Anick "Nick" Jesdanun ( th, อนิก เจษฎานันท์; – April 2, 2020) was an American technology journalist who served as deputy technology editor for the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

(AP). Jesdanun covered technology, especially the internet, for AP for more than twenty years and sought to help readers navigate the relatively new technology and its impact on daily life, from the 1990s to 2020. Jesdanun was the first ''Associated Press'' reporter to be assigned as an "internet writer" in the

news agency A news agency is an organization that gathers news reports and sells them to subscribing news organizations, such as newspapers, magazines and All-news radio, radio and News broadcasting, television Broadcasting, broadcasters. A news agency may ...

's history.

Early life and education

Jesdanun's parents, Adisak and Orabhin Jesdanun, immigrated to the United States from

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. He was originally from

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

, but was raised in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. He earned a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

from

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

in 1991.

Career

After college, Jesdanun was hired as a reporter for the

, where he remained for his entire professional career. He wrote for the AP bureaus in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

(until 1993),

Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Pennsylvania, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Dauphin County. With a population of 50,135 as of the 2021 census, Harrisburg is the List of c ...

, and

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

He then moved to the AP headquarters in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, where he became the agency's first internet writer in history. In a 2000 AP story, Jesdanun predicted that devices connected to the internet would be able to track a user location, years before the technology became widely used in consumer products. In recent years, Jesdanun released a series of humorous, informative videos called the AP "Tech Tests," where he demonstrated and tested new consumer technology and tech products, such as the

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

iPhone

facial recognition system A facial recognition system is a technology capable of matching a human face from a digital image or a video frame against a database of faces. Such a system is typically employed to authenticate users through ID verification services, and wo ...

in 2017.

Personal life

A resident of the Yorkville neighborhood of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, Jesdanun had run more than 83 marathons worldwide, a hobby he began in his 30s, including fifteen

New York City Marathon The New York City Marathon (currently branded TCS New York City Marathon after its headline sponsor) is an annual marathon () that courses through the five boroughs of New York City. It is the largest marathon in the world, with 53,627 finishe ...

Death

Anick Jesdanun died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in the early days of the pandemic at a

hospital on April 2, 2020, at the age of 51. As many Americans dismissed the danger of

as limited to vulnerable population subgroups, Jesdanun's death was notable because according to family and colleagues, he had no underlying health problems before becoming ill with coronavirus.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jesdanun, Anick 1960s births 2020 deaths American technology journalists Associated Press reporters Associated Press people American editors Journalists from New York City Swarthmore College alumni American people of Thai descent People from Yorkville, Manhattan Mass media people from Pittsburgh Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state) 21st-century American journalists 20th-century American journalists American male journalists Journalists from New Jersey Journalists from Pennsylvania American male marathon runners Track and field athletes from New York City