I’m pleased to announce another addition to our collection of voices here at the Lab: C.W. Anderson.

(You may know him from the Internets and our comments section as Chris Anderson. But there are already too many Chris Andersons talking about media, so it’s C.W. from now on. Although, confusingly, it’s @chanders on Twitter.)

C.W. will bring more of an academic perspective to these virtual pages. He just got his Ph.D. from Columbia and is starting work as an assistant professor of media culture at CUNY. I’ll let him describe his recently completed dissertation:

My dissertation research focused on changing patterns of work and cross-institutional collaboration in local news reporting, with a multi-year case study of journalism in Philadelphia. My method was ethnographic — I hung around newsrooms and did in-depth interviews — but also utilized the latest in social network mapping technology. In essence, I was able to “blow up” the traditional newsroom ethnography by also studying Philadelphia bloggers, independent journalists, and foundation funders, in addition to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com.

He’s been blogging on his own for several years now, and it’s all been engaging, thought-provoking stuff. I’m very happy to welcome to the Lab.