Jelle Mast holds a PhD in Communication Studies (University of Antwerp, 2011) and currently works as an Assistant Professor of Journalism (Studies) at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Belgium. He is Director of the Brussels Institute for Journalism Studies (BIJU) and teaches introductory courses to Journalism Studies, Documentary Studies, and Media Structures. He is also still an affiliate member of the Visual and Digital Cultures Research Center (ViDi) at the University of Antwerp, Belgium, where he obtained his PhD in 2011.
His research is typically located at the intersection of visual communication, journalism practice, and professional ethics. Current research interests include visual gatekeeping and user-generated imagery in mainstream news media; journalism and terrorism; metajournalistic discourse; and genre hybridization in journalism and screen documentary.
Jelle Mast has presented his work, amongst others, at the (bi-)annual conferences of the International Communication Association (ICA), the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA), the Association for the Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Society for Cinema and Media Studies (SCMS), Visible Evidence, and the International Visual Sociology Association (IVSA). He has published articles, as author, co-author or editor, in various peer-reviewed journals such as Media, Culture & Society, International Journal of Communication, Journalism, Digital Journalism, Journalism Practice, Discourse, Context & Media, European Journal of Cultural Studies, International Communication Gazette, and Sociology Compass.