Former Knight Fellow Named Innovator-in-residence at Florida University

By: 09/22/2015

Mariana Santos, Fusion’s interactive and animation director, has been named the new Knight Innovator in Residence at Florida International University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

As an ICFJ Knight Fellow in 2013, Santos founded Chicas Poderosas (Powerful Women), a digital training program and networking opportunity to expose female journalists in Latin America to digital innovation.

Following the ICFJ fellowship, she also won a John S. Knight Fellowship at Stanford University, where she continued her work to promote women leaders in the field of media technology. In her new position at FIU, Santos said she will bring in a multidisciplinary approach to the way journalism is taught, incorporating arts, designs and technology. “I feel super pumped and excited to start,” Santos told The Wire, FIU’s online publication.

Santos, who previously worked as part of The Guardian’s interactive team in London, has extensive experience as an animator, designer and visual storyteller. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communication design and industrial design from the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Lisbon. Later, she earned a master’s degree in digital media at the educational company Hyper Island in Stockholm.

Main image courtesy of Chicas Poderosas’s Facebook page.

Latest News

ICFJ Voices: Maran Perianen, Empowering Individuals Through Citizen Journalism

Maran Perianen is the founder and editor of Citizen’s Journal, a community news outlet focused on citizen journalism. He’s also co-founder of the Far East Documentary Centre. Perianen has extensive experience as a video journalism trainer and has worked throughout Southeast Asia. He says that his engagement with ICFJ has played a major role in his professional development. “It reinforced the idea that citizens, when equipped with the right knowledge and tools, can become powerful agents of change in their communities,” he said. Perianen is from Malaysia and is based in Kuala Lumpur.

From TV News to TikTok Views: Journalism in the Age of the Influencer

As more people get news and information from YouTube, TikTok and other social media, how do they know what standards creators bring to their work? How do they distinguish between journalists, influencers and everything in between?

ICFJ Voices: Adam D. Williams, on Investigations with Impact

Adam D. Williams is a freelance journalist who mainly covers Latin America and the U.S. He’s also reported from southern Africa. He writes about social issues, energy, business, the environment, health and other topics. Williams has been reporting internationally since 2009. “Above all, ICFJ’s support gives journalists time and resources to produce impactful, important stories across the world that might not have been previously told,” Williams says.