Michael Schudson

Michael Schudson grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, received his B.A. from Swarthmore College in 1969 and Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard in 1976. His first book, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (1978), explains how “objectivity” came to be the central value for journalists in the U.S. Later books examined the role of advertising in American society, how “Watergate” became part of U.S. collective memory, a study of changing concepts in American history of what a “good citizen” should be, and three books of essays on American journalism. Schudson taught at the University of California, San Diego, 1981-2009, and has taught at Columbia Journalism School since 2009. His honors include a MacArthur “genius” fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.