Rich Beckman

Rich Beckman is a professor of visual communication and new media technologies at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Faculty Research Fellow at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. He has directed national and international documentary photojournalism projects, including a study of rural medicine in the United States and a four year project on under-developed island cultures of the West Indies. He is a 1995 recipient of a Freedom Forum grant to produce a multi-media program on the plight of the North American Brown Bear and is the editor of the Friends of McNeil River Internet site. In 1993 he was awarded the prestigious Tanner Award and in 1994 the David Brinkley Award, both in recognition of excellence in undergraduate teaching. He has extensive field and publication experience throughout North America, particularly working within endangered habitats and among our disappearing wildlife populations. His formal education includes extensive coursework in zoology, specializing in animal behavior and environmental communications. He is also an award-winning designer and most recently was director of publications for the University's Bicentennial Observance.

He has twice chaired the Visual Communication Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication and presently serves as commentary editor of Visual Communication Quarterly. He is the education chair for the National Press Photographers Association's Electronic Photojournalism Workshops, a consultant for US AID at the University of Asmara in Eritrea (East Africa) and in October 1995 was a visiting professor at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. He returned to South Africa in July 1996 to lecture on ethics and photojournalism education at the first national photojournalism conference and direct the Web site for the National Arts Festival.