He is a Full Professor[1] at the University of British Columbia School of Journalism, Writing, and Media, where he served as director for five and a half years (June 2015 – December 2020).
In 2017, he co-founded and launched The Conversation Canada with his UBC Journalism colleague, Mary Lynn Young, bringing academics and experienced journalists together to share timely analysis and commentary drawing from research, evidence and insights.
[3] The book examines how sharing is shaping our notions of an informed and engaged public, a media ecology of competing ideas, and a responsive political establishment.
He was named an IBM CAS Canada Research Faculty Fellow in 2010, 2011 and 2012, and won the 2011 UBC President's Award for Public Education Through Media.
Four of these years were as a BBC foreign correspondent in North Africa and the Middle East, mainly covering the military coup and Islamic insurgency in Algeria and the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.