Stuart Duncan
Education – Research – Professional Experience – Teaching – Awards – Publications – Conferences – Skills
Education
PhD candidate, Media and Design Innovation – 2021 to Present (expected completion September 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, 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, Responsible AI Project – AI Accountability – 2022 to 2024
– 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, 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, Winter 2025, Spring 2025
– 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
JRN 842 – Building Your Brand: The Freelance Career – Fall 2024
– Adapted course syllabus
– Created course shell in D2L online learning platform
– Preparing and delivering in-person lectures
– Marking assignments and final papers
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
Python for Social Scientists – Fall 2024
– As part of the Bridging Divides research project developing and teaching a five-part workshop series introducing social science researchers to Python programming and its applications in both computational and artificial intelligence-based research
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 2025
– Ryerson Graduate Fellowship – 2019 to 2022
– Ryerson Graduate Development Award – 2019
Publications
– Duncan, S., Dwyer, L., Smith, H., Vallesi, D., Zeller, F., & Davis, C. (2024). Towards a Computational Mixed Methods Framework to Measure Online Deliberative Discourse. Communication and the Public.
– 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
– Duncan, S. (Forthcoming – 2025, September). Small Newsrooms, Big Changes: Exploring the Effects of Generative AI. Tenth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies. Paris, France.
– Duncan, S. (Forthcoming – 2025, June). Generative AI and the Evolution of Small News Organizations. Canadian Communication Association Annual Conference. Toronto, Canada.
– Duncan, S. (2024, July 17-20). Single Board Computers: A Case Study in Using Physical Computing Approaches as a Computational Social Science Methodology. International Conference on Computational Social Science. Philadelphia, USA.
– 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 Conference on Computational Social Science, 2024
– Submission Reviewer, International Communication Association Conference – 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
– 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