American anti-intellectualism expert has book review published in Journalism History

GREENVILLE, Pa.-- Thiel College Professor of Communication and Pedas Endowed Chair of the Department of Communication Dane Claussen, Ph.D., continued his academic research on anti-intellectualism in the American media with his recently published book review.

A leading academic on the subject, Claussen reviewed Aaron Lecklider’s “Inventing the Egghead: The Battle over Brainpower in American Culture” for the summer 2015 edition of Journalism History. The journal is published four times a year by the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University.

Claussen is the author of “Anti-intellectualism in American Media: Magazines & Higher Education,” which was based on his 1999 doctoral dissertation. It was the first study devoted to the U.S. news media’s anti-intellectualism since the late George Hage’s doctoral dissertation in 1956. Claussen has also completed various papers and panel presentations at national conferences on the same topic. The two other notable American researchers on anti-intellectualism in U.S. media, whose work was partially inspired by Claussen’s, are Stephen Bates of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Michael McDevitt of the University of Colorado Boulder.

Claussen holds a B.S. in journalism from the University of Oregon. His graduate work includes an M.B.A. in corporate finance and labor relations/human resources from the University of Chicago and an M.S. in mass communications from Kansas State University. He got his Ph.D. in mass communication from the University of Georgia. He has also completed postdoctoral courses in U.S. intellectual and religious history.