Nicole Smith Dahmen is a Professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon. Dahmen approaches her scholarship through a normative lens, asking not just what journalism is, but what it should be. In a time of journalistic disruption, an overabundance of negative and sensational news, extreme political partisanship, and low levels of public trust in the news media, journalism can and should do better. Her research often illuminates journalism’s shortcomings, not to criticize unjustly, but to advocate for the principles of professional, credible, and ethical journalism in a democracy. Dahmen has gained a national and international reputation for her scholarship, which falls into three key areas, sometimes standing alone but more frequently intersecting: visual journalism, ethics, and contextual reporting. In sum, her research seeks to advance public-interest journalism—reporting that holds the powerful accountable, elevates underrepresented voices, and makes a positive impact in society. Her research, while academic in nature, has critical implications for the journalism profession, which is paramount in a professional discipline. When journalism is stronger and more just, society is better served.

Dahmen’s research is published in such diverse and leading journals as American Behavioral Scientist, Journalism Studies, Digital Journalism, and Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism. And due to the subject matter of her research, her work is also published in the two leading journals for visual scholarship, Visual Communication Quarterly and Visual Communication. She has presented more than 40 conference papers, with top paper awards at both the AEJMC and ICA conferences. Dahmen is co-director of The Catalyst Journalism Project and the co-coordinator of the Charles Snowden Program for Excellence in Journalism. She is on the editorial boards of Visual Communication Quarterly and Newspaper Research Journal.

With more than 20 years of university teaching experience, Dahmen has developed and taught a range of undergraduate and graduate courses—from large lectures to hands-on labs to doctoral seminars. At the SOJC, she regularly teaches honors courses, journalism courses, a doctoral seminar, and our core media ethics course. She's the developer and faculty leader of the GEO study abroad experience called Instagramming Paris: Media Unfiltered. She's the 2021 Scripps Howard Teacher of the Year, a prestigious award from AEJMC and Scripps Howard. 

Dahmen spent seven years at the Manship School of Mass Communication at Louisiana State University as an assistant and later as an associate professor prior to joining the faculty at the SOJC in 2014.