JOSEPH R. L. STERNE, M.A.
Joe Sterne, M.A.
Senior Fellow
Media and public policy
I teach media studies at IPS so that our students know how newspapers, television and radio stations, and the Internet operate from day to day. With such knowledge, a policy professional is better equipped to deal with the media in the tough, competitive race to get an important message delivered to a distracted public. As editorial page editor of the Baltimore Sun, I had the privilege of determining the policy positions of a major American newspaper. I was besieged by politicians, social activists, business executives, government officials, and others who were eager to push society in directions they favored. I now watch my old profession adapt to the communications revolution sweeping societies worldwide. The Internet is only the latest chapter in the history of human information transfer, a history of smoke signals and hieroglyphics, paper and the printing press, the telegraph, the telephone, and the television industry. Human behavior is being transformed before our eyes, and citizens who wish to make an impact will have to be nimble and knowledgeable in dealing with the various segments of the media.
Joseph Sterne is a native Philadelphian, educated in Philadelphia public schools. He holds an undergraduate degree (Phi Beta Kappa) from Lehigh University and a graduate degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He is a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and enjoys slow jogging, baseball, history, opera, and his family of five sons and 14 grandchildren.
Current Research/Projects
It's Just the Ticket for Presidential Trivia Buffs
