YEREVAN, Armenia — The American University of Armenia (AUA) is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Shawn McIntosh as the inaugural chair of the University’s new M.A. in Journalism program, set to launch in Fall 2025, and an assistant professor in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. In 2023, AUA, in partnership with Washington State University, signed a memorandum of understanding to establish the Center and create a new master’s program in journalism education. The $1.3 million, four-year university partnership initiative is funded by the United States Embassy in Yerevan to support Armenia’s media sector.
McIntosh will be teaching courses in journalism, media, and communications and will be working closely with students in the Media Lab to enhance and expand on student-led media productions across multimedia.
Prior to assuming these roles at AUA, McIntosh taught digital media and journalism courses and was student media advisor for the student-run newspapers and television studios at The College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York and the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts. For several years before that, he taught strategic communications, media ethics, and digital media in the Master of Science in Strategic Communication program at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies.
McIntosh received his M.S. in journalism from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and his Ph.D. in journalism and media studies from Rutgers University. He worked as a journalist and editor in London and then Tokyo for nearly a decade before earning his advanced degrees, writing for newspapers and magazines in the United Kingdom, Japan, and the U.S. In Tokyo, he founded and published a travel and general interest magazine.
McIntosh is co-author with Dr. John Pavlik of the mass communication textbook Converging Media: An Introduction to Mass Communication and Digital Innovation, 7th ed. (Oxford University Press, 2023) and co-editor with Marc Leverette of Zombie Culture: Autopsies of the Living Dead (Scarecrow Press, 2008). He has published book chapters and journal articles and presented at conferences on various aspects of media studies, digital media, and journalism.
Born in southern California but raised in northern Idaho, McIntosh graduated from the University of Idaho in Moscow, Idaho with a B.S. in microbiology. His science background has been useful at times throughout his career for science writing, but he now mostly uses it for home brewing.
The American University of Armenia, in partnership with Washington State University, signed a memorandum of understanding in 2023 to establish a Center for Excellence in Journalism (CEJ) and create a new master’s program in multiplatform journalism. The $1.3 million, four-year university partnership initiative is funded by the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan to support Armenia’s media sector. CEJ will serve as a hub for journalism education and leadership in research, training, best practices, and collaboration with leading experts and policy makers that advances knowledge of how quality journalism can serve as a bulwark against misinformation and improve networking within Armenia’s journalism ecosystem. The Center will also offer professional development programs serving the wider media community.