Jarol Manheim

Jarol B. Manheim is Professor Emeritus of Media and Public Affairs at The George Washington University, where he developed the world’s first degree-granting program in political communication and was the founding director of the School of Media and Public Affairs. He received his bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Rice University, and his masters and doctoral degrees in political science from Northwestern University, the latter in 1971. He is a past chair of the Political Communication Section of the American Political Science Association, and played the lead role in establishing the journal Political Communication. In 1995 he was selected by CASE and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as the District of Columbia Professor of the Year.

Professor Manheim has spent more than five decades examining the emergence of contemporary strategies and tactics in political communication, analyzing their evolution into the complex phenomenon that we now label an information and influence campaign, and applying the lessons of his observations in various real-world settings. His research on strategic communication has appeared in the leading journals of political science, journalism and mass communication, and in several books. His 1994 book, Strategic Public Diplomacy and US Foreign Policy, remains influential in shaping both scholarship and practice in that field. Reviewers characterized his 2001 book, The Death of a Thousand Cuts: Corporate Campaigns and the Attack on the Corporation, as the definitive work on contemporary union strategies. And his 2010 book, Strategy in Information and Influence Campaigns, a comprehensive analysis of strategic communication techniques, has been termed “authoritative,” “elegant,” “masterful,” and “a classic.” His coauthored text, Empirical Political Analysis, published in multiple editions, was the first research methods text translated into Arabic, and portions of his work have also been translated into Chinese, Russian, and Spanish.

Since retiring from active teaching and research, Professor Manheim has turned to writing thrillers that combine his understanding of propaganda and image management and his love of a good conspiracy theory with his lifelong interest in behind-the-scenes baseball. His 2021-2022 Cooperstown Trilogy, three volumes in which historical anomalies give rise to mysteries that must be solved in the here and now, has begun winning plaudits from reviewers and recognition in literary competitions.