According to an internal memo circulated Monday, the Los Angeles Times has hired a reporter for the express purpose of covering Black Twitter. Dexter Thomas, a doctoral grad student at Cornell University, will cover "communities online (Black Medium to Latino Tumblr to Line in Japan) and both create stories with and pull stories from those worlds." Black Twitter (which we thoroughly addressed in an extended op-ed last year) has seen its cultural visibility and impact rise at an accelerated rate throughout the past twelve months as the #BlackLivesMatter movement has coalesced in response to numerous high-profile police killings of unarmed black men. Two of its most influential members, Deray and Johnetta Elzie were profiled by the New York Times in an expansive essay entitled "Our Demand is Simple: Stop Killing Us."

Dexter Thomas's own twitter handle can be found here, and you can peruse his past work in both The Guardian and Al Jazeera. Read the Los Angeles Times' full statement on his hiring below:

Dexter Thomas joins us today to cover Black Twitter (which really is so much more complicated than that). He will work closely with the newsroom and #EmergingUS to find communities online (Black Medium to Latino Tumblr to Line in Japan) and both create stories with and pull stories from those worlds. Dexter is from San Bernardino and is a doctoral candidate in East Asian studies at Cornell University. He has taught media studies and Japanese and is writing a book about Japanese hip-hop. He began working in digital media at UC Riverside as a student director of programming at KUCR-FM (88.3), independently producing podcasts, music and news programs. He writes regularly on social justice, Internet and youth culture, and video games.

You can also get to know Dexter Thomas by perusing his personal website.