Hi, It's Great to meet you
I’m Jessica, a digital journalist by training, academic and educator by profession, and community advocate at heart. Currently based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma as an assistant professor of journalism in the Gaylord College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Oklahoma, I combine my love of storytelling, experience with journalism and non-profits, and embedded approach as a researcher and instructor to explore how we can make storytelling a more human process.
Whether it’s news, research, fictional stories, or cultural history, everything we communicate as humans are just stories we tell each other. It’s my goal as public scholar of journalism and media to make that storytelling process one that heals, rather than one that harms.
When I’m not researching, writing, or teaching, you can find me hiking with my dog, sewing some thrift flips, penning sci-fi short stories, or traveling between my home state of California and my adopted home(s) in the Midwest and South.
And if—like me—you’re a creative/academic/organizer looking to collaborate with passionate people who refuse to give up on their “change the world” idea, look around, read my latest work, and maybe drop me a line to grab a coffee sometime. I’d love to meet you in the real world.
Jessica Pettengill
What I do
humanizing journalism Practice + media discourse
My areas of research take a critical approach to examine how people tell humanizing stories, from alternative news spaces to pop culture media to interactive documentaries.
Designing embedded research + public scholarship
As a mixed methods researcher, I value approaches to research that acknowledge knowledge-building as a co-creative process. I specialize in embedded and participatory-action based methods.
Rethinking journalism education + communities of practice
I treat my classrooms as a community of practice for young journalists to build their skills as both storytellers and ethically informed media practitioners and theorists.
integrating digital interactivity + narrative media
As a former journalist and digital media producer for museums and education non-profits, I bring experience in design thinking and digital storytelling to my work as a researcher and professor to help bring knowledge to public spaces.