User:Dchinni/Dante Chinni

Dante John Chinni is an American journalist who is the director of Patchwork Nation, a reporting effort that partners with several major news outlets, including the PBS NewsHour and the Christian Science Monitor. Patchwork Nation uses demographic data and "representative communities" to study the United States in a time of dramatic change.

Chinni was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in neighboring Warren, Michigan in Macomb County. He is a graduate of Michigan State University (1992) who has worked as a researcher at Newsweek and at the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

He is the coauthor of the upcoming book, "Our Patchwork Nation," (Gotham, Fall 2010) along with Prof. James Gimpel of Maryland. He was also coauthor of the book, "We Interrupt This Newscast" (Cambridge University Press, April 2007).

Patchwork Nation was a winner of a 2009 Knight-Batten Special Distinction Award. The project was cited for its work in creating a "nuanced understanding of how people outside the orbit of Washington, D.C. are reacting to and processing changes in the country," wrote J-Lab Director Jan Schaffer in her Blogically Thinking blog.