Dr. Chavez is a professor in the School of Journalism working on issues of sociology of the media, media law, crisis reporting, disinformation, and international press systems. He studies models of access to information, accountability and transparency, especially related to the news media in Ibero America.
He is the Co-Director of the International Collaboratory on Crisis Communication. He has published several articles and books, received multiple grants and awards from the National Science Foundation, Tinker Foundation, US Department of Education, US Department of State, and NEH. He serves as expert reviewer for the NSF, International Education USDE competitions, and also for several peer-reviewed journals.
He currently serves as President of the Association for Latino Media Markets and Communication Research and served as President of the Association for Borderlands Studies.He teaches courses on the media law and ethics, crisis reporting, international affairs, environment/science/health reporting and sociology of journalism. He also teaches qualitative research methods in the J-School graduate program.
Dr. Chavez s Affiliated Faculty in the MSU Julian Samora Research Institute and the Chicano/Latino Studies Program. He served as MSU Associate Director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies for over a a decade and currently is a Core Faculty. He is a regular commentator for national and international news organizations, including: NPR, ABCradio, Michigan Public Radio, Financial Times, BBC, UNIVISION, Radio Mil, Radio Formula and Reforma newspapers.
For few years, his research focuses on crisis reporting and communication models in major disaster events and crisis derived from political events/actors. He is working on misinformation and disinformation and the role of the news media in disseminating truthful information. In addition he works on the sociology of the media and minorities in the U.S.
Knight Center for Environmental Journalism
Health and Risk Communication Center
Center for Journalism Studies