Sam Ford works on models, strategies, and implementation for media innovation, audience engagement, cultural intelligence, and storytelling experimentation. He has provided these services to a wide range of organizations, including ViacomCBS/Simon & Schuster, Univision/Fusion Media Group, Peppercomm, WNYC/New York Public Radio, Lowe’s/Orchard Supply Hardware, the University of Southern California, ORBmedia, MacArthur Foundation, Microsoft, The Coca-Cola Company, Poynter, the U.S. Department of State, and the American Press Institute.
Sam is co-founder and managing partner of Innovation Engine with Amanda Havard and Vijay Kamineni and of Suspenders of Disbelief with Dr. Henry Jenkins and Dr. Sangita Shresthova. He serves as Executive Director of the nonprofit AccelerateKY and Director of Strategic Communications for the nonprofit Metals Innovation Initiative. He is also a research affiliate of MIT Comparative Media Studies/Writing, a Western Kentucky University Innovation Campus Innovation and Culture Fellow, and a Knight News Innovation Fellow with Columbia University's Tow Center for Digital Journalism.
Sam is co-author, with Henry Jenkins and Joshua Green, of the 2013 NYU Press book Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture, a result of the MIT Convergence Culture Consortium research group he co-founded and helped manage. He is also co-editor, with Abigail De Kosnik and C. Lee Harrington, of the 2011 book The Survival of Soap Opera: Transformations for a New Media Era, and has published more than 25 academic essays on media fandom, transmedia storytelling, professional wrestling, soap operas, the marketing and communications world, and a range of other subjects.
Sam lives in Bowling Green, KY, with wife Amanda and daughters Collins, Harper, and Emma. More at his
site.
Thesis:
As the World Turns in a Convergence Culture
