Why the LA Times Chose Dexter Thomas to Cover Black Twitter

This week, the Los Angeles Times hired Dexter Thomas, a California-born writer and Ph.D. candidate studying Japanese hip-hop, to cover Black Twitter and other online communities.

Black Twitter is not a standard journalistic beat. But over the last year, it has emerged as a force in shaping the national discourse about race. “It’s truly been an emblem of democracy,” says S. Mitra Kalita, Managing Editor for Editorial Strategy at the Times.