Sean Aday is an associate professor of Media and Public Affairs and International Affairs at The George Washington University. He received his Ph.D. and conducted a post-doctoral fellowship at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. His work focuses on the intersection of the press, politics, and public opinion, especially in relation to war and foreign policy. He has published widely on subjects ranging from the effects of watching local television news to coverage of American politics to media coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has been involved in media and government capacity training projects globally, including in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is currently the PI on a project sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation to study cyber-related issues, and is co-PI of a project funded by the U.S. Institute of Peace, called "Blogs and Bullets," studying the role of new media in protest politics and democracy movements globally. He has been a frequent commentator in the press on news coverage of elections, crime, and war. He did his undergraduate work at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and worked at several newspapers before entering academia.