Douglas A Van Belle Author

Jenifer Whitten-Woodring is an Assistant Professor of Political Science Department at University of Massachusetts Lowell. Her research focuses on the causes and effects of media freedom and the role of media in repression and dissent. Her articles have been published in The Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Studies Quarterly, and Political Communication. Prior to becoming a political scientist, Whitten-Woodring worked as a journalist in print and broadcast media and received five first place awards from the New York State Associated Press Broadcasters Association. She became particularly interested in media freedom and the relationship between media and politics when she was a journalism instructor and student newspaper adviser, first at Cedar Crest College and then at California State University at San Marcos. To pursue these research interests, she went back to school and completed her PhD in Politics and International Relations at the University of Southern California in 2010. She also has a master’s degree in Radio, Television, and Film from Syracuse University’s Newhouse School. Douglas A. Van Belle is a senior lecturer in Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. His most recent research focuses on the role of the media in the adoption of disaster risk reduction policies, but his publications range from dynamic models of rational choice in revolutionary collective actions to the critical comparison of the concept of science as applied in political science and paleontology. Other areas of research include media freedom, foreign aid, popular culture and politics, and the social dynamics of science as applied to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.