A former journalist, Dr. Keith studies the evolving practice of journalism, paying particular attention to the impact of the transition from traditional to digital media forms on newsroom processes, media content (especially visual content), and legal and ethical concerns.

Her work has been published in a number of scholarly journals, including Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism Studies, the Journal of Mass Media Ethics, and Newspaper Research Journal and has been accepted for publication in Visual Communication Quarterly. She has also published chapters in Understanding Media Convergence: The State of the Field and The Power of Search Engines. In 2008, she received a grant from the National Association of Broadcasters for her research with Leslie-Jean Thornton of Arizona State on the fate of print-broadcast and digital newsroom convergence. She has received faculty research paper awards from the Media Ethics, Media Law, and Media Management and Economics divisions of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Dr. Keith was the 2007-2008 head of the Newspaper Division of AEJMC (the organization's largest division) and conceived of and coordinated its new-in-2009 teaching ideas competition for faculty, adjucts and graduate students, Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century.

Before pursuing a Ph.D., Dr. Keith spent 16 years working as a newspaper reporter and editor. She was a reporter for the Athens (Ala.) News-Courier, wire editor of The Cullman (Ala.) Times, a copy editor/page designer and weekend magazine editor of the Birmingham (Ala.) Post-Herald, a copy editor/page designer and assistant newsfeatures editor for Florida Today in Melbourne, and a copy editor/page designer in news and sports for the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, one of the nation's largest independently owned dailies.

Dr. Keith teaches both hands-on and conceptual courses at the undergraduate level and both theoretical and methods-oriented courses in the SC&I Ph.D. program. Her teaching received national recognition in 2006 from the Promising Professors competition sponsored by the Mass Communication and Society Division of AEJMC.

Undergraduate courses taught
New Media and the Law (special topic, scheduled for spring 2010)
567:320 Editing and Design (most recently: scheduled for fall 2009)
567:420 Global News (most recently: spring 2008)
567:480 Media Ethics and Law (most recently: spring 2008)

Graduate courses taught
New Media Law and Policy (special topic, scheduled for spring 2010)
194: 602 Research Foundations (scheduled for fall 2009)
194:631 Media Theory (most recently: fall 2008)
194:642 Information Regulation and Law (most recently: fall 2007)