Stuart Duncan
Education
PhD candidate, Media and Design Innovation – 2021 to Present (expected completion April 2025)
Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON
Proposed dissertation: Small Newsrooms, Big Changes: Exploring the Effects of Generative AI
Master of Arts, Communication and Culture – 2021
Ryerson University, Toronto, ON
Project-Paper: News Personalization – Do journalism audiences prefer algorithms over editors?
Bachelor of Arts (Honours), Computing and Information Science – 2001
University of Guelph, Guelph, ON
Research Experience
Toronto Metropolitan University – Toronto, ON
Research Assistant, Responsible AI Project – AI Accountability – 2022 to Present
– Development of training materials on effective knowledge mobilization techniques for the next generation of artificial intelligence experts
– Supporting research work examining issues of AI accountability
Research Assistant, Explanatory Journalism Project – 2019 to Present
– Research on the uptake and impact of explanatory journalism
– Computational audience analysis on social media and textual data using linguistic and machine learning tools
– Extensive web scraping and API-based data collection using Python
Research Assistant, Rights for Children and Youth Partnership – May 2022 to April 2023
Research on how children and youth utilize social media in Central America and the Caribbean
Social media analysis using computational techniques including network visualization, sentiment analysis and computational linguistic analysis
Program Manager, Explanatory Journalism Project – Jan 2022 to May 2022
– Administrative support work for Ryerson-based SSHRC-supported research project
– Financial budgeting and reporting
– Supporting research assistant hiring and onboarding
– Liaising with external research partners
University of Amsterdam – Amsterdam, NL (remotely)
Research Intern, NEWSFLOW project- May 2022 to August 2022
– Working with Dr. Damian Trilling at the University of Amsterdam, contributing to the NEWSFLOWS project examining the interplay of manual news sharing and algorithmic news recommendation
– Redeveloping news recommendation system using Python and Flask
Professional Experience
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation – Toronto, ON
Social Media Producer – CBC News – 2016 to 2021
– Facilitate the creation of social media content in one of Canada’s largest newsrooms
– Responsible for assigning editorial tasks to team of content producers
– Writing captions, headlines and description copy tailored for social media success
– Social media analytic reporting for multiple platforms including YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.
Digital Producer – The Fifth Estate – 2013 to 2016
– Overseeing the digital production of investigative documentary news program
– Creation of content for social media and video on demand platforms
– Leading development of special interactive digital content
Digital Producer – Unscripted Programming – 2009 to 2012
– Coordinating the digital content of entertainment and reality programming including Dragons’ Den and other key CBC properties
– Planning and implementation of sponsored marketing campaigns
Associate Digital Producer – Unscripted Programming – 2007 to 2009
-Supporting the development of digital content for entertainment and reality television programming
NOW Magazine – Toronto, ON
Interactive Assistant – 2006 to 2007
– Editing and post production work on audio material for web streaming
– Web development and maintenance of website using CSS, Flex and Flash
CFRU-FM – Guelph, ON
Technical and Production Coordinator – 2004 to 2006
– Editing and post production work on audio material for web streaming
– Web development and maintenance of website using CSS, Flex and Flash
Teaching Experience
Lakehead University (Orillia) – Orillia, ON
Lecturer – MDST 3610 – Web Design – Winter 2023 & Fall 2023
– Development of 12-week asynchronous remote learning-based course
– Preparing, editing and delivering recorded lecture series
– Created course shell in D2L online learning platform
– Marking assignments and final papers
Toronto Metropolitan University – Toronto, ON
Lecturer
RTA 963 – Web Design – Winter 2021 & Fall 2022
– Adapted course syllabus
– Created course shell in D2L online learning platform
– Preparing and delivering live-streamed lectures in Zoom
– Marking assignments and final papers
Workshop Facilitator / Lecturer
Applied AI for the Non-Specialist Mini-Course – Fall 2022
– Coordinated a three-part workshop series providing an introduction to artificial intelligence and its application in research.
Communicating complexity and knowledge mobilization workshop series – Spring 2022 & Fall 2023
– As part of the NSERC-funded Responsible AI project, coordinated a four-part workshop series on how to share technically complex ideas with non-technical audiences.
