Will Norton, Ph.D. is professor and dean emeritus at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and former professor (1990-2009), founding dean of the University of Mississippi’s School of Journalism and New Media (2009-2020) and Senior Fellow Emeritus, Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics (2021-2025). He was an instructor at the University of Iowa (1972-73). From 1974 to 1990, he taught in the Department of Journalism at the University of Mississippi. As an untenured assistant professor in 1977, he was named acting chair and then was named chair of the department. He was a department chair for 13 years and a dean for 30 years, raising more than $17 million in endowment for scholarships, chairs, and operational expenditures at two universities, and $8 million for a new building, renovations, and furnishings at UNL’s College of Journalism.  

His service: Norton was a trustee of the Freedom Forum for 20 years and on the board of the Overby Center from 2008 until 2025. He was a Resource Scholar, Christianity Today, (July 1989 to 2010); President, ASJMC (October 1989 to October 1990), and President of AEJMC (October 2000-2001). He was the graduation speaker at Al-Manar University, Tripoli, Lebanon (July 7, 2012). He was a member of the Accrediting Committee, Accrediting Council for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, May 1992 - May 1998, member of the Council of ACEJMC (1999-2007), as vice president (2001-2007). He served on 49 ACEJMC accreditation site visits, 47 as chair. He served on 63 consultant/evaluator efforts at universities in the U.S., UAB, Hong Kong, and Slovakia.

His publications include articles in commercial magazines and ghost writer of three books in addition to a limited number in academic journals. A few of academic publications that he authored or co-authored include: “A Case Study of Peer Group Influence on Newsroom Persons,” Journalism Educator, July 1976; “An Analysis of Future Oriented Content in Selected U.S. Metropolitan Daily Newspapers,” Newspaper Research Journal, May 1980; “How Administrators Define the Term ‘Faculty Research,’” Journalism Educator, July 1980; “Newspaper Reader Feedback and Editor Implementation: An Approach,” Mass Communication Review, Summer 1980; “Editorial Patterns of Tribune Under Three Editors,” Journalism Quarterly, Fall 1983; “Agreement Between Reporters and Editors in Mississippi,” Journalism Quarterly, Fall 1985; “Media Freedom: A Mississippi Editor's View,” The Mississippi Lawyer, September/October 1985; “African Seminary Leaders Assess Their Problems,” Evangelical Missions Quarterly, April 1986; “Economies of Scale and the New Technology of Daily Newspapers: A Survivors Analysis,” The Quarterly Review of Economics and Business, Summer 1986. “An Economic Perspective on the Information Content of   Magazine Advertisements,” International Journal of Advertising, 1988, 7, 138148; “Two Comparisons of Rural Public Television Viewers and Non-Viewers in Northern Mississippi,” Journalism Quarterly, Autumn 1992, 690-701; “Malcolm MacLean, Jr.: Ahead of His Time and Ahead of Our Time,” a paper presented at the MacLean Conference, the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, November 13, 1999; Contributor to Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States, edited by Guido H. Stempel III and Jacqueline Nash Gifford, 1999; “Challenges to the Future of Media,” Ecos de la Comunicacion, Revista Academica Del Instituto De Communicacion Social, Periodismo Y Publicidad De La Pontificia Universidad Catolica Argentina, 2009.  

Norton’s life was seriously influenced by the reconciliation message of Bill Pannell and John Perkins, two African Americans about whom he wrote in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Pannell and Perkins influenced many of Norton’s non-academic publications: “The Image of Forest Landowners in Mississippi,” a report to Mississippi Forestry Association, March 1978; “The Image of Masonite Corporation in 30 Southern Counties of Mississippi,” an unpublished report to the executive of the corporation based on a survey of 750 persons, May 1979; Study of business news in Mississippi's daily newspapers and a content analysis of business news in Mississippi's daily newspapers. “John Perkins:  The Stature of a Servant,” Christianity Today, January 1982; “An Interview with John Perkins,” Christianity Today, January 1982; “An Interview with George Wallace,” Christianity Today, March 1982; “Leaders and Non-leaders,” Grassroots Editor, Winter 1986; “A conversation with John Grisham,” Christianity Today, August 1994; “Willie Morris, A Great Teacher,” in The Southerner Magazine, September 1999 https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&context=journalismfacpub; and “Sunset Over History,” Delta magazine, March/April, 2010. 

His teaching: Norton was a visiting lecturer at Wheaton College Graduate School (1977); the Graduate School of Journalism and Communication, Addis Ababa University (2004-2006); Zamcom, Lusaka, Zambia (June 2009); Evelyn Hone College, Lusaka, Zambia (June 2009); and Nelson Mandella University (August 2012). He was Visiting International Scholar, University of Sheffield (November 2013). He chaired 31 M.A theses and served on 78 thesis committees.