© Christine M. Tracy and Figure/Ground Communication. Dr. Tracy was interviewed by Gina Conley on June 5th, 2012 as part of the Figure/Ground scholarly interview series: http://www.figureground.ca/interviews
Christine M. Tracy is a media ecologist, journalism professor, and a former reporter. She holds a Ph.D. from Rensselaer in Troy, NY, where she studied the evolution of media and worked as a founding editor of Computer-Mediated Communication, one of the Web’s first e-zines. Tracy wrote The Newsphere: Understanding the News and Information Environment (Peter Lang 2012) to combat disillusionment with news. She coined the word “newsphere” to depict a more dynamic, interactive, and responsible news environment that builds on the integral theories of scientist and phenomenologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Reviewers describe The Newsphere as “one of the very few truly practical and professional texts in media ecology, and one of the very few truly philosophical, ecological and sociological journalism news texts.” Tracy’s work has focused on technological changes to news creation and dissemination. She is currently building a news incubator in southeast Michigan and working with scholars from Georgetown’s Woodstock Theological Center to extend the work of Teilhard de Chardin. She lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
