Dr. Donald Roberts

Biography

Donald Roberts received his A.B. from Columbia University in 1961 and his M.A. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1963. He earned his Ph.D. in communication from Stanford in 1968 and became a faculty member in the department, serving as the Director of the Institute for Communication Research from 1985 to 1990 and again from 1999 to 2001. He chaired the department from 1990 to 1996. Roberts teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on communication theory and research focusing on children, youth, and media. His primary research interest is the use and responses of children and adolescents to media, and he has written extensively on the topic, including chapters in several handbooks related to communication and media psychology. He has also published comprehensive reviews on the effects of mass communication in the Annual Review of Psychology and co-authored chapters on public opinion processes. In terms of industry involvement, Roberts has helped design content labeling systems for the media and has served as an educational director for DIC Entertainment. He has been active in promoting constructive depictions of social issues in various media formats and was a planner and panelist at Vice President Al Gore's Conference on Families and Media.

Research Interests