Adams, William C.

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Adams, William C.

PERSONAL:

Single. Education: Baylor University, B.A., 1971, M.A., 1972; attended Goethe-Institut, Brannenberg-Degendorf, Germany, 1972; George Washington University, Ph.D., 1977.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Trachtenberg School, George Washington University, MPA Bldg., 601D, 805 21st St. N.W., Washington, DC 20052; fax: 202-994-6792. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Educator. Rand Corporation, researcher, 1976-78; George Washington University, Washington, DC, assistant professor, 1977-81, associate professor, 1981-85, professor of public policy and public administration, 1985—, faculty associate, George Washington Institute for Public Policy, 1990—, and faculty associate, Center for Environmental Policy, 1999—. Visiting lecturer in government, Georgetown University, 1977-78; director of the Center for Communication Dynamics, 1985-91. Guest lecturer at universities, including American University of Cairo, Cairo University, Coast Guard Academy, Calcutta College of Journalism, Free University of Berlin, Panteios School of Political Science, University of Mainz, Vanderbilt University, Yale University, Baylor University, Autonomous University of Barcelona, Duc Tri College, and Harvard University. Has presented papers at professional conferences, including Midwest Political Science Association, 1975, Southwestern Political Science Association, 1977, Modern Media Institute Seminar, 1979, Southern Political Science Association, 1980, Telecommunications Policy Research Conference, 1984, International Communication Association, 1984, International Society for Political Psychology, 1984, American Association of Public Opinion Research, 1985, World Association for Public Opinion Research, 1986, National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration, 1998, and American Society for Public Administration Conference on Personnel Administration and Labor Relations, 2001. Member of board of directors, Friends of the Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, VA, 1979-85; member of board of visitors, Vanderbilt University Television News Archive, Nashville, TN, 1985-91. Consultant to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. State Department, National League of Cities, Congressional Research Service, Council on Foreign Relations, Reuters, Ameritech, Goodwill Industries, United Space Alliance (Space Shuttle), and National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration.

MEMBER:

International Communication Association, National Association of Scholars, American Political Science Association (member of executive committee, National Capital Area chapter, 1978-84), American Association for Public Opinion Research, Cosmos Club (Washington, DC).

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Fay Schreibman) Television Network News: Issues in Content Research, Television and Politics Study Program, School of Public and International Affairs, George Washington University (Washington, DC), 1978.

(Editor) Television Coverage of the Middle East, Ablex Publishing (Norwood, NJ), 1981.

(Editor) Television Coverage of International Affairs, Ablex Publishing (Norwood, NJ), 1982.

(Editor) Television Coverage of the 1980 Presidential Campaign, Ablex Publishing (Norwood, NJ), 1983.

(With Joann Ellison Rodgers) Media Guide for Academics, Foundation for American Communications (Los Angeles, CA), 1994.

Election Night News and Voter Turnout: Solving the Projection Puzzle, L. Rienner Publishers (Boulder, CO), 2005.

MONOGRAPHS

(With William Lucas) An Assessment of Telephone Survey Methods, Rand Corporation (Santa Monica, CA), 1977.

(With S. Burns) Nationwide LEPC Survey, Environmental Protection Agency (Washington, DC), 1994.

(With M. Morgan and M. Viana) Emergency Response and Preparedness Software: Nationwide Surveys of Cameo, Landview and Tier II Users, Environmental Protection Agency (Washington, DC), 1997.

The Impact of CEPPO's No-Charge Distribution of CAMEO Software: 1998 Survey of Recipients, Environmental Protection Agency (Washington, DC), 1998.

(With K. Newcomer, A. Goldsmith, D. McKenna, and P. Rosse) Student Attitudes toward Careers in Public Service, George Washington University (Washington, DC), 1998.

(With Mark Starik) 1999 Nationwide LEPC Survey, Environmental Protection Agency (Washington, DC), 2000.

