معرفی
Zach Wise is an Emmy Award winning interactive producer and Associate Professor in The Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where he works with the Knight Lab. He is renowned for developing innovative digital journalism tools including TimelineJS, StoryMapJS, and SceneVR that have been adopted by news organizations worldwide.
Wise received his Masters Degree in Photojournalism from Ohio University in 2006. His career began at Ohio University as a Visiting Professor in the School of Visual Communication, where he founded the award-winning "Soul of Athens" digital initiative. He then worked as Senior Multimedia Producer for the Las Vegas Sun, contributing to their Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of construction deaths on the Las Vegas Strip, before joining The New York Times' Multimedia team.
Professor Wise specializes in the intersection of journalism and technology, focusing on creating accessible tools that enhance storytelling capabilities for journalists. His work bridges the gap between traditional journalism practices and emerging digital technologies, making sophisticated multimedia storytelling accessible to newsrooms of all sizes. He has pioneered approaches to visual storytelling, interactive narratives, and immersive journalism experiences that have reshaped how news organizations present complex stories to their audiences.
His development of TimelineJS, StoryMapJS, and SceneVR represents a significant contribution to digital journalism, with TimelineJS alone deployed over 250,000 times and viewed by hundreds of millions worldwide. These tools have been translated into more than 60 languages, demonstrating their global impact on how journalists tell stories with time, space, and immersive perspectives.
Wise's work has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards:
- Emmy Award for interactive production
- Peabody Award for "Choosing a President"
- Pulitzer Prize for Public Service (as part of the Las Vegas Sun team)
- Multiple National Headliner Awards
- Webby Award for "The Burning Man Experience"
- Best of Photojournalism awards from NPPA
- Online News Association awards
As an educator, Wise has mentored numerous students through Northwestern's Collaborative Innovation in Journalism and Technology class, guiding them to develop practical journalism technology solutions. His speaking engagements span the globe, from MOMA in New York to conferences in China, Australia, and Europe, where he shares insights on the evolving relationship between technology and storytelling. Through the Knight Lab, he continues to explore innovative approaches to journalism education and practice.
Wise leads development efforts at the Knight Lab, a joint initiative of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism and McCormick School of Engineering. The lab serves as an incubator for journalism technology projects, bringing together students and faculty from journalism and computer science to create tools that address real-world journalism challenges. His current focus includes exploring virtual reality storytelling through SceneVR and advancing the capabilities of his widely adopted storytelling tools.
