Biography

Bruce A. Williams received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Minnesota and has taught at the Pennsylvania State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois, and the London School of Economics. He is a Taylor Professor in Media Studies and he is broadly interested in the relationship between media and democratic politics. His current research interest focuses on the role of a changing media environment in shaping citizenship in the United States. He has received funding for this research from the National ScieInterim nce Foundation and the Cultures of Consumption Research Programme, at Birkbeck College, University of London. His recent teaching and research centers on the impact of a changing media environment on public discourse in the United States, the influence of media on public understanding of the use of American military force in the world, and the connection between popular media portrayals of the criminal justice system and current racial tensions in the U.S.

He has published five books and more than forty scholarly journal articles and book chapters. His two most recent books are The New Media Environment: An Introduction (with Andrea Press), published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2010 and After Broadcast News: Media Regimes, Democracy, and the New Information Environment (with Michael Delli Carpini), published by Cambridge University Press in 2011.

His book Democracy, Dialogue, and Environmental Disputes: The Contested Languages of Social Regulation (with Albert Matheny), published by Yale University Press won the Caldwell Prize as best book for 1996 from the Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics section of the American Political Science Association. His textbook The Play of Power: An Introduction to American Politics (with James Eisenstein, Mark Kessler, and Jacqueline Switzer), St. Martin's Press, 1996 was selected by the Women's Caucus of the American Political Science Association in 1997 as the political science text published in the previous 3 years that best deals with women's issues and diversity. He is the editor (with Andrea Press) of The Communication Review.

He is starting a new research project examining the influence of media on understanding the role of American military force in the world.

He has also taught courses, at both the graduate and undergraduate level, on communication theory, research design, and the connection between quantitative and qualitative methodologies.

Listen to Prof. Williams discuss his new book After Broadcast News on Virginia Insight.

Bruce Williams is a member of the Graduate Faculty.