Samuel Robert Lichter is a professor of communication at

George Mason University George Mason University (GMU) is a Public university, public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. Located in Northern Virginia near Washington, D.C., the university is named in honor of George Mason, a Founding Father ...

, where he directs the

Center for Media and Public Affairs The Center for Media and Public Affairs (CMPA) is a self-described nonpartisan and nonprofit research and educational organization that is affiliated with George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. It was founded in 1985 by political scientists ...

, which conducts scientific studies of the news and entertainment media, and formerly directed the

Statistical Assessment Service Statistical Assessment Service (STATS) was a non-profit organization that analyzed and critiqued the presentation of scientific findings and statistical evidence in the news media. Formerly associated with George Mason University and the Center f ...

(STATS), which works to improve the quality of statistical and scientific information in the news.

Academia

Lichter has taught political science at

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

, Georgetown, and

George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...

universities, and he was a research faculty member at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

and

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. He was also a

National Endowment for the Humanities The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency of the U.S. government, established by thNational Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965(), dedicated to supporting research, education, preserv ...

Fellow at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smit ...

and held the

DeWitt Wallace William Roy DeWitt Wallace ( ; November 12, 1889 – March 30, 1981), publishing as DeWitt Wallace, was an American magazine publisher. Wallace co-founded ''Reader's Digest'' with his wife Lila Bell Wallace, publishing the first issue in 1922. ...

Chair in Mass Communications at the

American Enterprise Institute The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, known simply as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), is a center-right think tank based in Washington, D.C., that researches government, politics, economics, and social welfare ...

. He received his Ph.D. in Government from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

and his B.A., summa cum laude, from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

Scholarly work

Lichter has authored or co-authored fourteen books and over a hundred scholarly articles and monographs on the news and entertainment media. His best-known work, '' The Media Elite,'' (written with Stanley Rothman and Linda Lichter, and funded by conservative foundations) argued that journalists, on average, held more

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

political views than the general public, and that their backgrounds and outlooks affect their coverage of the news. This claim was extended by conservative pundits as evidence for a liberal bias in the media. It also provoked widespread debate among journalists and their critics. ''The Media Elite'' was based on interviews with major media journalists and

content analysis Content analysis is the study of documents and communication artifacts, known as texts e.g. photos, speeches or essays. Social scientists use content analysis to examine patterns in communication in a replicable and systematic manner. One of the ...

of their work. Lichter and his co-authors have also written on the social and political perspectives of popular culture, in books such as ''Prime Time'' and ''Watching America,'' as well as on news coverage of science and health issues, in ''Environmental Cancer—A Political Disease'' and ''It Ain't Necessarily So.'' His most recent books (written with Stephen Farnsworth) are ''The Nightly News Nightmare: Television Coverage of Presidential Elections'' (2006, 2nd ed.); and ''The Mediated Presidency: Television News and Presidential Governance'' (2005). These works use content analysis to examine the media's coverage of government and election campaigns. In 1986 Lichter and his late ex-wife, sociologist Linda Lichter, established the

(CMPA), a non-profit organization that sought to influence public debate on the media by publishing frequent studies of media coverage using the social scientific tool of

. This was the first time this type of academic research was used on a regular and systematic basis to affect the general public's view of the media. Since then other groups have followed suit, including the Annenberg School for Communication and the

Pew Foundation The Pew Charitable Trusts is an independent non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO), founded in 1948. Pew's stated mission is to serve the public interest by "improving public policy, informing the public, and invigorating civic life". ...

Project for Excellence in Journalism The Project for Excellence in Journalism was a tax-exempt research organization in the United States that used empirical methods to evaluate and study the performance of the press. The organization's director was Tom Rosenstiel, a professor of ...

. In 2004 the CMPA became affiliated with the

Bibliography

Journal articles

* Reprinted on the occasion of the award by the

National Association of Scholars The National Association of Scholars (NAS) is an American 501(c)(3) non-profit politically conservative education advocacy organization. It advocates against multiculturalism, diversity policies, and against courses focused on race and gender i ...

of the Sidney Hook Memorial Award to Stanley Rothman, 22 May 2004. Originally published online i
''The Forum''
(subscription required).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lichter, Samuel Robert Living people American political scientists Harvard University alumni University of Minnesota alumni Year of birth missing (living people) George Mason University faculty George Washington University faculty Princeton University faculty Georgetown University faculty