Janet Kolodzy

Prof. Janet Kolodzy brings more than two decades of professional journalism experience in print and broadcast news to her teaching and research of the interplay of technology and journalism.

Before coming to Emerson in 1998, Prof. Kolodzy had been a reporter, writer, and producer, including serving as Senior Writer/Editor at CNN International, Senior Producer at CNN World Report, and Assistant State Editor at the Cleveland Plain Dealer. She was a University of Michigan Journalism Fellow in 1990-91, concentrating her study on Eastern European history, politics, and culture.

At Emerson, Kolodzy developed a specialized interest in the area of convergence and multimedia in journalism. She was a regular presenter at the annual "Convergence and Society" conferences by the University of South Carolina 2002-2013 and has spoken about convergence journalism on numerous panels at the Broadcast Education Association and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conventions.

Kolodzy is the co-author of the 8th edition of Broadcast News Writing and Stylebook, out in 2025. She also wrote two texts on convergence and multimedia in journalism.  Practicing Convergence Journalism was published by Routledge in 2012. Her first book, Convergence Journalism: Writing and Reporting across the News Media was published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2006.

She is the co-founder of the Emerson College High School Summer Institute in Journalism. In the summer of 2014, she was a Mellon Foundation scholar-in-residence at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. She was also a presenter at the 2014 Highway Africa media conference.

Prof. Kolodzy has served as chair of the Dept. of Journalism 2006-2009 and 2017-2023. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.