Valérie Bélair-Gagnon is an Assistant Professor of Journalism Studies at the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication and affiliated faculty at the Department of Sociology at the University of Minnesota. She is also an affiliated fellow at the Yale Law School Information Society Project. Her research looks at how organizations adapt and respond to technology and how the business of journalism is changing the news media industry and its role. She is the author of Social Media at BBC News and her research has been published in Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, New Media & Society, Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, Symbolic Interaction, Digital Journalism and Nieman Journalism Lab, and Columbia Journalism Review, among others. She is a past fellow at the Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism and OsloMet Digital Journalism fellow.
Nikki (Nik) Usher is an Associate Professor at the University of San Diego. Prior to this, they were a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the College of Media, with affiliate appointments in Communication and Political Science. Their research looks at the connections between elite news media, politics, and technology through the lens of production studies. They are the author of Making News at The New York Times, Interactive Journalism: Hackers, Data, and Code, and News for the Rich, White, and Blue: How Place and Power Distort American Journalism. They are a past fellow at the Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism and an academic policy fellow with the Open Markets Institute.