Teaching Assistant
CMN 402 – Theorizing Communication – Winter 2024
CMN 600 – Science, Communication & Society – Winter 2022
CMN 432 – Communication for Engineers – Fall 2021
RMG 821 – Research and Analytics in Social Media – Fall 2019
– Marking coursework
– Supporting students during in-class activities
George Brown College – Toronto, ON
Instructor – School of Design
INTR 1002 – Information Architecture 1 – Winter 2021
INTR 2015 – Social Networks – Winter 2019
– Preparing and delivering in-person weekly lectures
– Developing syllabi and coursework
– Creating digital course shells using Blackboard online learning platform
– Marking assignments and final papers
– Leading and creating classroom activities
– Delivering courses in an online environment including delivering pre-recorded and live-streamed lectures
Other Teaching Activities
Guest Lectures
– “Newsomatic: (Re)Introducing Physicality to Audio News Consumption” – University of Amsterdam – June 2022
– “Programming & Audience Research: Part 1” – FCD 912 – Researching Media Audiences – Fall 2021 – Ryerson University
– “Programming & Audience Research: Part 2” – FCD 912 – Researching Media Audiences – Fall 2021 – Ryerson University
– “Social Media Audits” – RMG 821 – Research and Analytics in Social Media – Fall 2019 – Ryerson University
– “Social Media Privacy & Cambridge Analytica” – RMG 821 – Research and Analytics in Social Media – Fall 2019 – Ryerson University
Workshops
– “Introduction to Python” – Explanatory Journalism Project – July 2022 – Toronto Metropolitan University
– “How to use Google Trends” – As part of coursework in DI-8010 – Fall 2021 – Ryerson University
– “A Primer on SQL” – Explanatory Journalism Project – July 2020 – Ryerson University
Awards
– Ontario Graduate Scholarship – 2022 to 2024
– Ryerson Graduate Fellowship – 2019 to 2022
– Ryerson Graduate Development Award – 2019
Publications
– Blanchett, N., Brin, C., and Duncan, S. (2024). Catch, Engage, Convert Retain: Audience-oriented journalistic role performance in Canada. Journalism Practice.
– Duncan, S. (2023). Book Review: News Nerds: Institutional Change in Journalism by Allie Kosterich. European Journal of Communication.
– Duncan, S. (2021). Book Review: Smartphones and the News by Andrew Duffy. European Journal of Communication, 36(5), 537–540.
Conference Presentations
– Davis, C., Duncan, S., & Hillis, C. (2023, July 9-13). Publics, Counterpublics and Public Service Media: the case of CBC’s English-language services. International Association for Media and Communication Research Conference. Lyon, France.
– Duncan, S. & Zeller, F. (2023, May 30 – June 2). Artificial Intelligence Redefining or Redesigning Journalism. Canadian Communication Association Annual Conference. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
– Swardh, K., Duncan, S., Zeller, F., & Diaz, F. (2023, May 30 – June 2). Central American and Caribbean Youths’ Counter-Storytelling Using Social Media. Canadian Communication Association Annual Conference. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
– Duncan, S. (2023, May 25). Physical Computing as a Communications Research Tool. ICA Hackathon 2023 – International Communication Association Pre-Conference. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
– Lin, Z., Duncan, S., Trilling, D., Vermeer, S., Kiddle, R., & Welbers, K. (2023, February 2-3). Care to share? Investigating what drives news sharing with a customized news aggregator. ETMAAL 2023. Enschede, Netherlands.
– Duncan, S. (2022, June 15-22). News Personalization: Do Journalism Audiences Prefer Algorithms Over Editors?. European Communication Research and Education Association Journalism Conference. Utrecht, Netherlands.
– Duncan, S. (2021, June 1-4). Automated Audio News Bulletins: How Text-to-Speech Could Disrupt the News Industry. Canadian Communication Association Annual Conference. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
– Duncan, S. (2021, May 13). BulletinBot: How AI-based text-to-speech could change the news industry. Transformation of Newsrooms with the Advent of Artificial Intelligence Journalism. Prague, Czech Republic.
– Duncan, S. (2019, December 13). Will Artificial Intelligence Replace the Journalist? Future Communications Conference. Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Academic Service
– Submission Reviewer, International Communication Association Conference – 2021, 2022, 2023
– Panel moderator, “What is the future of creativity and AI?”, RUBIX 2022 , Ryerson University
Certifications and Training
– Graduate Teaching Development Program: Level 1 – Teaching Foundations – 2020 – Ryerson University, Toronto ON
– “Evaluating Your Teaching” – Teaching Assistant Training – Fall 2019 – Ryerson University
– “Learning Through Reflection: Teaching Reflective Practice” – Teaching Assistant Training – Winter 2020 – Ryerson University
Skills
– Specialties: Interactive production, content development, analytics, programming, web scraping, video editing, image editing, digital photography, search engine optimization, social media coordination, audio production, live sound mixing, writing, researching, editing
– Web development and programming languages: CSS, Django, HTML, JavaScript, PHP, Python, R, SQL
– Content management systems: Drupal, Expression Engine, Joomla, Movable Type, WordPress
– Software: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere, Adobe Audition, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign