Dr. Wasburn has been a faculty member at Purdue since 1968. Heis a political sociologist whose research focuses on the characteristics and consequences of news and propaganda. He has published three books on these topics, Broadcasting Propaganda: International Radio Broadcasting and the Construction of Political Reality (1992) The Social Construction of International News (2002) and Media Bias? A Comparative Study of Time, Newsweek, The National Review and the Progressive Coverage of Domestic Social Issues, 1975-2000 (2009). His research has appeared in journals such as Political Communication, The International Journal of Contemporary Sociology, The Sociological Quarterly, The Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Media, Culture and Society and The Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. He was recently appointed a fellow in the Center for Behavioral and Social Sciences to continue his research on measuring political bias in putatively non-partisan publications. His recent graduate course offerings include the Development of Sociological Theory and Seminar in Political Sociology.
