Neal Mann becomes Visiting Fellow in Journalism at Sheffield

The Department of Journalism Studies has appointed influential social media and digital journalist Neal Mann its first Visiting Fellow. Neal, better known as @fieldproducer, has just been made the first Multimedia Innovations Editor at the Wall Street Journal in New York after joining the news organisation last May as Social Media Editor.

Neal is a former student in the department, graduating with a Postgraduate Diploma in Broadcast Journalism in 2007. He's made many subsequent visits to the department, holding workshops in social media for news and passing on his career experience to students.

After leaving the department, Neal joined Channel 5 News as a researcher, before becoming a field producer co-ordinating logistics to cover breaking news stories.

In 2009 he joined Sky News as Deputy News Editor and field producer, where both in the field and on the news desk he pioneered the use of social media, particularly Twitter, as a source of news stories, publishing and engagement. He became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2010 and was key to building social media into Sky's breaking news strategy. In November 2011 he was named in a survey as the UK's top media tweeter.

'Fabulous asset'

In 2012 he was lured across the Atlantic to join the Wall Street Journal, based in New York, joining a team that was experimenting with new ways of sourcing and telling stories using social media and multimedia methods.

Neal said: "Journalism is changing incredibly quickly and it's great to be able to pass on the newest techniques and ideas to the next generation of journalists, who I can hopefully inspire to further change our industry.

"I've always enjoyed my visits to Sheffield and feel very privileged to have been made a Visiting Fellow. I look forward to more visits in the years to come."

Head of Department Professor Ralph Negrine said: "Neal is a fabulous asset to the department and our students really look forward to his visits. We're delighted to be able to formalise our arrangement with him and are certain he'll have much to contribute at a time of such rapid change."