Johnny Harris (journalist)

Johnny Harris
Personal information
Born (1988-05-28) May 28, 1988
Education
Occupations
  • Filmmaker
  • journalist
  • YouTuber
SpouseIz Harris
Children2
Websitewww.johnnyharris.ch
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2011–present
Genres
  • International affairs
  • history
  • geography
Subscribers6.6 million[1]
Views994 million[1]
100,000 subscribers2019
1,000,000 subscribers2021
Last updated: May 13, 2025

Johnny Harris (born May 28, 1988)[‡ 1][‡ 2] is an American YouTuber, filmmaker, and independent journalist based in Washington, D.C.[2] Harris produced and hosted the Borders series for American news and opinion website Vox.[3][4][5][6][7][8] He also created three videos for The New York Times.[9][10][11]

Early life

Harris was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in a small town in Oregon.[‡ 3] He graduated from Ashland High School, in Ashland, Oregon.[‡ 4] He served a two-year mission in Tijuana, Mexico, and identified as a devout Mormon but has since left the church after the birth of his first son.[‡ 5] Harris holds a Bachelor of Arts in international relations and affairs from Brigham Young University (2013) and a Master of Arts in international peace and conflict resolution from American University (2016).[‡ 6][2]

Career

Borders

From 2017 to 2019, Harris produced and hosted Borders, a documentary short film series on Vox that profiled sociopolitical issues in various border regions worldwide.[12] It was twice nominated for an Emmy Award.[13] The series was cancelled in 2020 likely due to budgeting considerations.[14]

Season Episodes Originally aired Location(s)
First aired Last aired Producer
1 6 May 22, 2017 October 14, 2017 Vox Media Inc. Various
2 5 July 11, 2018 August 15, 2018 Hong Kong
3 5 November 22, 2018 December 18, 2018 Colombia
4 5 June 26, 2019 July 24, 2019 India
5 Release cancelled United States

Freelance

On November 9, 2021, Harris was credited as the video producer on an opinion piece published in The New York Times, titled "Blue States, You're the Problem".[10] It later won an Emmy Award.[15][16]

On December 15, 2024, Harris posted a video attributing the Russo-Ukrainian War largely to NATO expansion, a viewpoint that a Kyiv Independent reporter argued aligns with Kremlin propaganda and omits historical context.[17] The author argues that this was a microcosm of Harris' tendency in "prioritizing sensationalism over facts and disregarding history," especially regarding NATO and Russia. Furthermore, Jonathan Jarry has criticized Harris' coverage of scientific, historical, and economic issues for oversimplifying or misrepresenting facts or omitting key details.[18] Jarry had condemned Harris for a video that was written with the World Economic Forum for only disclosing the partnership at the end of the video, claiming that the purpose of the video was not for education nor journalism, but for advertising.

Personal life

Harris is married and has two sons with his wife.[‡ 7]

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b "About Johnny Harris". YouTube.
  2. ^ a b "Johnny Harris". Vox. July 24, 2019. Archived from the original on July 12, 2021. Retrieved December 26, 2020.
  3. ^ Schmidt, Christine (August 27, 2018). "Explanatory video + engagement = How Vox's Borders series is humanizing the map and building local source networks". Nieman Lab. Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  4. ^ Scott, Caroline (August 30, 2017). "Why Vox has been crowdsourcing for its latest international documentary series". journalism.co.uk. Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  5. ^ Scott, Caroline (August 23, 2018). "How Vox expanded its network by crowdsourcing for its latest documentary series". journalism.co.uk. Archived from the original on November 12, 2019. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  6. ^ Llewellyn, Tom (September 15, 2020). "Vox Borders cancelled: Why has the popular documentary series been axed?". Reality Titbit. Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  7. ^ Schochet, Max (March 11, 2020). "Behind the scenes of the Vox web series "Borders"". Storybench. Northeastern University School of Journalism. Archived from the original on June 27, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  8. ^ "Alumnus Spotlight: Johnny Harris". BYU Political Science Blog. Brigham Young University. March 9, 2016. Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2020.
  9. ^ How America Bungled the Plague | NYT Opinion, September 29, 2020, archived from the original on September 5, 2023, retrieved May 21, 2021
  10. ^ a b Harris, Johnny; Appelbaum, Binyamin (November 9, 2021). "Opinion | Blue States, You're the Problem". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on March 17, 2022. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  11. ^ Harris, Johnny; Cottle, Michelle (September 21, 2022). "Opinion | Inside the Completely Legal G.O.P. Plot to Destroy American Democracy". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on November 20, 2022. Retrieved September 21, 2022.
  12. ^ "Borders". Vox. December 5, 2017. Archived from the original on June 24, 2024. Retrieved October 9, 2022.
  13. ^ "Vox Earns 3 News and Documentary Emmy Award Nominations". Vox Media. July 26, 2018. Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  14. ^ "Vox Borders cancelled: Why has the popular documentary series been axed?". Reality Titbit. September 15, 2020. Archived from the original on May 26, 2021. Retrieved October 20, 2022.
  15. ^ "The New York Times Wins 5 Emmy Awards". The New York Times Company. September 30, 2022. Archived from the original on October 7, 2022. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  16. ^ Schneider, Michael (September 29, 2022). "ABC, Vice Lead 2022 News Emmy Award Winners". Retrieved May 18, 2025.
  17. ^ Blevins, Jason (December 11, 2024). "YouTuber Johnny Harris' lens on Eastern Europe is distorted and irresponsible". The Kyiv Independent. Archived from the original on April 1, 2025. Retrieved June 11, 2025.
  18. ^ Jarry, Jonathan (August 2, 2024). "The Many Mistakes of Johnny Harris". McGill University. Office for Science and Society. Archived from the original on June 11, 2025. Retrieved June 11, 2025.

Primary sources

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. ^ Why Britain is the Center of the World, November 22, 2019, retrieved June 2, 2022 At the time 10:14 he reveals the date of his birth
  2. ^ "#69: Johnny Harris – Himalayan Borders, Making Maps, Traveling with Purpose", Finding Founders, archived from the original on July 12, 2024, retrieved April 28, 2021
  3. ^ Why New York City is so Huge, October 20, 2020, archived from the original on March 18, 2022, retrieved April 28, 2021
  4. ^ Am I Happy?: Q&A, May 27, 2021, archived from the original on March 18, 2022, retrieved June 12, 2021
  5. ^ Why I Left The Mormon Church. YouTube. June 11, 2021. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved June 11, 2021.
  6. ^ Johnny, Harris. "Johnny Harris". LinkedIn. Retrieved June 6, 2022.
  7. ^ Who Are We?!. YouTube. February 4, 2018. Archived from the original on March 18, 2022. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
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