Albert L May
Albert L May
Associate Emeritus Professor of Media and Public Affairs
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Albert L May
Office Phone:
(202) 994-6227
Albert L. May joined the faculty of the School of Media and Public Affairs in 1997 after 23 years as a newspaper reporter and editor. He specialized in news coverage of government and politics and served as SMPA's director of journalism from 1998 to 2005. Professor May retired from GW in 2015 and now resides in Black Mountain, North Carolina.
Before joining the faculty, Professor May was the government and public affairs editor of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, overseeing state and local government and political coverage. He was also a national political reporter and the state capitol bureau chief.
Previously, he was the Washington correspondent and the chief capitol correspondent for The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina. He began his newspaper career as a reporter for the Arkansas Democrat in Little Rock.
Professor May has won writing, editing and teaching awards, including a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University, the George Washington University's Morton A. Bender Teaching Award and SMPA’s Robert and Christine Staub Faculty Excellence Award.
News Coverage of Government and Politics on the Local, State and National Levels.
Books
"Congress 2.0: Incumbent Messaging in Social Media" in Citizen 2.0: Public and Governmental Interaction through Web 2.0 Technologies. (2012). Albert L. May and Christopher F. Arterton. Edited by Kathryn Kloby and Maria J. D’Agostino. IGI Global.
"The Preacher and the Press: How the Jeremiah Wright Story Became the First Feeding Frenzy of the Digital Age" in Campaigning For President 2008: Strategy and Tactics, New Voices and New Techniques. (2009). 78-100. Edited by Dennis W. Johnson. Routledge.
Journal Articles
"Who Tube? How YouTube’s News and Politics Space Is Going Mainstream." (2010). International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol. 15:4, 499-511.
"Political Reporters." edited by Christopher H. Sterling. (2009). Encyclopedia of Journalism, 1083-1090.
“Political Reporters.” Edited by Gregory A. Borchard. (2022). SAGE Encyclopedia of Journalism, Second Edition, 1262-1270.
"Swift Boat Vets in 2004: Press Coverage of an Independent Campaign." (2005). First Amendment Law Review. University of North Carolina School of Law. Vol. 4.
Additional Publications
"Campaign 2008: It's On YouTube" (2008). Nieman Reports. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
"First Informers in the Disaster Zone: The Lessons of Katrina." (2006). The Aspen Institute.
"The Virtual Trail: Political Journalism on the Internet." (2002). Institute for Policy, Democracy & the Internet. The Graduate School of Political Management, The George Washington University.
M.A., Journalism, University of Missouri at Columbia, 1974
M.A., Political Science, University of Missouri at Columbia, 1973
B.A., History, University of Missouri at Columbia, 1970