Norman P. Lewis, Ph.D.

Associate Professor - Department of Journalism
James M. Cox, Jr. Foundation/The Palm Beach Post Professorship in New Media

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Norman Lewis is an associate professor at the University of Florida, where he landed in 2007 after earning a doctorate from the University of Maryland. Before that, he worked for 25 years in newspapers ranging from small dailies to The Washington Post. His academic research focuses on news culture and its manifestations in plagiarism, social media, and data journalism, and has been published in 10 different peer-reviewed journals. He teaches data literacy and data journalism to undergraduates and research methods and theory to graduate students. He was named the University of Florida teacher of the year in 2010 and the Cox/Palm Beach Post professor in new media in 2019. He was a Fulbright scholar to Kuwait for the 2018-19 academic year.

Areas of Expertise

Data, Numeracy and Coding, Ethics/Professional Responsibility, Visualization

Education

Ph.D., Journalism, “Paradigm Disguise: Systemic Influences on Newspaper Plagiarism,” University of Maryland, 2007
B.A., Journalism, Eastern Illinois University, 1979

News

• Norm Lewis to Retire from UFCJC in May 2025 (October 1, 2024)
• CJC Alumnus Uses AI to Make Jobs Easier for Hearst Journalists (April 8, 2024)
• Norm Lewis Comments on Public University Rankings from The Wall Street Journal (September 21, 2023)
• UFCJC Student Project WATERSHED Wins 2023 Online Journalism Award (August 18, 2023)
• Four Things Schools Should Do to Teach Data Journalism (May 12, 2020)
• All News About Norm Lewis

Publications

Refereed Journal Articles

Lewis, N., Al Nashmi, E., & Waddell, F. (2024). Testing the Social Media Produsage Hypothesis. Communication Studies, 1-20. DOI: 10.1080/10510974.2023.2301133

Chen, K., Lewis, N. P., & Altourah, A. F. (2023). Ageism, a remarkable election, and the journalism objectivity norm. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 1-22. DOI: 10.1177/10776990231196086

Lewis, N. P. (2021). Defining and Teaching Data Journalism: A Typology. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 76(1), 78-90. DOI: 10.1177%2F1077695820924309

Lewis, N. P., McAdams, M. J., & Stalph, F. (2020). Data journalism. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 75(1), 16-21. DOI: 10.1177%2F1077695820904971

Lewis, N. (2019). Data journalism in the Arab region: Role conflict exposed. Digital Journalism, 9(7), 1200-1214. DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2019.1617041

Lewis, N., & Waters, S. (2018). Data journalism and the challenge of shoe-leather epistemologies. Digital Journalism, 6(6). DOI: 10.1080/21670811.2017.1377093

Lewis, N., Zhong, B., Yang, F., & Zhou, Y. (2018). How U.S. and Chinese journalists think about plagiarism. Asian Journal of Communication. DOI: 10.1080/01292986.2017.1416644

Hull, K., & Lewis, N. (2014). Why Twitter Displace broadcast sports media: A model. International Journal of Sport Communication, 7(1), 16–33. DOI: 10.1123/IJSC.2013-0093

Lewis, N. (2013). Idea Plagiarism: Journalism’s Ultimate Heist. Mass Communication and Society, 16(5), 738–757. DOI: 10.1080/15205436.2013.768346

Lewis, N., & Zhong, B. (2013). The root of journalistic plagiarism contested attribution beliefs. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 90(1), 148–166. DOI: 10.1177%2F1077699012468743

Lewis, N., Starr, W. J., Takata, Y., & Xie, Q. (2012). Gulf Papers’ Oil Spill Coverage Differs from National Dailies. Newspaper Research Journal, 33(4), 91–101. DOI: 10.1177%2F073953291203300408

Lewis, N., Treise, D., Hsu, S. I., Allen, W. L., & Kang, H. (2011). DTC genetic testing companies fail transparency prescriptions. New Genetics and Society, 30(4), 291–307. DOI: 10.1080/14636778.2011.600434

Lewis, N., Neely, J., & Gao, F. (2011). Few Top Editors Blog about News Decisions. Newspaper Research Journal, 32(2), 63–73. DOI: doi.org/10.1177%2F073953291103200206

Walsh-Childers, K., Lewis, N., & Neely, J. (2011). Listeners, not leeches: What Virginia Tech survivors needed from journalists. Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 26(3), 191–205. DOI: 10.1080/08900523.2011.581976

Lewis, N. (2011). Morning Miracle. Inside the Washington Post: A Great Newspaper Fights for Its Life. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 88(1), 219.

Lewis, N., & Zhong, B. (2011). The personality of plagiarism. Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 66(4), 325–339. DOI: 10.1177%2F107769581106600403

Lewis, N. (2010). The Myth of Spiro Agnew’s “Nattering Nabobs of Negativism”. American Journalism, 27(1), 89–115. DOI: 10.1080/08821127.2010.10677760

Lewis, N. (2008). From cheesecake to chief: Newspaper editors’ slow acceptance of women. American Journalism, 25(2), 33–55. DOI: 10.1080/08821127.2008.10678109

Lewis, N. (2008). Plagiarism antecedents and situational influences. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 85(2), 353–370. DOI: 10.1177%2F107769900808500208

Lewis, N. (2008). “A Dozen Best” Top Books on Journalism and the Civil Rights Era. American Journalism, 25(3), 148–154. DOI: 10.1080/08821127.2008.10678132

Book Chapters

Lewis, N. P. (2022). Newsroom Culture. In Encyclopedia of journalism (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Lewis, N. P. (2022). Plagiarism. In Encyclopedia of journalism (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Lewis, N. (2020). A Desert Flower. In Data Journalism in the Global South (pp. 239-253). New York , USA: Palgrave McMillan. DOI: link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-25177-2

Lewis, N. P. (2019). Plagiarism. In The International Encyclopedia of Journalism Studies (pp. 1-6). Hoboken, N.J., USA: Wiley. DOI: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781118841570.iejs0092

Research

Dr. Lewis researches news culture, and in particular, data journalism and professional plagiarism. He also studies the role that social media play in news and digital news economics, in part stemming from his background as a former publisher and editor.

Research Keywords

journalism, data, ethics, theory

Research Areas

• Data Journalism
• News Culture
• Digital News Economics

Courses

• JOU 3121 - Dataviz and Mapping - Spring 2025 (PDF)
• JOU 4306 - Advanced Data Journalism - Spring 2025 (PDF)
• JOU 3121 - Dataviz and Mapping - Spring 2024 (PDF)
• JOU 4306 - Advanced Data Journalism - Spring 2024 (PDF)