Astrid Gynnild Email and Phone Number

My passion is human creativity and interdisciplinary media research. I explore how news professionals find new ways to manoeuvre evolving tech challenges. An ongoing field of interest is innovation journalism and visual surveillance technologies such as camera drones, smart phones and more. And their polarities! As an educator, I am curious about the relationship between inner motivation and how we process new knowledge. How do we best, collaboratively, create new learning arenas needed in a world in constant flux? I believe in practicing a democratic mindset in everyday life. I believe in creative, constructive, and critical thinkers – and doers – who have courage to step out of the herd for the benefit of the many. A main concern for me as a researcher and an educator is to come up with best possible solutions to problems within given frames. I engage in issues, perspectives, and social actions that align with pressing, human challenges of our time. I got my PhD in 2006, having developed a grounded theory on creativity in journalism work processes. My opponent was the co-founder of the method, dr. Barney G. Glaser. I have later specialized as a methods supervisor, a writing coach, and a counsellor, and really enjoy being a supervisor at Bachelor´s, Master´s, and PhD levels. I have broad management experience as PI of research projects, Head of Journalism Research Group, and Head of Journalism Education Programs at UiB and elsewhere. Keywords: Media studies, innovation journalism, surveillance technologies, drones, student active learning, grounded theory, journalism work processes, experiental learning, conceptualization, interdisciplinary research, critical thinking, constructive alignment, values-based leadership.