Samuel Robert Lichter

Samuel Robert Lichter

Samuel Robert Lichter

Professor

Political communications, political sociology, and health and risk communication

S. Robert Lichter is Professor of Communication at George Mason University, where he also directs the Center for Media and Public Affairs, which conducts scientific studies of the news and entertainment media, and the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS), which works to improve the quality of statistical and scientific information in the news.

He previously taught at Princeton, Georgetown, and George Washington universities. He has also served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Politics and Psychology at Yale University, Senior Research Fellow at Columbia University, and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at Smith College. He received his Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and his B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Lichter has authored or co-authored fourteen books and over a hundred scholarly articles and monographs. His op-ed articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, and other newspapers. His most recent books are Politics Is a Joke: How Late Night Comedians Are Remaking Politics (2015) and The Global President: International News Coverage of American Politics (2013). 

Education

BA University of Minnesota - Interdepartmental

PhD Harvard University - Political Science

Dissertations Supervised

Joseph Graf , The Effects of Uncivil and Skeptical Online Comments on News Credibility and Believability (2021)