Associate professor and media futurist

Ph.D., Ohio University

CAPC, New York University

M.A. and B.A., University of Calcutta, India

Associate Professor Debashis “Deb” Aikat is (pronounced EYE-cut) is an award-winning researcher on the role and impact of communication technologies. He joined the School in 1995.

Along with book chapters, Aikat’s research has been published in refereed publications of the Microsoft Corp., International Radio and Television Society (IRTS), Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Electronic Journal of Communication/La Revue Electronique de Communication, Convergence: Journal of Research into New Media Technologie, and Popular Music and Society. He has reviewed research for Journalism and Communication Monographs, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Communication and leading publishers such as McGraw-Hill, Oxford University Press and Sage Publications.

A nationally renowned expert on communication technology, Aikat was named the inaugural winner of the Scripps Howard Foundation’s National Journalism Teacher of the Year (2003) award for “distinguished service to journalism education.” In 1997, the IRTS named him the Coltrin Communications Professor of the Year. Since 1997, he has been a featured member of the Carolina Speakers.

His awards for excellence in research and teaching include a Distinguished Teaching Award for Post-Baccalaureate Instruction (2003), UNC-CH’s highest honor for excellence in graduate studies; David Brinkley Teaching Excellence Award (2000); the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Baskett Mosse Award (1999); the Tanner Faculty Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (1999); the UNC-CH Students’ Undergraduate Teaching Award (1998). He has been honored with several Edward Kidder Graham/Favorite Faculty Awards.

Aikat conceptualized in 1997 one of the first online DE courses in journalism and teaches in the School’s graduate-level certificate program in technology and communication. He has won fellowships from research institutions such as the U.S. Information Agency, the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the Poynter Institute and the Institute for the Arts and Humanities (2003).

Aikat worked as a journalist in India for The Telegraph newspaper from 1984 through 1992. He also reported for the BBC World Service.

Office phone: (919) 962-4090
Office location: Carroll 374
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