Contributor to books, including Book of Waco and McLennan County, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1972; Essays in Political Science, National Capital Area Political Science Association (Washington, DC), 1975; Television Coverage of International Affairs, Ablex (Norwood, NJ), 1982; The President and the Public, edited by Doris Graber, Institute for the Study of Human Issues (Philadelphia, PA), 1982; The Mass Media in Campaign '84, edited by M.J. Robinson and Austin Ranney, AEI, 1985; Practicing Texas Politics, 6th edition, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1986; Media and Momentum, Chatham House (Chatham, NJ), 1987; News for Teachers of Political Science, American Political Science Association (Washington, DC), 1987; Marketing Decisions Using Expert Choice, edited by Robert F. Dyer and Ernest H. Forman, Decision Support (McLean, VA), 1988; Doing Public Administration, 3rd edition, William C. Brown, 1991; Proceedings of the International Applied Business Research Conference, Western Academic Press, 2003; Communication Best Practices, edited by D. Cushman and S. King, State University of New York Press (Albany, NY), 2003; and Television: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, edited by Toby Miller, Routledge, 2003.

Contributor to journals, including Brookings Review, Journal of Communication, Journal of Politics, Journalism Quarterly, Experimental Study of Politics, Journal of Church and State, Public Opinion, Foreign Service Journal, Washington Journalism Review, Policy Studies Journal, Presidential Studies Quarterly, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Star, Baltimore Sun, Free Inquiry in Creative Sociology, Journal of Broadcasting, Political Communication and Persuasion, and Potomac Review. Publisher, executive editor, and founder, Talk Daily (daily digest of ten top talk radio shows), 1995-96. Journal of Communication, former member of the editorial board, and contributing editor, 1983-91.

SIDELIGHTS:

William C. Adams is a professor of public policy and public administration at George Washington University. He has also served as a researcher with the Rand Corporation, as a visiting lecturer in government for Georgetown University, and as director of the Center for Communication Dynamics. His consulting work includes projects for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Department of Commerce, the U.S. State Department, the National League of Cities, the Congressional Research Service, the Council on Foreign Relations, Reuters, Ameritech, Goodwill Industries, the United Space Alliance (Space Shuttle), and the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration. Adams's research has focused on public opinion and the mass media. In such books as Television Coverage of the Middle East, Television Coverage of International Affairs, and Television Coverage of the 1980 Presidential Campaign, Adams has examined the way American television networks have covered a variety of important news events. In Election Night News and Voter Turnout: Solving the Projection Puzzle, he specifically analyzes the effects of television election night coverage on voter turnout.

Election Night News and Voter Turnout covers every American presidential election since 1960. Adams examines the question of whether television network predictions during the night of an election have an effect on voter turnout in areas where the polls are still open. He examines several infamous election night incidents: Jimmy Carter conceded the election in 1980 while states in the far West were still voting; the media predicted Al Gore's victory in Florida in 2000 while voters in the panhandle area of the state still had an hour left to vote. While his research shows that television predictions do not effect voter turnout, Adams still argues that media outlets should be fair to all voters and wait until an entire state has voted before airing their predictions. "Adams has put together a remarkable and persuasive collection of studies on an important issue, using a unique, multimethod approach that sets a great example for scholarship," Trevor Tompson wrote in the Public Opinion Quarterly. Thad E. Hall, reviewing the book for the Presidential Studies Quarterly, called it "a short but insightful book" and found that "there is no doubt that election projection controversies will continue into the future, which will make this volume a valuable resource for some time."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, December 1, 2005, Philip Meyer, review of Elec-tion Night News and Voter Turnout: Solving the Projection Puzzle.

Presidential Studies Quarterly, June, 2006, Thad E. Hall, review of Election Night News and Voter Turnout, p. 331.

Public Opinion Quarterly, summer, 2006, Trevor Tompson, review of Election Night News and Voter Turnout, p. 269.

Reference & Research Book News, August, 2005, review of Election Night News and Voter Turnout, p. 169.