodney Benson.“News Media as a ‘Journalistic Field’: What Bourdieu
adds to New Institutionalism, and Vice Versa.”
Political Communication 23, 2: 187-202.
-Translated into German as “Nachrichtenmedien als >journalistisches Feld<: Was Bourdieu zum Neo-Institutionalismus beiträgt – und andersherum,” in Thomas Wiedemann, ed., Pierre Bourdieu und die Kommunikationswissenschaft (Cologne: Herbert von Halem, 2013).
2005. Rodney Benson and Abigail C. Saguy. “Constructing Social Problems in an Age of Globalization: A French-AmericanComparison.”
American SociologicalReview 70, 2: 233-259.
2005. Rodney Benson.“American journalism and the politics of diversity.”
Media, Culture &Society 27, 1: 1-20.
-French-language version:“Journalisme et marketing: l’enjeu de la diversité.”Quaderni (University of Paris-Sorbonne) 47, 2002:85-100;
-Updated, revised version in R.A. Lind, ed., Race/Gender/Media, 2nd edition, Longman, 2010: 333-340.
2004. Rodney Benson. “Bringing the Sociology of Media Back In.”
Political Communication21: 275-292.
2004. Rodney Benson.“Why Conceptual Models and ‘Big’ Institutions Matter: A
Response to David Altheide, Nina Eliasoph, William Gamson, and Todd Gitlin.” Political Communication21: 311-314.
2004. Rodney Benson.“La fin du Monde?: Tradition and Change in the French Press.”
French Politics,Culture & Society 22, 1: 108-126.
2002. Rodney Benson.“The political/literary model of French journalism: Change and
continuity in immigration coverage, 1973-1991.”
Journal of European Area Studies 10, 1: 49-70.
2000. Rodney Benson.“La logique du profit dans les médias américains.”
Actes de la recherche ensciences sociales 131-132: 107-115.
-English-language version published as: “Tearing down the ‘Wall’ in American Journalism.”Core: International Journal of the Humanities (Paris) 1, 1 (2001).
1999. Rodney Benson.“Field theory in comparative context: a new paradigm for media studies.”
Theory and Society28, 3: 463-498.
-Reprinted in Howard Tumber, ed., Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, Vol. II, London: Routledge, 2007; and B. Moeran and A. Alacovska, eds., Creative Industries: Critical Readings, Sage, 2011.
1996. Rodney Benson.“Global knowledge: How media effects research can aid
globalization theorizing.”
Berkeley Journal of Sociology 40: 61-84.
IV. Policy Reports
2011. Rodney Benson and Matthew Powers. “Public Media and Political
Independence.”
Research report funded by Free Press and the Open Society Foundation, 88 pp. manuscript, available at:
V. Book Chapters
2014. Rodney Benson. “Modes of Media Ownership Power.”
In Martin Eide, LeifOveLarsen, Helle Sjøvaag, eds., The Journalistic Institution
Reexamined: Digital Challenges and Professional Reorientations (Intellect, in press for fall 2014 publication) (7,500 word approved manuscript)
2014. Rodney Benson. “Public Spheres, Fields, Networks: Conceptualizing
Culture and Power in a Globalizing World.”
In C.C. Lee, ed., Internationalizing International Communication (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, in press for summer 2014 publication) (8,000 word approved manuscript)
2014. Rodney Benson. “Strategy Follows Structure: A Media Sociology Manifesto.”
In Silvio Waisbord, ed., Media Sociology: A Reappraisal (Cambridge, UK: Polity, in press for spring 2014 publication) (8,000 word approved manuscript)
2013. Rodney Benson. “Why Narrative is Not Enough: Immigration and the Genres of
Journalism.”
In Giovanna dell’Orto and Vicki Birchfield, eds., Reporting at the Southern Borders: Journalism and Public Debates on Immigration in the EU and US (London: Routledge): 73-87.
-To be translated into French in journal Politiques de communication (Université de Versailles) for spring 2015 publication.
2011. Rodney Benson. “Public funding and journalistic independence: What does
research tell us?”
In Robert W.McChesney and Victor Pickard, eds., Will the Last Reporter Please Turn Out theLights?(New York: New Press): 314-319.
2010. Rodney Benson. “Comparative News Media Systems.”
In Stuart Allan, ed., Routledge Companionto News Media and Journalism Studies(London: Routledge): 614-626.
