Sean Aday
Assistant Professor of Media and Public Affairs

Phone: (202) 994-4220
Fax: (202) 994-5806
E-mail: seanaday@gwu.edu
Office: MPA 430

Expertise

Political Communication; media coverage of war, politics, and foreign policy; media effects and public opinion, including political
and international trust.

Courses Taught

JOUR 100, Journalism: Theory and Practice
PCM, 190, Campaigns and Elections
SMPA 51, Research Methods
SMPA 202, Media Theory and Effects

Selected Works

The Real War Will Never Get Televised: An Analysis of Casualty Imagery in American Television Coverage of the Iraq War. (2005) Media and Conflict in the
21st Century, Phil Seib (ed), Palgrave.

As Goes the Statue, So Goes the War: The Evolution and Effects of the Victory Frame in Television Coverage of the Iraq War. With John Cluverius and Steven Livingston.

A Panel Study on Media Effects on Political and Social Trust After September 11th, 2001. (Forthcoming) Harvard Press/Politics. With Paul Brewer and Kimberly Gross.

International Trust and Public Opinion About World Affairs, American Journal of Political Science (48)1, January 2004, pp. 93-110. With Paul Brewer and Kimberly Gross, Lars Willnat.

The Scary World in Your Living Room and on Your Neighborhood: Using Local Broadcast News, Neighborhood Crime Rates, and Personal Experience to Test Agenda Setting and Cultivation Hypotheses. Journal of Communication, 2003. With Kimberly Gross.

Style Over Substance: Newspaper Coverage of Elizabeth Dole's Presidential Bid. Harvard Journal of Press and Politics, Vol. 6 (2), 2001. With James Devitt.

How Does Reporting of Poll Results Affect Campaign Coverage? in Jamieson, K.H. Everything You Think You Know About Politics and Why You're Wrong, Basic Books,
2000. With Kathleen Hall Jamieson.

"Issue Advocacy Advertising During the Early 1999-2000 Election Cycle." Annenberg Public Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, 2000.

Framing Politics: The Role of the Press in Covering Elections, Policy Making and Political Crises. Oxford Companion to Politics of the World, 2nd Edition,
Oxford University Press, New York, 2001. With Kathleen Hall Jamieson.

Background

Sean Aday joined The George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs in 2000, after completing his Ph.D. and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. His work focuses on the intersection of the press, politics, and public opinion, and he has published in several academic journals on subjects ranging from the effects of watching local television news to coverage of Elizabeth Dole's presidential run. As part of a National Science Foundation grant, he, along with two colleagues, recently conducted a series of surveys about Americans' attitudes about government and media following the September 11th terrorist attacks. Aday is also the principle investigator for DC Student Voices, a curriculum-based project in Washington DC high schools that aims to get students more involved in politics. He has been a frequent commentator in the press on news coverage of elections, crime, and war.

Before entering academia, Aday served as a general assignment reporter for the Kansas City Star, Kansas City, MO, the Milwaukee Journal in Milwaukee, WI, and the Greenville News, Greenville, SC. He graduated from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1990.

Education

Ph.D., The Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 1999
M.A., The Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, 1995
B.S.J., The Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, 1990