Edward Wasserman

Faculty – Professor

Edward Wasserman, professor of journalism, was dean of the Graduate School of Journalism from 2013 to 2020. Before coming to Berkeley he spent a decade as the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation professor of journalism ethics at Washington and Lee University, home of the nation’s first college-level journalism program.

During his seven years as dean, the School raised record philanthropic support, increased its enrollment by nearly 20 percent, established an advisory board of some of the country’s most distinguished journalists, rebuilt the library into a media-enabled conference space, and brought in new leadership to revitalize the Investigative Reporting Program. The School also reintroduced undergraduate journalism training for the first time in 40 years by creating a journalism minor, created an audio journalism track and modernized the audio studios, and established the Berkeley Advanced Media Institute, providing high-level skills training to non-degree students.

Wasserman writes and speaks widely on matters related to media rights and wrongs. His academic specialties include plagiarism, source relations, confidentiality and conflict of interest.

From 2001 to 2016 he wrote a biweekly column for Knight-Ridder and later McClatchy that was distributed nationally and was on the executive board of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE). He serves on the boards of the Journal of Media Ethics and the First Amendment Coalition. He has spoken to professional and academic groups throughout the United States and in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Great Britain, India, the Netherlands, Sweden, Qatar, and China.

Wasserman’s journalism career spanned 30 years. He was CEO and editor in chief of American Lawyer Media’s Miami-based Daily Business Review newspaper chain, executive business editor of The Miami Herald, city editor of The Casper (Wyo.) Star-Tribune, and editorial director of Primedia’s 140-publication Media Central division in New York.

Wasserman received a B.A. cum laude in politics and economics from Yale, a licence in philosophy from the University of Paris I, and a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics, where his thesis was on the politics of innovation in communications technology.

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