Jeffrey Dvorkin

Biography

Jeffrey Dvorkin is a lecturer and the director of the Journalism program at the University of Toronto. As the Rogers Distinguished Visiting Professor of Journalism, he taught journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto. In Washington, DC he was the Shapiro Fellow at the George Washington University and taught media ethics at Georgetown University. He was a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University and held the Goldensohn Chair in Community Journalism at the Missouri School of Journalism.

Dvorkin’s journalistic career began in Montreal with the Canadian public broadcaster, CBC TV News where he was a reporter and producer. He was a Parliamentary news producer for the CBC in Ottawa, and an editor and producer for CBC TV’s The National in Toronto. In 1984, Dvorkin moved from CBC television to join the CBC’s National Radio news service where in 1991, he became Managing Editor and Chief Journalist for CBC Radio.

In 1997, Dvorkin left Canada to run NPR News in Washington, DC as Vice President of News and Information. In 2000, Dvorkin became NPR’s first news Ombudsman – a position he held until 2006. As Ombudsman, Dvorkin visited more than 280 public radio stations around the US and received emails from thousands of listeners who were curious (and occasionally quite annoyed) about NPR’s coverage on the main issues in the news.

He addressed many of these issues on the air and in an online column about questions raised by the listeners about journalistic process, integrity, bias and language.

While NPR’s Ombudsman, he was elected as president of the Organization of News Ombudsmen (ONO) – a 30-year old international grouping of independent news ombudsmen and public editors in more than 25 countries.

In 2006, Dvorkin left NPR to resume teaching, journalism training and writing his blog www.nowthedetails.blogspot.com. In 2008, he returned to Canada and fulltime teaching.

In 2008, Dvorkin was named ONO’s first executive director  which he held until 2010.

In addition to teaching, he is a Senior Fellow at Massey College and holds an appointment to the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto, advising on ethical issues.

In 2018, Dvorkin wrote “Critical News Literacy and is published by Routledge.  

He is married to Elizabeth Barrett, a practising psychotherapist. They have a son Eli, who lives in Queens, NY and is married to Hillary Reeves. Eli is the managing editor for the Center for an Urban Future, a think tank about the issues facing New York City.

Education

M.Phil., History, London School of Economics, 1974

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

News Literacy, Media Ethics, Digital Consequences and Implications on the culture.

Personal Interests

Cooking, gardening, historical and espionage thrillers.

Books