Bio

Jason M. Shepard, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of communications at California State University, Fullerton, where he teaches courses in journalism, media law and media history.

Shepard is currently working on several research projects thanks in part to two competitive research grant awards from Cal State Fullerton for 2012, one focusing on the future role of ethics in journalism privilege law and the other focusing on First Amendment and gay rights history. He's slated to present research at a New Research Agendas conference at the University of Texas at Austin and the 2012 annual convention of the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association in Boston.

In 2011, Shepard's first scholarly book, Privileging the Press: Confidential Sources, Journalism Ethics and the First Amendment, was published by LFB Scholarly Publishers. (More about the book here). He has also published research in several scholarly communications journals and law reviews, including Communication Law and Policy, Journal of Media Law & Ethics, Nexus Journal of Law and Policy, and Drake Law Review. He served as an expert witness in a campaign finance law case for the state of Maine based on his research.

Shepard is currently the head of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Interest Group of the Association of Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). At Cal State Fullerton, he served as the adviser of the Daily Titan student newspaper from 2009-2011. During his tenure, the newspaper won dozens of state and national journalism awards, including third-best student newspaper in the country from College Media Advisers and best multimedia reporting in the nation from Associated Collegiate Press.

Shepard earned a doctorate in mass communications, with a minor in law, in 2009 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Graduate school distinctions include a year-long dissertation fellowship, selection as Journalism School's 2008 Teaching Fellow, and top research paper honors at the annual convention of AEJMC.

Past journalism experience includes 10 years  as a police reporter, education columnist and long-form freelancer in Madison, Wis., where Shepard reported and wrote for Isthmus newspaper, an award-winning alternative weekly, and The Capital Times, the feistier of two local daily newspapers. He won reporting awards for investigative reporting, explanatory reporting, legal reporting, spot news reporting and feature reporting.

Shepard has two master’s degrees, in education and journalism and mass communication, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and political science. He is a former member of Teach for America and taught middle-school English and history for three years in the South Bronx of New York City.