Dr. Kimberly Meltzer is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication. Her research and teaching are at the intersection of journalism studies, political communication, and strategic communication. Her research investigates journalistic adaptation to change. It is also concerned with the political and social implications of those adaptations. Dr. Meltzer's recent research has examined journalistic discourse around the use of the term "alt-right" (Journal of Communication Inquiry, 2022), and journalists’ perspectives on opinion and commentary in news, including journalists’ perspectives on civility, or the lack thereof, in public discourse. The latter was the subject of her second book, From News to Talk: The Expansion of Opinion and Commentary in US Journalism (SUNY, 2019). Her work has also advanced the understanding of journalists as a community of practice (Journal of Communication Inquiry, 2017). Her first book, TV News Anchors and Journalistic Tradition: How Journalists Adapt to Technology, was published in 2010, and her articles and book chapters have appeared in The International Journal of Press/Politics, Journalism, Journalism Practice, Electronic News, National Civic Review and in several edited collections.
She was previously Director of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, founding Co-Director of the Marymount Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication, former department chair, and the faculty advisor to the student-produced newspaper at Marymount University in Arlington, Virginia. She received the 2020 College Media Association’s Honor Roll Adviser Award. She also previously was on the faculty at Georgetown University and Lehigh University. Prior to earning her Ph.D. in Communication from The Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, she worked in television news production for CNN and NBC, and for local and regional newspapers. Dr. Meltzer has participated in the HSI Solutions Journalism Educator Academy and is a member of the National Institute for Civil Discourse's Faculty Research Network.
B.A., Philosophy, Emory University
M.A., Communication, University of Pennsylvania, The Annenberg School for Communication
Ph.D., Communication, University of Pennsylvania, The Annenberg School for Communication
Certificate, The Media Law and Policy Global Foundation Programme, Oxford University