S. Robert Lichter
S. Robert Lichter is Professor of Communications at George Mason University, where he also directs the Center for Media and Public Affairs, which conducts scientific studies of the news and entertainment media, and the Statistical Assessment Service (STATS), which works to improve the quality of statistical and scientific information in the news.

Dr. Lichter previously taught at Princeton, Georgetown, and George Washington universities. He also served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Politics and Psychology at Yale University, Senior Research Fellow at Columbia University, and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at Smith College, and he held the DeWitt Wallace Chair in Mass Communications at the American Enterprise Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University and his B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Lichter has authored or co-authored fourteen books and over a hundred scholarly articles and monographs. His op-ed articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, and other newspapers. His most recent books are The Nightly News Nightmare: Television Coverage of Presidential Elections (2006, 2nd ed.); and The Mediated Presidency: Television News and Presidential Governance (2005). He is currently working on books about foreign media coverage of the United States and social and political life in American universities, respectively.

Dr. Lichter’s current research interests include, political communications, political sociology, and health and risk communication.

Donald Rieck
Donald Rieck, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Public Affairs, graduated from Dickinson College and Dickinson College Center for European Studies, Bologna Italy with a B.A. in Political Science. He received a Master of Arts in Political Science and a Master of Business Administration, both from Temple University. He completed an accelerated international business program for his MBA in Tokyo, Japan. His expertise lies in strategic management and economic analysis.

Prior to joining CMPA, Rieck was a senior project manager at Comcast Corporation in Philadelphia for several years.

Daniel Amundson
Daniel Amundson has been the Research Director at the Center for Media and Public Affairs since 1987. His work in media analysis began in 1982. Mr. Amundson holds a B.A. from George Washington University in Sociology and Political Science.

He is co-author with Dr. S. Robert Lichter of Media Coverage of Religion in America 1969 - 1998 (2000), Merchandizing Mayhem: Violence in Popular Entertainment (1999), Government Goes Down the Tube: Images of Government in TV Entertainment (1999), Distorted Reality: Hispanic Characters in TV Entertainment (1994), Media Coverage of the Catholic Church (1991) and The Video Campaign: Network News Coverage of the 1988 Primaries(1988), as well as several other articles and monographs on TV entertainment, science in the news media and media coverage of health issues.