A Life in Journalism - Dr. Chris Kardjov

While waiting for the final panel of speakers to begin on Journalism Day, I ran into professor Karadjov, with whom I had a very pleasant and informative conversation with. Dr. Chris Karadjov, Assistant Professor and Adviser in the Department of Journalism, has been a member of the CSULB faculty for six years. He currently teachers four courses in the department and also helps to advise students on their student career paths in the field. 

Professor Karadjov.
Photo taken from csulb.edu

Born in Bulgaria, Karadjov began his career in journalism during a very historical time in history, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. He not only worked as an investigative reporter for the Bulgarian government during this critical period, but also worked for 24 Hours, a popular Bulgarian daily paper. 

Karadjov started as an investigative reporter by his fourth year of being a journalist. As it is a very competitive field, he said that it's important to develop the necessary and basic skill-sets of writing first - then work your way up. "Everyone has to start at the bottom and sacrifice doing work or writing on topics that they may not be pleased with," he said. "You have to work hard and have a lot of patience to get to where you want to."

Karadjov completed his master’s in journalism/mass communication at Sofia University in Bulgaria in 1995. It was also during this period that he began his work as a journalist and wrote and edited for several newsrooms. Karadjov then moved to the United States in 1996 where he started work as an international journalist for the Dallas Morning News. He went on to begin his doctorate in mass communications at the University of Florida in 1997. He completed in 2001 and remained active in writing for several local and international outlets.

Karadjov began his career as a professor at the State University of New York, where he taught several courses in journalism from 2001-2005.

Toward the end of 2005, Karadjov became a professor at California State University, Long Beach. He currently teachers Global News Media, Reporting and Information Gathering, Investigative Reporting, Mass Communication Research Methods, Mass Communication Theory. He is also a very active member of several professional journalism and political organizations and remains involved with studying Eastern European media through lectures, papers, and publications.


"One of the key elements of being a journalist," says Karadjov, "is having curiosity."