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Faculty

Deb Aikat

Associate Professor

Carroll 374

Office hours: MW, 8:30 to 9 p.m. in 111 Carroll, or by appointment

da@unc.edu

A former journalist, Deb Aikat (pronounced EYE-cut) has served as a faculty member in UNC-Chapel Hill’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media since 1995.

Aikat’s peers elected him to lead as the 2023 President of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), the premier 112-year-old scholarly organization with members in 43 countries across six continents. As AEJMC President, Aikat led the 2023 AEJMC Washington, D.C. conference themed Fostering Freedom & Defending Democracy.

An award-winning scholar, Aikat theorizes the role of media platforms in two democratic societies, India, the largest democracy of 1.4 billion people, and the United States, one of the oldest modern democracies. By integrating news agenda-setting and agenda melding concepts, Aikat has theorized how media platforms in India and the U.S. are empowering people to protest, publish and provoke ideas through media platforms devoid of government control.

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the seminal 1968 agenda-setting study in UNC-Chapel Hill, Aikat co-authored the 2019 book, Agendamelding: News, Social Media, Audiences, and Civic Community, with Dr. Don Shaw, Dr. Milad Minooie and Dr. Chris Vargo. Agenda melding theorizes how audiences meld news messages. The book was recognized as a winning title in the 2016 AEJMC-Peter Lang Scholarsourcing competition. Aikat’s research has also been published in book chapters and refereed journals.

The Scripps Howard recognized Aikat as the inaugural winner of the National Journalism Teacher of the Year award (2003) for “distinguished service to journalism education.” He was also awarded the International Radio and Television Society’s Coltrin Communications Professor of the Year (1997) award.

As a UNC faculty member, Aikat has won research and teaching excellence awards such as the UNC Students’ Undergraduate Teaching Award (2023 & 1998), UNC’s campuswide teaching award by undergraduate students; the Ed Vick Prize for Innovation in Teaching (2022); Emerald Literati Award (2020); Diversity Award for Faculty (2019) “for exemplary scholarship in promoting diversity, equity, social justice, community engagement and/or cultural awareness;” AEJMC Senior Scholar Grant Award (2017-18); the AEJMC-Scripps Howard Researcher of the Year (2014-15); AEJMC top research paper awards; UNC’s Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction (2003), UNC’s highest honor for excellence in teaching and mentoring graduate students; the David Brinkley Teaching Excellence Award (2000); AEJMC’s Baskett Mosse Award (1999); the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1999). UNC senior classes (1997 through 2005) recognized Aikat with the Edward Kidder Graham Favorite Faculty Awards for nine years (see CV for more details).

Funded by a U.S. Department of Education grant to Indiana University, Aikat visited Russia in May 2015 to research press freedom. Aikat’s research has been funded by government agencies (e.g., the North Carolina Policy Collaboratory, the US Department of State, US Department of Education’s Title VI grants), media foundations (e.g., the Freedom Forum, the Scripps Howard) and the industry (e.g., IBM, Knight Ridder).

In his commitment to international scholarship, Aikat founded and instituted in 2015 the South Asia Communication Association (SACA), which has grown to an organization for 2,534 scholars and professionals examining media and communication in South Asia and its diaspora worldwide.

Born in India, Aikat became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2003. He earned a Ph.D. in media and journalism from Ohio University’s Scripps School of Journalism in 1995. In 1990, he completed a Certificate in American Political Culture from New York University. As a journalist in India for The Telegraph newspaper from 1984 through 1992, he analyzed the impact of politics, education and culture. He also reported for the BBC World Service.

Education