Lars Willnat, MA’91, PhD’92, is the John Ben Snow Endowed Research Professor in the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. His research focuses on global journalism studies, the effects of media on political attitudes and behaviors, and the media in China.
He is currently working on various cross-national studies that explore public perceptions of the role of the news media in democracy, and the effects of political polarization on perceptions of journalists and the media.
His teaching includes courses on political and global communication, media theory, quantitative research methods, and survey methods. His research has been published in journals such as the Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journalism Studies, Mass Communication and Society, and the International Journal of Public Opinion Research.
He is the co-author and editor of seven books, including “The American Journalist Under Attack: Media, Trust, and Democracy,” which analyzes the latest wave of the American Journalist project—a representative survey of 1,600 U.S. journalists working for nearly 600 media organizations throughout the country. The 2022 study reveals evolving demographics and asks new questions about the impact of social media in the newsroom, the role of the U.S. media in the future of democracy, and the growing number of threats journalists have faced in recent years.
During his time at IU from 2009 to 2015, he served as the director of graduate studies in the School of Journalism, chaired several research and personnel committees, was a senior associate at the Research Center for Chinese Politics & Business, and held an affiliate faculty position at the Center for the Study of Global Change.
Willnat is on the editorial boards of several academic journals, including Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, the Chinese Journal of Communication, and Global Media and China. He has lectured and conducted research in more than 30 countries and served as a Fulbright Scholar in Malaysia and South Korea. He has also been a guest professor at leading universities in Austria, China, Hong Kong, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, and Switzerland.
Before joining Syracuse University, Willnat was the director of the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky. He’s also taught at George Washington University and the Chinese University of Hong Kong.