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Eric Deggans, TV critic for NPR, has joined NBC News and MSNBC as a contributor.

He is expected to discuss issues related to media and television across the news units’ various outlets and will also contribute to a new team devoted to media-industry coverage that the NBCUniversal unit unveiled in September. A formal name for the initiative has been slated to be announced for several weeks.

Deggans is NPR’s first full-time TV critic, and contributes to shows like “Morning Edition” and “All Things Considered’: NPR.org; and several NPR podcasts. He joined NPR in September of 2013, after working for nearly two decades at Florida’s “Tampa Bay Times.”  He is the author of  “Race-Baiter: How the Media Wields Dangerous Words to Divide a Nation, a look at how prejudice, racism and sexism fuels some elements of modern media.

He joins a roster of contributors that include Kara Swisher, Ben Smith, John Huey, Gabriel Sherman, Steven Brill and Peter Kafka. NBC News staffers Claire Atkinson, Jim Rainey and JoLing Kent will also be devoted to the new effort, with Atkinson serving as senior media editor.

NBC News has launched a number of digital “verticals” devoted to particular topics in recent weeks. In October, it unveiled one called “Think” that publishes commentary and opinion.