In May, WVU P.I. Reed School of Journalism graduates will receive their final send-off from one of the nation’s leading experts on media trends. Brooke Gladstone, co-host and managing editor of NPR’s “On the Media,” will serve as the School’s 2011 May Commencement keynote speaker.
Formerly a print journalist, her work has appeared in the London Observer, the Boston Globe, the Washington Post, and The American Journalism Review among others. She also covered public broadcasting for Current and wrote and edited theater, film and music reviews for The Washington Weekly.
In 1987, Gladstone began her transition to public radio, when NPR’s Scott Simon asked her to fill in as senior editor for his still-new program, “Weekend Edition Saturday.” She later became senior editor of the NPRnewsmagazine, “All Things Considered.” Gladstone was awarded a Knight Fellowship at Stanford in 1991 and a year later she was in Russia, reporting on the bloody insurgency of the Russian Parliament and other stories for NPR.
In 1995, NPR created its brand new “media beat” and gave it to Gladstone, who covered it for six years from NPR’s New York bureau in midtown Manhattan, until she was tapped by WNYC to help re-launch “On the Media.” The program was reborn in January 2001.
The program has since more than tripled its audience and won several awards, including the Edward R. Murrow Awards for feature reporting and investigative reporting, the National Press Club’s Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism and a Peabody Award for its body of work.
Gladstone also has won several awards, including an Overseas Press Club Award, a Peabody and the Milwaukee Press Club’s Sacred Cat Award for lifetime achievement. She plans to release her new book, “The Influencing Machine: Brooke Gladstone on the Media,” in May 2011.
The School’s ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 15 at 2:30 pm in the Morgantown Event Center. The event is reserved for graduates and their guests but will be webcast live on the School’s website.
Read about all of WVU’s Commencement speakers on WVU Today.