🚀 Author, Mobile Journalism textbook
🎬 Director, Smart Film School in Berlin
Robb Montgomery is a scholar-practitioner, media educator, and award-winning documentary filmmaker based in Berlin. His work examines journalism as a social, visual, and cultural practice of trust in an age of platformed media, AI, and unstable authority.
He works across journalism studies, visual media anthropology, documentary film, and media education, with a focus on verification, mediated perception, field reporting, cultural memory, and public credibility. His current research trajectory connects The Trust Graph, Trustable, Bikegeist, and Stimulated Reality as one long inquiry into journalism, evidence, mobility, immersive representation, and the changing conditions of trust.
The Trust Graph is a monograph, supported by an R1-level evidence repository in which primary materials are curated and organized across six analytic tiers. A documentary film available in two versions: a 40-minute classroom cut and an 88-minute festival and cinema version. Based on the visual research of The Trust Graph and developed over 19 years, it translates the long-form research into a cinematic exploration of journalism, evidence, and public trust. Bikegeist links journalism to anthropological curation and public conversation around cultural memory and material objects. Stimulated Reality extends the work into AI, perception, and immersive media.
Montgomery teaches applied media practice, mobile journalism, documentary storytelling, and visual reporting internationally. He is a regular visiting professor at Singapore University of Social Sciences and has taught at the School of New Journalism at EFJ in France, the American University in Cairo, FH Wien, the Danish School of Journalism, Stockholm University, Northwestern University, Ohio University, and Indiana University. His teaching combines practical production with critical reflection on ethics, trust, authorship, and the social life of images.
A former visual editor and Deputy News Editor for Design at the Chicago Sun-Times, he brings more than four decades of newsroom and teaching experience into his academic work. His documentary films have received international recognition, and his books include Smartphone Video Storytelling, Mobile Journalism Creator, and The Trust Graph. He is the founder of the Mobile Journalism Awards, the Smart Film School, and long-running workshops that support journalists, educators, and students working across mobile, spatial, and AI-assisted forms of storytelling.
His work is distinguished by a combination of newsroom practice, documentary authorship, and cultural curation.
Major contributions
The Trust Graph
The central monograph and core research architecture, built on an R1-level repository of master evidence meticulously curated and organized across six tiers. It integrates journalism studies, visual media anthropology, documentary inquiry, and the study of trust into a single long-form scholarly framework.
- The Trust Graph: An Ethnography of Journalism Rituals and Verification in the Age of AI and News Creators (2026, Visual Editors, NFP)
Trustable
A documentary film in two forms: a 40-minute classroom cut and an 88-minute festival/cinema version. Developed over 19 years and based on the visual research of The Trust Graph, it translates the larger research program into a cinematic exploration of journalism, evidence, and public trust.
Bikegeist
An ethnographic and curatorial project on mobility, media practice, and cultural memory. It extends the research architecture into the public conversation around cultural objects, everyday practices, and the ways journalists and anthropologists document lived experience.
Stimulated Reality
A theory-driven project on AI, mediated perception, and immersive representation. It expands the same research program into the technological and epistemological conditions shaping how people see, interpret, and believe.
Smartphone Video Storytelling
A foundational textbook on mobile-first visual journalism and storytelling. It has supported journalists, educators, and students in developing rigorous field production methods with accessible tools.
Mobile Journalism Creator
A companion guide to mobile journalism practice, workflow, and teaching. It focuses on production systems, field reporting, and adaptable methods for contemporary journalism education.
- Mobile Journalism Creator (6th edition, Visual Editors, NFP)
Smart Film School
An international training initiative that supports journalists, educators, and students in mobile, spatial, and AI-assisted storytelling. It combines practice, experimentation, and professional development in a teaching-oriented environment.
Mobile Journalism Awards
A global initiative recognizing innovation and excellence in mobile journalism. It has helped define emerging standards in the field while building professional community and visibility for practitioners worldwide.
MORE BOOKS
Smartphone Video Storytelling (2018 Taylor & Francis, New York & London)
Videos mit dem Smartphone (2019 dPunkt Verlag – German language edition)
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