Gerry Lanosga

Gerry Lanosga, Assistant Professor of Journalism
Department of Journalism

Educational Background
Ph.D. Mass Communications, Indiana University, 2010
M.A. U.S. History, Indiana University, 1999
B.A. Political Science, University of Redlands, 1988

Professional Experience
Lanosga worked at four news organizations prior to his employment at Ball State University. He worked as a reporter and columnist for eight years at the Indianapolis News/Indianapolis Star. Lanosga went on to work as the investigative producer at WTHR-TV from 1997 to 2006. He worked as an adjunct lecturer at IUPUI for six years and as an associate instructor at Indiana University for one year before becoming an assistant professor at Ball State in 2009.

Research/Creative/Publication Interests
Lanosga’s fields of professional specialization include news writing and reporting (multiple platform), computer-assisted reporting, investigative reporting, media history, access to records, and freedom of information.

Research/Creative/Publication Career Highlights
Since entering academia, Lanosga has written one journal article, a chapter in a forthcoming book on journalistic objectivity, and seven non-refereed publications. In addition, he has presented more than a dozen conference papers.

Lanosga has been the treasurer and founding board member of the Indiana Debate Commission since 2008. He serves as a board member and webmaster for the Indiana Coalition for Open Government. As a part of the Society of Professional Journalists’ Project Sunshine, Lanosga is the Indiana Sunshine Chair. He has served as the president of the Indiana Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and continues to serve as the scholarship chair for this chapter.

He is a member of the following professional and honorary societies: American Journalism Historians Association, International Communication Association, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Investigative Reporters and Editors, National Association of Hispanic Journalists, Society of Professional Journalists, Indiana Debate Commission, and Indiana Coalition for Open Government.

Thesis/Creative Project Experience and Philosophy
Lanosga’s dissertation examined a little-studied period in the history of investigative reporting in the United States – the period between the Muckraking Era and the 1960s. His analysis of more than 4,000 Pulitzer Prize nominations – the first study to go beyond winners and include the broader reportage covered in thousands of rejected entries – revealed the exposé as an enduring practice during the early to middle decades of the twentieth century. The dissertation detailed exposés of government corruption, social problems, businesses, crime and subversion, among other subjects. More important, it showed investigative journalism as a significant factor in arrangements of local power and prize culture as a significant factor in the development of journalism as a modern professional practice.

Aside from journalism history, Lanosga’s research interests include political communication, ethics, and media law, particularly as it applies to freedom of information issues.