Thomas E. Patterson

Thomas E. Patterson is Bradlee Professor of Government and the Press at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and interim director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.

His most recent book, Informing the News (2013), explains the decline in the quality of news information and what could be done to strengthen it. A past book, The Vanishing Voter (2003), explores the decline in voter participation. His book on the media's political role, Out of Order (1993), received the American Political Science Association’s Graber Award for best book of the decade in political communication. An earlier book, The Unseeing Eye (1976), was named by the American Association for Public Opinion Research as one of the 50 most influential books on public opinion in the past half-century. He also is author of Mass Media Election (1980), which received a Choice Award, and an introductory American government text, We the People.

Two years ago, he was named both Teacher of the Year and Advisor of the Year at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, the first faculty member to receive both awards simultaneously.

His research has been funded by the Carnegie, Ford, Markle, Knight, Smith-Richardson, Pew, and National Science foundations.