jwmitch1

Information

First Name

Jack W.

Last name

Mitchell

Title

Professor

Current course offerings

Courses taught

Introduction to Mass Communication
Intermediate Reporting
Public, Community, and Alternative Media
Professional Responsibility

Biography

Jack W. Mitchell joined the School of Journalism & Mass Communication faculty in January 1998 after a 30-year career in public radio.

As Director of Wisconsin Public Radio for 21 years, Mitchell led the most extensive and successful state or university public radio system in the country. He initiated the transition from the Wisconsin Educational Radio Network into Wisconsin Public Radio, a system of 20 stations serving a statewide audience with two networks and a prolific producer of national programming.

On a national level, Mitchell was the first employee of National Public Radio. While at NPR, he was instrumental in developing the groundbreaking newsmagazine All Things Considered. During his years as the program's first producer and executive producer, ATC won both the Peabody Award and the DuPont Award.

Mitchell was elected to an unprecedented four terms (12 years) on the National Public Radio Board of Directors, including three years as chair. He made significant contributions in virtually every area of the organization's work from programming to finance to long-term strategy. When NPR was on the brink of financial collapse in 1983, Mitchell was asked to assume interim responsibility for NPR's programming operations as part of a team that restored the organization's financial health and saved it from going dark.

As Professor of Journalism & Mass Communication at UW-Madison, Mitchell teaches courses in public broadcasting, broadcast news, intermediate reporting, mass media and society, and the survey of mass communication.

Mitchell’s awards include the Edward Elson National Public Radio Distinguished Service Award, the UW-Extension Award for Excellence, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's Edward R. Murrow Award, public radio's highest honor.

His undergraduate and master’s degrees are from the University of Michigan. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois.

Office hours

M/W 1:15-2:15

Education

 The University of Michigan

 

AB, Journalism, 1963
AM, Journalism, 1965

The University of Illinois
Ph.D, Communications, 1973

 

Office

5172 Vilas

Telephone

(608) 263-1740

Email

jwmitch1@wisc.edu

Recent publications

 Listener Supported, the Culture and History of Public Radio, Praeger, 2005.

Mitchell, Jack. “All Things Considered,” “Frank Mankiewicz,” “Public Radio since 1967,” “William Siemering,” “WHA-Wisconsin Public Radio,” in The Encyclopedia of Radio, edited by Christopher Sterling, New York: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2004.

Mitchell, Jack. “Lead Us Not into Temptation: American Public Radio in a World of Infinite Possibilities. in Radio Reader, Essays in the Cultural History of Radio, edited by Michele Hilmes and Jason Loviglio. New York: Routledge, 2002.

History

Member for

12 weeks 5 days