Hai L. Tran joined DePaul in 2010 after completing his Ph.D. in mass communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in multimedia storytelling, data journalism, news production, and international reporting. Hai creates experiential, project-based learning opportunities for his students through sustained collaboration with the
Center for Strategic and International Studies (a D.C.-based bipartisan think tank) in the
CSIS Journalism Bootcamp program and with his
Global Learning Experience partner from Yonsei University in Seoul.
His research covers an eclectic mix of topics, including the science of communicating evidence, multimedia effects, online agenda setting, journalism studies, and research methodology. He is the author of
Data and Narrative in News Media, a solo book featured in the
Routledge Focus on Journalism Studies series. A recipient of multiple “Top Paper" awards, Hai publishes in flagship mass communication journals (e.g.,
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly,
Media Psychology, Journalism Studies,
Journal of Advertising Research) and contributes to other publications by leading international providers of academic content (e.g.,
Agenda Setting in a 2.0 World, T
he Routledge Companion to Business Journalism, the Sage Encyclopedia of Journalism).
Before entering academia, he was in the newsroom for almost a decade, working across platforms as a foreign correspondent, world news editor, sports commentator, TV producer, and guest analyst. His career highlights include reporting on 9/11 and the 2000 election deadlock in Washington, D.C., as well as delivering both play-by-play commentary and in-depth analysis of international soccer events from Hanoi.
Hai was born in Vietnam, where he spent the first 28 years of his life imagining numerous likely and unlikely scenarios for a future path. Becoming a media scholar, however, is one thing that never crossed his mind.