Research

Tom’s journalism research career began when he founded the Project for Excellence in Journalism and the Committee of Concerned Journalists in 1997. Both initiatives were funded by Pew Charitable Trusts. PEJ later became one of the five founding projects of the Pew Research Center. Tom spent, in all, 16 years directing media research under the Pew aegis. In 2013, as Executive Director of the American Press Institute, he created a new research initiative, the Media Insight Project, a partnership of API, the Associated Press and the research institute NORC at the University of Chicago. Since joining the faculty at Maryland in 2021, he has continued to work with NORC as a Senior Fellow and also led research projects at Maryland, particularly in partnership with the Local News Network. The links below are some of the more important examples of that work.