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Aikat honored as National Journalism Teacher of the Year

By ZACH HOSKINS
School of Journalism and Mass Communication

CHAPEL HILL -- Dr. Debashis "Deb" Aikat, associate professor and media futurist in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been named the inaugural winner of the Scripps Howard Foundation's 2003 National Journalism Teacher of the Year award.

It honors Aikat for distinguished service to journalism education and recognizes him "for demonstrated journalism teaching excellence on his campus and beyond." It rewards "teaching excellence and leadership in the core areas of print, broadcast and online journalism instruction at bachelor's degree-granting colleges and universities."

Aikat's teaching focuses on core concepts in online journalism, social aspects of interactive technologies and the future of communication.
"I love to teach," said Aikat, who joined the school's faculty in 1995. "On the first day of class, I tell my students, 'The only limitations in our lives are those we place on ourselves.'"

In addition to teaching on-campus courses, Aikat has taught distance education courses for the past seven years. He created one of the first distance education courses in journalism using the Web as a virtual classroom in 1997, and later he helped develop a graduate-level certificate program in technology and communication.

Aikat also founded The Fifth Estate (http://www.5thestate.org), the university's first online magazine. Written, edited and designed by students in the School, The Fifth Estate is now also a journalistic Web log, or blog.

Aikat will receive a trophy at a black-tie dinner April 23 at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. The award comes with a stipend of $5,000 for Aikat and another $5,000 for the school.

"It's fitting for Deb to win this national award after winning virtually every teaching award at UNC-Chapel Hill," said Dr. Richard Cole, dean of the School. Aikat has received a Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction, the university's highest honor for excellence in graduate education; three "Superlative" Edward Kidder Graham Faculty Awards; a David Brinkley Teaching Excellence Award, given each year by the School; the university's "Superlative" Favorite Faculty Award four times; the Tanner Faculty Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching; and the Student Undergraduate Teaching Award.

The National Journalism Teacher of the Year award is given in conjunction with four major journalism institutions: the Freedom Forum, the Knight Foundation, the Scripps Howard Foundation and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. Since 1953, Scripps Howard's National Journalism Awards have evolved as the nation's premiere competition for excellence in print journalism, electronic journalism and journalism education.

Aikat was selected by a 34-member panel of journalists, educators and news professionals from nominations submitted by students and peers. The nominations credited him with creating a dynamic intellectual environment and having a lasting impact inside and outside the classroom.
The judges said Aikat "has introduced a new generation of students to creative and effective ways to disseminate the products of journalism. His students sing his praises both for his classroom teaching and his enthusiastic personality."

"I use humor as a teaching tool to illustrate how research is formalized curiosity - poking and prying with a purpose," Aikat said. "Research is best learned by doing research. I firmly believe in making learning fun."

Born in Calcutta, India, Aikat earned his bachelor's with honors in English literature from the University of Calcutta in 1984. He earned his master's in journalism in 1990 from Calcutta and in 1995 earned his doctorate in journalism and mass communication from Ohio University.

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Photo url: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/aikat_debashis.jpg

School contact: Zach Hoskins, assistant dean for communication, (919) 966-3323, zhoskins@email.unc.edu