Janet Coats

Managing Director, Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology

Coats moderated the panel “How should journalism and platforms constructively address the global challenge of polarization?” at the 25^th ISOJ. Watch the presentation here.

Janet Coats is the managing director of the Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology at the University of Florida’s College of Journalism and Communications. The Consortium is a multidisciplinary initiative focused on understanding the dynamics that have undermined trust in news and ways that technology can serve as a trust-builder.

Janet has been in the vanguard of leaders working to change journalism culture for more than 30 years. She’s led large multimedia news organizations in Tampa and Sarasota, done groundbreaking work in civic engagement and reader outreach, and built a consulting company focused on engagement and sustainability strategies for non-profit and entrepreneurial news organizations.

Before joining UF in 2021, she served as executive director for Innovation and Strategy at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. In that role, she had oversight of the school’s media literacy efforts through its News Co/Lab, its News21 national student reporting program, all faculty teaching associates, and grant acquisition for sponsored research. Her bachelor’s degree in journalism is from the University of Missouri.

Janet served as a Pulitzer Prize juror five times, including as chair of the Public Service and Investigative Reporting juries. She served on the board of the American Society of News Editors, twice chairing the national convention.