Mitchell Stephens

The Voice of America: Lowell Thomas and the Invention of 20th-Century Journalism, is Mitchell Stephens' newest book -- a biography of the seminal journalist and adventurer Lowell Thomas. Featured in The Smithsonian: "The Forgotten Man Who Transformed Journalism in America." “Mitchell Stephens’s The Voice of America is a first-rate and much-needed biography of the great Lowell Thomas. Nobody can properly understand broadcast journalism without reading Stephens’s riveting account of this larger-than-life globetrotting radio legend.” ―Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and author of Cronkite "Lowell Thomas so deserves this lively account of his legendary life. He was a man for all seasons." ―Tom Brokaw "Will take you into the fascinating life, times, and adventures of the man who was considered the most famous reporter of his time .... If we want to know where our modern media is going, we definitely need to understand where it came from." ―Bustle "A quintessentially American story, Thomas’ combination of P. T. Barnum and Walter Cronkite makes for first-rate reading." ―Booklist "Stephens captures the swashbuckling spirit of this early journalist [...] an entertaining look at a unique journalist." ―Kirkus Reviews "Mitchell Stephen's The Voice of America is the fascinating story of Lowell Thomas, whose rise to media stardom is an adventuresome epic in itself, almost as much the story he weaved around the exploits of T.E. Lawrence, which made him forever 'Lawrence of Arabia.'" ―Michael Korda, author of Hero "An excellent book. Refreshingly honest. Stephens manages to contain that extraordinary life within 400 pages, without becoming his subject's cheerleader. I learned so much." ―Bob Edwards, longtime host of Morning Edition on NPR Professor Stephens is also the author of: Imagine There's No Heaven: How Atheism Helped Create the Modern World, Beyond News: The Future of Journalism, Journalism Unbound, the rise of the image the fall of the word and A History of News (an extended history of journalism that has been translated into four languages and was a New York Times "Notable Book of the Year") In addition, Professor Stephens has written two textbooks: Broadcast News (now in its fourth edition), long the most widely used radio and television news textbook, and the co-author of Writing and Reporting the News (a third edition of this book was published in 2007 by Oxford). He is a long-time professor of Journalism at New York University’s Arthur L. Carter Institute and has served three terms as chair of the Department of Journalism there. In 2009 he was a fellow at the Harvard’s Shorenstein Center, working on a project on the future of journalism. Over the years, Professor Stephens has written numerous articles on media issues and aspects of contemporary thought for publications such as the Daedalus, New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Washington Post and the Columbia Journalism Review. He was one of five editors of the book Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11 (Bonus Books). In 2001, Professor Stephens completed a trip around the world, during which he reported on globalization for the public radio program "Marketplace" and the webzine Feed and wrote essays on travel for LonelyPlanet.com. His commentaries have aired on NPR's "On the Media." He has been history consultant to the Newseum. Professor Stephens has been involved in a number of media development projects overseas since 1993 – including two large State Department University-Partnership Grants, which he directed, with Rostov State University in Russia. Professor Stephens has also taught or organized exchanges in Georgia, Ghana and India. He was director of the Russian-American Journalism Institute in Rostov. In 2006, Professor Stephens won a grant from the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education for research on new models of journalism education.