2010. Rodney Benson. “Futures of the News: International Considerations and Further Reflections.”
In NatalieFenton, ed., New Media, Old News (London: Sage): 187-200.
-Translated into Korean in 2011.
2007. Rodney Benson and Aurora Wallace. “Space, Place, and the Changing American Mediascape.”
In F. Eckardt and Martina Zschocke, eds., MediaCity (Weimar, Germany: Bauhaus University Publishers): 209-226.
2003. Rodney Benson. “Commercialism and Critique: California’s Alternative
Weeklies.”
In J. Curran and N. Couldry, eds., Contesting Media Power: Alternative Media in a Networked World (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield): 111-127.
VI. Book Reviews(all sole-authored)
2011. Review of Clifford Christians et al., Normative Theories of the Media (University
of Illinois Press, 2009).
Journalism 12: 923-925.
2011. Review of Tamara Chaplin, Turning on the Mind: French Philosophers
on Television (University of Chicago Press, 2007).
French Politics, Culture, and Society 29, 1: 142-145.
2011. Review of Brian A. Monahan, The Shock of the News: Media Coverage
and the Making of 9/11(New York University Press, 2010).
Contemporary Sociology 40, 3: 331-333.
2009. Review of Aeron Davis, The Mediation of Power: A Critical Introduction
(Routledge, 2007).
International Journal of Press/Politics 14, 4: 523-524.
2008. Review of Paul C. Adams, Atlantic Reverberations: French Representations of
anAmerican Presidential Election (Ashgate, 2007).
International Journal of Media & Cultural Politics 4, 3: 409-412.
2005. Review of Paul Starr, The Creation of the Media (Basic Books, 2004).
Archives européennes de sociologie/European Journal of SociologyXLVI, 3: 541-544.
2005. Review of Pablo Boczkowski, Digitizing the News (MIT Press, 2004).
New Media & Society7: 854-857.
2003. Reviewof John David Skrentny(ed.), Color Lines(Chicago, 2001) and Joel
Fetzer, PublicAttitudes toward Immigration in the United States, France, and Germany (Cambridge, 2000).
Public Opinion Quarterly 67, 2: 304-310.
1999. Review of Bridget Fowler, Bourdieu and Cultural Theory (Sage, 1997)
Social Forces 78, 1: 366-368.
1998. “Making the Media See Red: Pierre Bourdieu's campaign against television journalism (Review/essay on Sur la télévision)
French Politics and Society 16, 2: 59-65.
-Republished in Derek Robbins, ed., Pierre Bourdieu 2 [four-volume set], London: Sage, 2004.
1993. “Media power: A French critical perspective.” (Review of Armand and Michèle Mattelart,RethinkingMediaTheory, Minnesota, 1992).
Journal of International Affairs 47: 279-286.
1992. “The nation -- A state of mind.” (Review of Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, Verso, 1991)
Journal of International Affairs 45: 639-645.
VII.Short Essays and Encyclopedia Articles
2014. Rodney Benson. “Pierre Bourdieu.”
Under contract for delivery June 1.
International Encyclopedia of Communication Theory and Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell and ICA; print and online).
2014. Rodney Benson and Tim Wood. “Mass Media.”
Commissioned draft submitted fall 2013, in press. Oxford Sociology Bibliographies Online.
2013. Rodney Benson. “Culture Meets Media… Media Rising.”
ASA Culture Section Newsletter (December) 26, 3: 20-22. Available at
2008. Rodney Benson. “Normative Theories of Journalism.”
The Blackwell InternationalEncyclopedia of Communication (Wolfgang Donsbach, ed.): 2591-2597.
VIII. Selected Non-Academic Publications (all sole-authored)
2011. “Trahison au Huffington Post.”
Le Monde Diplomatique, May.
(Published in multiple language editions, including in English as “Arianna Huffington Meets Citizen Kane.”)
2011. “NPR defunding vote: Don’t diminish democracy to settle a politicalscore.”
The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com, March 14.
-Republished online March 15-18, 2011 by yahoo news, npr.org, Alaska Dispatch,Oklahoma City Journal Record, and New York Times’ Blogrunner
-Excerpted in The Week, “Talking Points – NPR”, March 19, 2011.
2011. “The Case for Spending More on Public Broadcasting.”
Otherwords op/ed service, March.
