He earned an undergraduate degree in history and journalism at the University of Mississippi, a master's in journalism at Columbia University, and a doctorate in mass communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests include American media history, visual studies, interviewing, media representation of racial conflict, and narrative journalism. His dissertation focused on the "photobiography" of a Mississippi town in the early and mid-twentieth century, illuminating issues of identity, culture, and history.

He was a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, the Providence Journal, and The Bulletin in Bend, Ore. He edited the Providence Sunday Journal Magazine. His freelance writing has appeared in the Los Angeles Times Sunday Magazine, Mother Jones, Hemispheres, and Historic Preservation.

He has taught at the University of Rhode Island, and at the California State University at Fullerton and Los Angeles.

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