Chinoy to Discuss History of Technology, Elections at 2024 JJCHC Conference 

Veteran journalist and educator Ira Chinoy, Ph.D., will be the keynote speaker at the Joint Journalism Communications History Conference on March 15, 2024 at New York University.

Chinoy, an associate professor at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland, will discuss his forthcoming book, “Predicting the Winner: The Untold Story of Election Night 1952 and the Dawn of Computer Forecasting” (University of Nebraska Press, Potomac Books).   

This book explores the contentious history of election nights as important venues in American culture for rolling out new tools for journalism and it addresses the way forward from the events of election night 2020 and the drama that followed.

Chinoy has 24 years of experience as a journalist at four newspapers: The Washington Post, The Providence (Rhode Island) Journal, The Lawrence (Massachusetts) Eagle-Tribune and The Pine Bluff (Arkansas) Commercial.

At The Washington Post, Chinoy was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for a 1998 series on the use of deadly force by the D.C. police. At The Providence Journal, Chinoy was part of a team that won the Pulitzer Prize in Investigative Reporting for coverage of corruption and patronage in the Rhode Island courts.

Since 2001, Chinoy has been on the faculty of the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism teaching courses in the practice and history of journalism.

He is the co-founder of the Future of Information Alliance, created at Maryland to foster transdisciplinary dialog, research and action on pressing information-related issues.

Chinoy graduated with honors from Harvard College in 1977. In 2010, he completed his Ph.D. in Journalism Studies at Maryland with a dissertation titled “Battle of the Brains: Election-Night Forecasting at the Dawn of the Computer Age.” It won the annual dissertation prize by the American Journalism Historians Association.

In 2021 and 2023, Chinoy was awarded the Broussard Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Media History by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication History Division. In 2021 he also received the National Award for Excellence in Teaching from the American Journalism Historians Association.

The Joint Journalism Communications History Conference will be held Friday, March 15, 2024 at the New York University, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute, 20 Cooper Square,6th Floor, New York, NY 10003.

The deadline for paper and panel submissions is Friday, Jan 19. Details are here.