Dr. Marcus Messner

Office: Temple 1110
Phone: (804) 827-0252
Email: mmessner@vcu.edu
Website: http://www.marcusmessner.com/

Dr. Marcus Messner is an assistant professor at the School of Mass Communications, teaching journalism and mass communications classes. He joined VCU in the fall of 2007. Dr. Messner’s main research focus is on the growing influence and adoption of social media in journalism and public relations.

He has presented more than 40 research papers at national and international conferences and has published more than 20 articles in academic journals such as Newspaper Research Journal, Journalism Studies, Journalism Practice, Mass Communication & Society, and Public Relations Journal as well as in various books. He is also a regular speaker on social media issues at professional meetings and events.

Dr. Messner serves as Director for Research and Teaching at the Center for Media+Health at VCU and as co-Academic Director of the Social Media Institute of the Iraqi Young Leaders Exchange Program, which is sponsored by the U.S. State Department. He has secured more than $800,000 in grant funding for various teaching and research projects.

He has been named a “Promising Professor” and “Emerging Scholar” by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and has been recognized as one of the “most social media savvy professors” in the United States. He is also a past head of the AEJMC Communication Technology Division.

Dr. Messner is teaching in the undergraduate print/online journalism program as well as in the graduate multimedia journalism program. He regularly teaches the following classes: MASC 151 – Global Communication, MASC 491/691 – Social Media Networking, MASC 496 – Mobile and Social Media Journalism, MASC 611 – Research Methods, and MASC 685 – Business of Media. His “iPadJournos” mobile and social media reporting project has spearheaded the use of iPads as multimedia reporting devices in the School of Mass Communications.

Dr. Messner earned his Ph.D. in Communication and his M.A. in Print Journalism from the University of Miami in Florida and his B.A. in English Literature from Angelo State University in Texas. Before entering academia, Dr. Messner worked as a newspaper reporter, editor and correspondent in his native Germany and the U.S., covering politics and business.