Karen M. Turner

KMT

Karen M. Turner

  • Lew Klein College of Media and Communication

    • Journalism

      • Associate Professor

Biography

When Karen M. Turner had an opportunity in 1992 to teach at Temple University, she couldn’t pass it upshe was very familiar and impressed with the Temple broadcast journalism program. While working as a City Hall reporter for Philadelphia’s WPEN-AM (a big band formatted station at the time), Turner had worked side-by-side with WRTI-FM (Temple University public radio) student reporters. They were covering the same stories as professionals in the fourth largest media market. She thought any program that gives students that kind of practical experience had to be good.

Before joining Temple, Turner had a diverse career. She graduated from Dartmouth College in the first class of women to matriculate as freshmen and decided to attend law school. Following her graduation from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, she worked for the American Bar Association in Chicago. There she began to meet many journalists.

As a youngster, Turner wanted to be a sportscaster, but there were no female role models at that time. While living in Chicago, she became a news junkie, though she still loves to follow all sports. Chicago was a great news and sports town, and Turner decided to change careers after seeing very biased election news coverage of the Chicago mayor’s race in 1983. When she tried to get a job in broadcast news, she was told she had great academic credentials but no practical experience.

Turner went back to school, this time to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, thanks to a NBC fellowship. She was then able to land a job with Greater Media Inc. in East Brunswick, New Jersey. Eventually she was hired as a reporter at the company’s New Brunswick radio station, WCTC-AM, and was there nearly a year when she was hired away to be news and public affairs director for the morning team of a startup, urban-formatted station WIZF-FM, known as “The WIZ” in Cincinnati. In addition to doing the news, Turner hosted and produced a two-hour live Sunday morning talk show, Straight-Talk Live and covered the 1988 Democratic Convention in Atlanta. After two years she left the Queen City and returned to the East Coast, accepting a radio reporting and anchoring job at WPEN-AM in Philadelphia. Following three years at WPEN, Turner went to work for then Philadelphia Mayor Ed Rendell as his first press secretary. While working for the city, Turner realized she missed being a journalist. She always planned to teach, so she thought this was the perfect time to make the transition to the academy.

A 2021 recipient of Temple’s highest teaching recognition, The Great Teacher award, her research interests include the integration of new media technologies in race studies and journalism pedagogy, as well as diversity issues in media and the Academy. Turner’s publication topics include facilitating difficult conversations, her online Race and Racism in the News course offered since 1997 and a mobile media election crowdsourcing project she co-created in 2004. She has worked with students covering the 2000 Republican National Convention, 2016 Democratic National Convention, 2020 New Hampshire primary and has directed the Klein GO London program and three-times led the award-winning international reporting program to Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa. Turner also teaches broadcast journalism and sports-related courses.

Turner is a former department chair, past president of the Faculty Senate and is currently the director of Temple’s Academic Center on Research in Diversity (ACCORD).

Turner is passionate about intelligent talk radio, quality journalism, sports (she’s a men’s basketball season ticket holder) and her two rescued canine kids – golden retriever Brutus, a certified therapy dog who visits Klein during exam week and golden doodle Macy, adopted during the pandemic who came from a puppy mill.

Courses Taught

Number

Name

Level

JRN 3554

A Broader View

Undergraduate

JRN 3702

Race and Racism in the News

Undergraduate

JRN 3763

The Influence of Sports Media on Modern Society

Undergraduate