Biography

Lance Bennett received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University in 1974, and has taught since then at the University of Washington, where he is Ruddick C. Lawrence Professor Communication and Professor of Political Science. His work on the news media and political communication has appeared in leading scholarly journals. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Spencer Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, and the Fulbright Commission. He is the author of six books, including News: The Politics of Illusion, 5th ed, and The Governing Crisis: Media, Money, and Marketing in American Elections. He is co-editor of Taken By Storm: The Media, Public Opinion, and U.S. Foreign Policy in the Gulf War, and co-author of Democracy and the Marketplace of Ideas: Communication and Government in Sweden and the United States. He is co-editor of the Cambridge University Press series "Communication, Society, and Politics," which includes his co-edited volume Mediated Politics: Communication in the Future of Democracy. His service on the editorial boards of leading journals in political science and communication extends over twenty years. Editorial appointments include Journal of Communication, American Journal of Political Science, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, Press/Politics, and Political Communication. Bennett was co-recipient of the 1994 Donald McGannon Research Essay Award for Social and Ethical Relevance in Communication Policy. In 1997-98 he was elected as chair of the Political Communication Section of the American Political Science Association. He was a founding member of the board of directors of TVW, the Washington State public affairs network. In 1998 he was chosen as recipient of the Ithiel de Sola Pool Award and Lectureship of the American Political Science Association. In 1999 he served as the Laurence M. Lombard Visiting Professor of press/politics in the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. And, in January of 2000, at a ceremony commemorating the 400th anniversary of the first Ph.D. granted in Sweden, Uppsala University awarded him its Doctor of Philosophy, honoris causa. Lance Bennett has lectured widely in the United States and Europe on the importance of media and the quality of information systems in civic life. His research interests include investigations of how press-government relations affect the quality of public information and civic culture, and how strategic communication campaigns shape news content, along with public political perceptions, identifications, and participation. The strategic communication research also examines the role of the Internet in organizing global campaigns in areas such as human rights, environmental quality, labor conditions, trade policies and corporate social responsibility. Bennett is the founder and Director of the Center for Communication and Civic Engagement (www.engagedcitizen.org) at the University of Washington. As Director of CCCE, Bennett facilitates collaborative work involving scholars from the University of Washington and other universities in North America and Europe. The Center is dedicated to communication research and policy initiatives that enhance the quality of citizen engagement with social life, politics, and global affairs. Current work on media systems and civic engagement can be found on the Center website at www.engagedcitizen.org. A major focus of new work is globalization and political change, with an emphasis on digital media and the organization of global activist networks. The Global Citizen Project (www.globalcitizenproject.org) showcases various initiatives in global communication and public policy.