Helping journalists, educators, and media organisations build trust through visual storytelling

Robb Montgomery helps journalists, educators, universities, media organisations, and storytellers create credible, compelling visual work in an age of AI, platformed media, and rapidly changing technologies. Through documentary filmmaking, research, teaching, consulting, and professional training, he develops practical approaches to reporting, verification, visual evidence, and public credibility.

Whether you are building a journalism programme, transforming a newsroom, developing a documentary project, training a communications team, or exploring the impact of AI on media practice, Robb combines hands-on production experience with rigorous critical inquiry and more than four decades of professional practice.

Trusted by Journalists, Universities, and Media Organisations Worldwide:

Services & Turnkey Offerings

Workshops & Professional Training

Delivering hands-on training for newsrooms, journalists, and media teams operating in fast-moving and high-stakes environments. Specialized workshops include:

  • The Verified Story Workflow: AI-era verification, source documentation, reporting receipts, and transparent correction protocols.
  • Mobile Journalism & Field Production: Professional video reporting, mobile interviewing, sequence filming, and vertical video workflows using everyday devices.
  • Safety & Field Reporting in Complex Environments: Practical, safety-focused reporting techniques developed through frontline work in conflict zones, including Ukraine.

Speaking & Public Lectures

Keynotes, public lectures, panel discussions, and conference presentations on the future of media, visual evidence, synthetic media ethics, and newsroom transformation. Regular topics include:

  • AI, Trust, and the Future of Nonfiction Storytelling
  • The Trust Graph: Rebuilding Credibility in the Age of Algorithmic Media
  • Visual Evidence, Verification, and Public Belief
  • Mobile Storytelling and the Democratisation of Journalism

University Teaching & Curriculum Design

Partnering with universities, film schools, and journalism faculties to design and deliver accredited courses, visiting scholar residencies, and guest masterclasses. Focus areas include:

  • Applied mobile journalism and digital field production
  • Documentary storytelling and visual media anthropology
  • AI ethics, verification, and digital evidence
  • Curriculum modernization for post-institutional media ecosystems

Documentary and Strategic Media Consulting

Advising documentary projects, visual research initiatives, and media innovation programs that help audiences understand complex issues through evidence-based storytelling. Areas of expertise include documentary development, visual storytelling strategy, media innovation, verification moats, and spatial media curation.

Background & Academic Appointments

Robb Montgomery is a documentary filmmaker, author, media educator, and scholar-practitioner based in Berlin. Before focusing on international teaching and research, he served as a visual editor and Deputy News Editor for Design at the Chicago Sun-Times and art director at the Chicago Tribune. That newsroom background grounds his research in the real-world realities of editorial judgment, evidence, and public accountability.

He holds a Master of Arts in Visual Media Anthropology (Honors) from Media University Berlin and is pursuing a PhD by Publication on visual evidence and media trust.

Robb is a regular Visiting Professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS)—where he authors and delivers the graduate module MKT560 Smartphone Filmmaking—and has taught or delivered masterclasses at institutions worldwide, including EFJ Paris, American University in Cairo, FH Wien, Danish School of Media and Journalism, Stockholm University, Northwestern University Medill, Ohio University, and Indiana University.

Research, Books & Flagship Projects

Robb’s research examines journalism as a social, visual, and cultural practice of trust. His major projects form one unified inquiry into evidence, mobility, spatial representation, and credibility:

The Trust Graph

A major scholarly project and 224-page hardcover monograph examining journalism rituals, verification practices, visual evidence, and public trust in an era of AI and news creators. Backed by the Montgomery Longitudinal Visual Archive—an 8-terabyte digital humanities repository containing 19 years of ethnographic video evidence across 12 countries. The monograph is published by Visual Editors, NFP and available through IngramSpark, Payhip, and VitalSource.

Trustable

An 88-minute feature visual ethnography (and 44-minute university classroom cut) filmed across 12 countries over 19 years. It traces global newsroom transformation, creator migration, and the defense of non-fiction story integrity. Visit the official film portal at trustable.film.

Bikegeist

An ethnographic digital heritage project preserving Berlin’s urban cycling culture through 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) photogrammetry, volumetric curation, and documentary film. Explore the web exhibit at robbmontgomery.com/bikegeist or view the interactive 3D model on Sketchfab.

Stimulated Reality

A peer-reviewed research study and 8-minute VR machinima documentary investigating virtual intimacy, AI companions, avatar communities, and mediated perception in the metaverse. Published in the Journal of Visual and Media Anthropology, with an accompanying VR film on YouTube and an SSRN research note.

Published University Textbooks

Connect & Collaborate

Robb works with universities, journalism schools, media organisations, foundations, NGOs, documentary producers, communications teams, and cultural institutions worldwide. Contact Robb to discuss:

  • Keynote presentations & public lectures
  • Visiting scholar residencies & curriculum design
  • Feature screenings of Trustable & director Q&As
  • Newsroom verification, AI ethics & mobile video workshops
  • Research partnerships & archive licensing

Direct Email: ceo@visualeditors.com
Schedule a Meeting: Book a 15-Minute Consultation