Biography
Charlie Beckett is a professor in the Department of Media and Communications. He was Head of the Department of Media and Communications (2012-14). He is the founding director of Polis, the London School of Economics’ international journalism think-tank.
He was an award-winning filmmaker and editor at LWT, BBC and ITN. He began his career on the South London Press and ended it as a programme editor at Channel 4 News where he covered major stories such as the terrorist attacks on New York and London. He was a specialist in politics and international affairs.
He is the author of SuperMedia (Wiley Blackwell, 2008) that sets out how journalism is being transformed by technological and other changes and how that will impact on society. His second book WikiLeaks: News In The Networked Era (Polity 2012) described the history and significance of WikiLeaks and the wider context of new kinds of disruptive online journalism.
Polis is a public forum for debate about the news media in the UK and globally. Polis holds seminars, conferences and lectures and has published reports on topics such as social media, reporting politics, financial journalism, humanitarian communication and media and development.
The Director’s Blog is http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/polis/