The University of Lancashire has appointed Reach’s online safety editor Dr Rebecca Whittington to its Media Innovation Studio.
Alongside her academic role, Whittington acts as online safety editor at Reach Plc, the largest commercial news publisher in the UK and Ireland, home to over 120 national and regional brands including the Mirror, Express and Manchester Evening News. There, she works at the forefront of debates around online harms, platform governance, and media freedom.
Her appointment brings current, high-stakes industry experience directly into the Media Innovations Studio’s executive education and applied research environment.
Joining the team on a part-time basis, Whittington will work closely with postgraduates on the Journalism Innovation and Leadership (JILeaders) pathway, teaching and leading the Research for Media Work module on the MA. The module plays a pivotal role in the JILeaders programme, which supports experienced professionals worldwide in progressing from the part-time, distance-learning PG Certificate to an MA and, through to a PhD by Portfolio, integrating academic research with applied, practice-led inquiry.
The module focuses on the practical value of social-scientific research, showing how evidence, theory, and critical analysis can generate insight that leads to better editorial judgement, innovation, and leadership in news organisations operating under intense political, technological, and ethical pressure.
Dr François Nel, director of the Media Innovation Studio and founder of the JILeaders Programme, said: “Rebecca is exactly the kind of practitioner-scholar that the Journalism Innovation and Leadership Programme was designed around. She combines deep academic expertise with senior, hands-on leadership in one of the most complex and contested areas of modern journalism.
“Her work demonstrates how rigorous research can inform action – and that’s a powerful lesson for our participants at every stage, from PG Cert through to PhD by Portfolio.”
Dr Whittington said: “My role as Online Safety Editor at Reach is very much about innovation and leadership in an unpredictable and sometimes chaotic landscape of online harm and media freedom, so I am very much looking forward to bringing these skills and insights from my ongoing role at Reach to the highly regarded Journalism Innovation and Leadership Programme.
“It’s an exciting time to be exploring challenges and opportunities within our industry with students and course colleagues, and I am sure we will learn much from each other as we investigate these subjects together.”
The Journalism Innovation and Leadership Programme is a research-led, executive-level continuous professional development pathway supported by leading industry partners, including Arc XP (Washington Post), Bright Sites, Chrysalis Transformations, FT Strategies, The Journalists’ Charity, The Media Lab, Jordan, and Tickaroo.
Together, they support a learning community focused on building the competence, confidence, and connections senior journalists and media leaders need to drive change in public-interest media.
