Samaruddin Stewart is a journalist and media technologist based in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the co-founder and project lead for the grant-funded Verified Pixel Project . Samaruddin is also currently the US Department of State’s 189th Franklin Fellow, serving as a media expert providing strategic advising on media outreach and audience engagement.
Previously, he was selected by Stanford University as a John S. Knight Journalism Fellow where he researched the application of technical verification on user-generated digital images. He frequently trains, speaks, and researches how technology can assist storytelling – including how best to harness and verify user-generated content and utilize aerial drones and immersive video for news gathering.
Stewart’s prior work includes managing and editing roles at AOL News, Agence France-Presse, and The Arizona Republic. He holds an MBA from Central European University and both a Master’s and Bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University. He was also selected by the Fulbright Program in 2014 into the Specialist Grant roster and also serves as a Board of Supervisors appointed Arts Commissioner for San Mateo County, CA (pop. 750,000). Stewart was selected by SPJ and Google to help launch the Google News Lab Trainer Network in 2015.
Email: mediasam@stanford.edu
Twitter: @samsends