Considered one of the 100 Web-Savviest Professors in the World by Best Online Universities, Professor Dale Cressman said he is honored to have his name on the same list as academics he admires, like Clayton Christensen, Jay Rosen, Jim MacMillan and Carrie Brown-Smith. “These are people who, in my field, are influential, followed and respected,” Cressman said. A self-proclaimed “news guy,” Cressman is an associate professor in the Brigham Young University Department of Communications.
Cressman’s interest in social media was sparked while teaching journalism classes. Though his main research interest is media history, Cressman said that he was fascinated by social media’s growing influence on journalism. “Newspapers aren’t doing as well as they used to. Twitter is now my newswire. I’ll find out about news 30 minutes before it goes on television.” Cressman is also followed by the Salt Lake media outlets. “I saw a bus accident by my house in Spanish Fork and tweeted a picture from it. Both 2 News and Channel 13 asked me if they could use my picture. So I shot b-roll footage on my iPhone and posted that video to Vimeo and tweeted it.”
Cressman’s appearance on the Best Online Universities’ list not only gives added credibility to Cressman, but the award has put BYU in the same technological playing field as leading educational institutions like Stanford, New York University, Harvard and the London Business School.
An avid social media-ite, Cressman said, “I’ve also dabbled a little in Instagram, Flickr, Foursquare, and the like. I’ve even pinned a few things on Pinterest because I must know what it is.”
Written by Carolyn Haynie