Els Diekerhof received an NWO grant for her doctoral research into changing practices and principles of journalistic information gathering. She investigates how journalists collect and assess information and sources, and how this gives shape to reliability.

Diekerhof is a PhD candidate within the Research group Quality journalism in Digital Transition (J-lab). She is also a lecturer at the School of Journalism. She teaches Journalism Research and Investigative Journalism, among other things, and lectures in international education at SvJ Comparative Cross-cultural Studies.

Els Diekerhof was director of the Utrecht School of Journalism from 1991 to 1997. She also worked at the SISWO scientific institute, as a training assistant at the Dutch Association of Journalists (NVJ) and as a researcher at the Stichting Vrouw & Media. Among other things, she wrote the classic ‘Voor zover plaats aan de perstafel’ in 1986 (‘As long as there is space at the press table’).