Professor in media studies, University of Agder
Professor in journalism, NLA University College
On this website you will find updated information abut my projects and myself. If interested, please also review http://www.oddgeirtveiten.com where I curate a wide range of themes, references, research resources and other information of interest to peer researchers and students. My CV and other institutional information is available at my university´s home site; www.oddgeir.tveiten/uia. And you can reach me on this email: oddgeir.tveiten@uia.no
About my background
I have been a tenured staff member at the University of Agder since 2002, first in the department of political science and later in the department of global development and planning. In most of this period I have also been an adjunct professor at the NLA University College. Before coming to UiA, I was an associate professor at the University of Bergen, Department of medias studies, from 1992 through 1999. Prior to this I was briefly a PhD student and also researcher at the University of Oslo, Department of media and communication. In the period 2000-2007 I was also an adjunct peofessor of communication at the Norwegian School of Business, in Kristiansand and in Oslo. I have since 2005 been regularly engaged in projects to develop MA and PhD programs in journalism and communication in Ethiopia and Uganda, teaching in both cuntries regularly through projects funded by varioous Norwegian education development aid agencies, and run by the NLA University College. My postgraduate studies took place at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Minnesota, USA, under the mentorship of Chin Chuan Lee and Philip Tichenor.
Joining a newly formed UiA department centering on development studies, communication studies and planning studies in 2010, my main contribution has been two-fold: First is the co-establishment of an an MA degree in Social Communication together with the Faculty of humanities and pedagogy. Second is the establishment of a PhD-track that now is home to a dozen+ PhD students.
At NLA University College, my contribution is: 1) Development of an MA degree in journalism and communication at the University of Addis Ababa, now running with local staff; 2) Development of an MA degree in journalism and communication at the Uganda Christian University in Mukono, now running with local staff; 3) Development of a PhD program at the Universites of Bahir Dar and Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, now running with local staff.
At UiA I teach one BA course in global political communication, one MA course in globalization, mobility and communication, as well as one course in strategic communication with a focus on the rise of PR – perspectives in an age of media ubiquity. As of 2021 I am taking on two courses at the MA level in multimedia education, pedagogy and learning. Previously, I have taught social science theory and epistemology, as well as PhD-level entries on the same topic.
At NLA University college, I teach global journalism, as well as media and democracy.
At UiB I was a member of the social science faculty board and board of education for seven years. At UiA I have been a member of the social science faculty board since 2019, and the faculty research board since 2016. I ave coordinated the department PhD program in two periods, all told for about seven years.
A member of the Norwegian Communication Association for many years, U have served on their editorial board for a period of four years, headed the South Norway chapter for as many years, and coordinated a number of professional communications conferences with a Norwegian profile. I was a co-founder of the Norwegian Media Studies Journal, now a key Nordic media research journal. IN a distant past I also founded the Alternative Futures Magazine, now defunct.
A role as a professor at a recently established university also comes with a commitment to international collaboration. Behind and below my interest in Future Learning and World Learning Lab is also two sabattical years at Stanford University and one at the University of Iceland. I maintain those networks, returning frequently to Palo Alto and Berkeley, in California, having lived in both cities with my family and enjoying the continued friendship of a community in both cities. As far as the United States is concerned, Minneapolis is my home -- and has been off an o0n since I first lived there as a kid, gradually and painfully coming to understand that whatever you see in your peers and however you understand them, and they you; most of the story is hidden beneath and beyond the surface.
Thanks to my parents who took me out of a complacent local community and exposed me to a more challenging world, as well as to my granddad who emigrated to the United States and later returned to Norway, telling me stories when I grew up, I understood that even in a small place like Kristiansand, in South Norway, globalization is a fact, a blessing, and a challenge.
Vision statement
Our city today is a harbor for people seeking a new future, much like my own ancestors once got their immigration passes stamped at Ellis Island in New York, some never going further than Brooklyn, some going West and North, and some going South. Some going back to where they came from.
It´s all communication, if you ask me: Globalization, mobility, adapting, cultivating a home, understanding politics where you come, and negotiating the meaning of your past in light of your presence, with a view to how your children will fare -- in the future.
Learning, in other words. Journalism is a part of all that, but journalism understood in a context only of journalism itself, is meaningless. Journalism as a social institution connects -- for me -- with education as a social institution: The great challenge of our time is sustainable communication, navigating the interests of states and state bureaucracies, markets and commercial interests, public spheres and all those civic engagement undercurrents that are not easily understood unless both education and journalism is approached as aspects of culture.
I live in Norway, with a wife from Iceland and children who speak several languages at home daily -- all natural. We never think about it. I spend my working day working and speaking in English. I visit my elders, who quote Norwegian novels and poetry by heart and word by word, at great length -- learned by heart at a time when the world was much "smaller", the media much more limited, but a world not necessarily any easier to navigate: And I marvel at the prospect of combining these two worlds.
And yes: I try to stay away from Facebook and Twitter as much as I can. A civilization incapable of reigning in these social media, is a world in peril. Like media monopolies before them, their power is truly a cause for deep collective concern.
Which in turn explain my spending an entire work career as a media scholar.
Oddgeir Tveiten (PhD) is a Fulbright scholar and professor of media studies at the University of Agder and the NLA University College, in Southern Norway. Prior to coming to UIA and NLA, Tveiten was an associate professor at the University of Bergen and Norwegian Business School in Oslo, as well as a researcher at the University of Oslo. His postgraduate degrees are from the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Minnesota -- in Minneapolis, his second home. Tveiten has published extensively in the area of global journalism, conflict communication and globalization studies. In more recent years, he has addressed issues concerning the globalization of education and learning. Like journalism, education is a social institution challenged by the political economy of digitalization and globalization.
In 2010 he set up Future Learning Lab, an international research community that also runs the annual World Learning Summit, attracting attendees from 35+ countries. He has contributed to the setting up of MA and PhD educational programs in several East-African countries. He teaches journalism and communication frequently in Uganda and Ethiopia. He also lectures widely in Europe on issues in journalism, communication and the future of education in a globalized world. In 2015 he collaborated with Stanford University and the global learning platform EdCast in setting up a conference on Future Learning, at Stanford University, visited by high-level speakers and educators from key institutions internationally.
For further info, please visit: http://bio.oddgeirtveiten.com and www.worldlearningsummit.com
More here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oddgeirtveiten/