steven livingston

Professor of Media and Public Affairs
Professor of International Affairs

Phone: (202) 994-5888
Fax: (202) 994-5806
E-mail: sliv@gwu.edu
Office: MPA 411

Expertise
Media and political processes, advanced media and information technology's role in foreign and military policy making and operations, media and terrorism.

Courses Taught
SMPA 100, Introduction to Political Communication
SMPA 140, Media and Foreign Policy
SMPA 50, Introduction to Media and Public Affairs
SMPA 51, Research Methods
SMPA 199, Senior Seminar

Selected Works

When The Press Fails: Political Power and the News Media from Iraq to Katrina, The University of Chicago Press, 2007.

As Goes the Statue, So Goes the War: The Emergence of the Victory Frame in Television Coverage of the Iraq War, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, in press for a fall 2005 publication. With Sean Aday and John Cluverius.

Embedding the Truth: A Cross-Cultural Analysis of Objectivity and Television Coverage of the Iraq War, Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics, 10(1), 2005, pp. 3-21. With Sean Aday and Maeve Hebert.

The Effects of New Satellite Newsgathering Technology on Newsgathering from Remote Locations, 2005, pp. 45 - 62. Political Communication, vol 22, no 1. With Douglas Van Belle.

Strange Bedfellows: The Emergence of the Al Qaeda - Baathist News Frame Prior to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, Leading to the 2003 Iraq War: The Global Media Debate (In press). Alexander G. Nikolaev and Ernest A. Hakanen (editors) Palgrave. With Lucas Robinson.

Steven Livingston, International News and Advanced Information Technology: Changing the Institutional Domination Paradigm?, Media and Conflict in the 21st Century, Phil Seib (ed), Palgrave, 2005. With W. Lucas Robinson and W. Lance Bennett.

Transparency and the News Media, Power and Conflict in the Age of Transparency, Bernard Finel and Kristin Lord (eds.).

Diplomacy in the New Information Environment, Georgetown Journal of International Affairs.

The New Media and Transparency: What Are the Consequences for Diplomacy? Cyber-diplomacy in the 21st Century, Evan Potter (ed.).

Remote Sensing Technology and the News Media. Commercial Observation Satellites: At the Leading edge of Global Transparency, John Baker, Kevin O'Connell, and Ray Williamson (eds.).

Diplomacy and Remote Sensing Technology: Changing the Nature of Debate2001, iMP Magazine.

Steven Livingston and Todd Eachus. Humanitarian Crises and U.S. Foreign Policy: Somalia and the CNN Effect Reconsidered, Political Communication.

Steven Livingston and W. Lance Bennett. A Semi-Independent Press: Government Control and Journalistic Autonomy in the Political Construction of News, Political Communication.

Clarifying the CNN Effect: An Examination of Media Effects According to Type of Military Intervention, 1997.

Terrorism Spectacle, Westview Press, 1994.

Steven Livingston and Lucas Robinson. Mapping Fears: The Use of Commercial High-Resolution Satellite Imagery in International Affairs, AstroPolitics, 2003.

Steven Livingston and W. Lance Bennett. Gatekeeping, Indexing and Live-Event News: Is Technology Altering the Construction of News, Political Communication.

Background
Steven Livingston is a professor of Political Communication in the SMPA and holds a joint appointment in the Elliott School of International Affairs. He is also a research professor in the Political Science Department, and is a Faculty Associate in GWU's Space Policy Institute. Livingston's research and teaching focus on media, advanced information technology, and international affairs. He is also chairman of the board of the Public Diplomacy Institute, an organization within SMPA he co-founded. He has lectured at the Naval War College, The Army War College, the National Defense University, and has spoken at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the US Institute of Peace, and the Rand Corporation, among other institutions.

Following service in the United States Army and the completion of his Ph.D. at the University of Washington, Livingston joined the faculty of The George Washington University in 1991. In the 1992-93 academic year, he 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 participated regularly in the Cantigny Foundation's "Media and Military" conferences that bring together flag rank military leaders with representatives of the national press corps. He has been an observer of training exercises at sea by the U.S. Navy and by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory at Twenty-nine Palms, California.

He has appeared on CNN, CNNI, ABC's "20/20," and many other news organizations commenting on public policy and politics. His research and consulting activities have led to extended stays in Northern Ireland, Russia, eastern Europe, the Middle East, and East Africa.

Education
Ph.D., Political Science, University of Washington, 1990
M.A., Political Science, University of Washington, 1984
B.A., Political Science, University of S. Florida, 1981