Patrick Swanson
JSK Journalism Fellow
Vienna, Austria
Patrick Swanson is a digital journalist working as head of social media for Zeit im Bild (Time in Pictures), part of Austrian Public Broadcasting ORF. He is responsible for the largest news pages on social media in Austria with a total combined audience of 2.3 million users on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. In his work, Swanson focuses on reimagining online journalism and digital storytelling for young audiences. In 2019, Swanson and three of his colleagues won the Walther Rode Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in Austrian journalism, for their coverage of the Ibiza scandal. The scandal led to the collapse of the former Austrian government, which had planned to massively reduce the financial and journalistic independence of Austrian Public Broadcasting and other media outlets in the country.