-Re-published online as of March 19, 2011 in dallasnews.com (Dallas Morning
News), commondreams.org, yubanet.com (Nevada City, California),
open.salon.com, Register Citizen (Litchfield Co., CT), The Mining Journal
(Marquette, MI), and Institute for Policy Studies.
2010. “What Makes for a Critical Press? Research Shows a
Role for Government Support”, posted January 21, invited guest blog for “Freepress.com” on my recent French-U.S. comparative research, accessible at:
-Cited by The Newspaper Guild, National Affairs “Inside Information”, and other websites.
2006. “Content Analysis.”
Wrote and presented segment for educationalfilm “Qualitative Research Methods in the Social Sciences.” Insight Media: Odyssey Productions.
1991. “The British are coming; How the BBC is enlarging its
empire.”
Columbia Journalism Review (July/August).
1991. “Drowning pool?; Why some older NBC employees have that
sinking feeling.”
Columbia Journalism Review (May/June).
1990. “Fake my day: a pose is a pose is a pose.” (Review/essay on
What I Saw at the Revolution: A Political Life in the Reagan Era, by Peggy Noonan).
In these Times (March 21-27).
IX. Working Papers (all sole-authored)
2001. “The Mediated Public Sphere: A Model for Cross-National Research.”
Working Paper #2001-7, Center for the Study of Culture, Organizations and Politics. University of California, Berkeley. Available at August.
1994. “Telecommunications and society: a critical review of the research literature on computer-mediated communications.”
Working Paper, Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE), August.
-Cited extensively by Manuel Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (vol. I).
1992. “The Future of the Newspaper.”
Working Paper, Freedom Forum Center for Media Studies (written for Freedom Forum fellow James Hoge). New York, May 1992.
X. Other Scholarly Articles in progress/under review
Rodney Benson. “The American Journalistic Crisis and the Philanthropic
‘Solution’.”
Actes de la recherche en sciences sociales. 7,000 word article provisionally accepted for special issue of journal on the “power of press owners,” fall 2014 (to be translated into French).
Rodney Benson and Matthew Powers. “Public Media and Political Autonomy: A
Comparative Study of 14 Leading Democracies.”
-Undergoing final editing of 7,000 word manuscript for submission to Communication Law & Policy, spring 2014.
Rodney Benson and Tim Wood. “Public Debates in the Era of the
Vacuous Quote: What Sources Say (or do not say) about Unauthorized Immigration in the U.S., French, and Norwegian News”
-Norwegian Research Council-funded project, in progress. 7,500 word article to be part of group submission in February 2014 for a special issue of American Behavioral Scientist.
SELECTED MEDIA INTERVIEWSAND REVIEWS
Toronto Star (thestar.com)
November 23, 2013, interviewed for “Rob Ford and the centre of the universe.”
January 23, 2012, interviewed for “Mrs. DSK picked to lead Le Huffington Post.”
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC TV)
July 19, 2011, interviewed on camera for “UK phone hacking scandal reaches U.S.”
L’Express.com
June 22, 2011, interviewed for “Ce que les Américains pensent de nous, Français” (regarding DSK scandal).
Columbia Journalism Review
May/June 2010, p. 63, “Research Report” review of my article (“What Makes for
a Critical Press? Press/Politics, 15, 1: 13-24) by Michael Schudson and Julia Sonnevend.
The Guardian, Miller-McCune, In These Times, Harvard Nieman Journalism Lab,
and Foreign Policy
February-March 2011, extensive coverage of my Free Press report “Public Media and Political Independence.”
Axess Public TV-Sweden
October 2010, interviewed about my talk “Forms of Journalism and Models of
Democracy” at Stockholm media conference.
Columbia Spectator
February 25, 2007, interviewed for story concerning how scandals affect
university reputations, “Getting a Handle on Scandal.”
O Globo(Brazil)
January 28, 2007, interviewed for story concerning U.S. presidential candidates’ use of internet websites, “Uma brigada eletrônica: Candidatos usam internet para chegar aos eleitores.”
Nippon TV (Japan)
February 24, 2005, interviewed for story on U.S. and Japanese governmental regulation of foreign media ownership.
German Online Technology Review
September 26, 2004, quoted from my talk “Public Relations in the Journalistic Field,” EuropeanPublic Relations and Research Assoc. Conference, Leipzig.
Pressthink blog
December 2003, “Journalism, French and American Style,” interviewed by Jay Rosen.
La face cachée du Monde.
Paris: Fayard, 2003.
