Arthur Kent

Arthur Kent is co-founder of the TVNewscan Project and presently heads his own production company, Fast Forward Films Limited of London. He also anchors HISTORY UNDERCOVER on The History Channel. He reported the recent Afghanistan and Iraq wars as Contributing Editor of Maclean’s, Canada’s weekly newsmagazine, and produced two hour-long documentaries for The History Channel, AFGHANISTAN: Legacy of War and RETURN TO BASRA: After Saddam.

A former network news correspondent, Kent has taken a keen interest in the changes the industry has undergone in recent years, particularly as a result of the increasing commercialization of news divisions. His successful lawsuit against the management of NBC News (1992-1994) marked the first time the presidents of a major network’s news and entertainment divisions were forced to testify under oath regarding the intrusion of entertainment values into handling of news programming. The case is detailed in his book, RISK AND REDEMPTION: Surviving the Network News Wars (Interstellar, 1997).

Kent’s journalistic career began thirty years ago at The Calgary Herald. Since then, he has reported for companies including CBC, BBC, CNN and NBC News, and for The Observer newspaper. A winner of two Emmy awards, Kent’s documentaries have also been recognized by film festivals and human rights groups. His film for PBS, AFGHANISTAN: Captives of the Warlords, was broadcast in June 2001, and was extensively rebroadcast following the September 11^th terrorist attacks.

Contact: crew@fastff.demon.co.uk

Steven Livingston

Steven Livingston is co-founder and co-principal investigator of the TVNewscan Project and Associate Professor of Political Communication and International Affairs at The George Washington University (GW) in Washington, D.C. He is cofounder of the Public Diplomacy Institute (PDI) at GW and serves as chairman of the board of the PDI. Livingston’s research and teaching focus on media/information technology and international affairs. He is especially interested in the role of advanced information technology and media in national security policymaking and operations.

Following service in the United States Army, Livingston received a Bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of South Florida (1982) and a Master’s (1984) and Ph.D. (1990) in political science from the University of Washington. He joined the faculty of The George Washington University in 1991. In the 1992‑93 academic year, Livingston was a Social Science Research Council Senior Research Fellow in Foreign Policy Studies (funded by the Ford Foundation). In 1995, Livingston received funding from the Robert R. McCormick Tribune Foundation to investigate the role of the military and the media in humanitarian crises. In 1996, he was a Research Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on Press, Politics and Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. He also received a Goldsmith Award while at Harvard. He has also participated regularly in the Cantigny Foundation’s Media/Military conferences that bring together flag rank military leaders with representatives of the national press corps.

Livingston has written Clarifying the CNN Effect: An Examination of Media Effects According to Type of Military Intervention (a monograph published by Harvard University in 1996) and The Terrorism Spectacle (Westview Press, 1994). More recent publications include: "The New Information Environment and Diplomacy," in Cyber-diplomacy in the 21st Century, Evan Potter (ed.); "Remote Sensing Technology and the News Media," in Commercial Observation Satellites: At the Leading Edge of Global Transparency," John Baker, Kevin O'Connell, and Ray Williamson (eds.); "Transparency and the News Media," in Power and Conflict in the Age of Transparency," Bernard Finel and Kristin Lord (eds.). Presently with SMPA Professor Jarol B. Manheim, he is writing Politechnique: How Technologies are Changing Politics under contract with LSU Press.

Contact: sliv@gwu.edu

Sean Aday

Sean Aday is co-principal investigator for the TVNewscan Project and Assistant Professor of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University. Aday joined GW’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, D.C. 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.

Contact: seanaday@gwu.edu