Brendan Watson is the digital & research coordinator at the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism.

Previously, Brendan worked as an online news editor and multimedia producer at the St. Petersburg Times. While at the newspaper, Brendan specialized in shooting and editing video, and works on a wide range of breaking news stories and special projects. He also writes occasionally for various sections of the newspaper on everything from local government, to tailgating, to books.

Brendan holds a bachelor's degree in English Literature and American Culture Studies from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Missouri. Brendan is a member of Kappa Tau Alpha, the national journalism honors society, which recognizes the top 10% of the graduating class.

At Missouri, he was involved in the development and testing of EmPrint, a digital hybrid of online and print-based publishing as a research assistant for the school's Reynolds Institute. Brendan was also a founding editor of the citizen journalism site MyMisourian.com and won a regional Edward R. Murrow award for "use of sound" for a piece he co-produced for the University's NPR station listen).

His research interests are in the ares of interactivity, specifically how to motivate an online audience to create original content. His master's thesis investigated the effects of communication apprehension and Internet self-efficacy on the use of social networking websites. Brendan is a previous fellow of the University of Missouri eResearch Center.

Brendan is also interested in the investigating future revenue models to support digital journalism.

Brendan lives in St. Petersburg, Fla., with his black lab Jinx, where they're renovating an historic bungalow.