Quoted by authors Pierre Péan and Philippe Cohen in French best-selling book about Le Monde.
SELECTED VISITING PROFESSORSHIPS AND INVITED TALKS
University of Groeningen, Netherlands, 2014.
Keynote lecture on “sociology of news” at conference honoring Michael Schudson, June.
Columbia University School of Journalism, 2014 (March 7)
University of Illinois-Champagne/Urbana, 2014 (January 31)
University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2014 (January 30)
St. John’s University (Queens, New York), 2013 (November 22)
Institut d’Etudes Politiques-Rennes, 2013 (November 14)
New York University-Institute of French Studies (November 6)
Invited talks, “Shaping Immigration News: A French-American Comparison,”
École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS)-Paris, 2013
“Position, logic, structure: toward acomparative theory of fields of cultural production,” June 25.
University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism, 2013.
Distinguished Invited Professor Award Lecture, “Why narrative is not enough: Immigration and the genres of journalism.” April.
University of Helsinki, 2013.
Invited Visiting Professor, Lectures on Comparative Media Systems research, February.
Rutgers University Department of Sociology, 2012.
Invited Speaker, “Toward a Sociology of Media Ownership,” November.
University of Minnesota, 2012.
Invited Speaker, “Shaping Immigration News,” Conference on “Covering the
Southern Borders: Journalistic Practices, News Frames and Public Debate Over
Immigration in the United States and the European Union,” Minneapolis, April
27-28.
Goldsmiths’ College-University of London, 2012.
Invited Speaker, “American Journalism Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Are
Foundations the Solution?” Conference on “Media, Power, and Revolution,” London, April 2-4.
NYU-Columbia Media Sociology Forum, 2012.
Invited Speaker. Special Panel on “The Future of Media Sociology.” New York,
March 2. (Event featured on DailyNews.com).
NYU Institute of French Studies/CNRS Monthly Transatlantic Seminar on Memorial Museums, 2011.
Invited Discussant for Clifford Chanin, “First Thoughts on Opening the National
September 11 Memorial.” New York, December 9.
Oxford University-Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, 2011.
Invited Speaker, “How Media Ownership Matters: Some Preliminary U.S.
Findings,” International Conference on Media Ownership. Oxford, December 2.
University of Bergen, Norway, 2011.
Invited Keynote Speaker, “How Media Ownership Matters.” Conference “The
Online Challenge to Journalistic Ontology.” Bergen, November 2-4.
Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media, 2011.
Invited Speaker, “Public Funding forMedia: U.S.-European Comparisons,”
Conference on “Media + Technology Funding Outlook: The State and Future of the Field,” June 16, New York.
Institute for Public Knowledge-NYU, 2011.
“Public Media and Political Independence.” Public presentation of Free Press-sponsored study co-authored with Matthew Powers. Event co-sponsored by SSRC, American Assembly, NYU Sociology, NYU Council for Media and Culture. Moderator: Vince Thehle, Knight Foundation. Discussants: Emily Bell (Columbia University Tow Center for Digital Journalism), Ellen Goodman (Rutgers University Law/FCC advisor), Hartmut Wessler (University of Mannheim). February 15. Event videotaped and available on youtube.com at:
City University of Hong Kong, 2010.
“Public Spheres, Fields, and Networks: ConceptualizingLocal, National, and
Global Communications.” Invited speaker for conference on “Internationalizing ‘International Communication’”, Hong Kong, December 3-5.
Axxess Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden, 2010.
“Forms of Journalism and Models of Democracy.” Invited talk at Conference on Media, Politics, and the Public. October 22.
French-American Foundation, 2010.
“How the U.S. and French Media Framed Immigration, 1973-2006.” Opening
speaker,Conference on “Covering Immigration.” Miami, May 5-6.
Stanford University, 2010.
“What is news diversity and how do we get it? Lessons from
comparing French and American immigration coverage.” Invited Speaker for Conference on News andInclusion: Journalism and the Politics of Diversity, Department of Communication, March 4.
University of Oslo, 2009.
“Measuring and Explaining Immigration Frames.” Invited
Plenary Speaker, Conference on Media Framing ofImmigration, Norway, December 4.
Yale University, 2009.
“Does Field Theory Help Explain Omnibus Media Cultural Production?A Comparison ofFrench and U.S. Television News Framing of Immigration.” Department of Sociology fall speaker series. New Haven, CT, November 17.