Michelle Rossi

Michelle Rossi is an Assistant Professor of Journalism at Loyola University New Orleans. She holds a Ph.D. in Journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Originally from Brazil, Dr. Rossi has lived in the United States since December 2017. Her academic career includes teaching at universities in both Brazil and the United States, such as the University of Colorado-Boulder and Utah State University.

At Loyola, she teaches both conceptual and hands-on courses at the undergraduate level, including Principles of Journalism and Reporting, and at the graduate level in the Master of Science in Marketing and Communications program, including Ethics and Diversity and Current State of Journalism.

Dr. Rossi’s research focuses on interspecies social justice and its connection to the news media, suggesting a non-speciesist approach to environmental journalism. Her dissertation, titled The Politics of Food: How is Mainstream News Content Constructed on Farmed Animals?, examines animals as marginalized groups within news coverage. She earned her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil, with her master’s research exploring the use of news sources in coverage of Indigenous communities.

Her research interests include normative theory, media sociology, media economics, media ethics, feminist studies, and critical animal and media studies. Dr. Rossi’s work has been published in top-tier, peer-reviewed journals such as Journalism Studies, Environmental Communication, and the International Journal of Communication.

She brings 17 years of professional experience in journalism and public relations, having worked as a reporter, editor, and editorial writer across multiple newspaper sections and press offices. A highlight of her career was working at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She serves as faculty advisor for the first NAHJ (National Association of Hispanic Journalists) student chapter in Louisiana at Loyola University and is a faculty researcher at the Center for Environmental Communication.

In her spare time, she enjoys listening to music, gardening, spending time with family, friends, and her dogs, and volunteering at animal shelters.