Keith R. Sanders deserves more credit than any other individual for the formation and development of the field of political communication as an academic discipline. A teacher and a scholar, he taught and mentored generations of young political communication researchers.

Sanders was born in Benton, Illinois. After receiving bachelor's and master's degrees in speech and psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, he was awarded a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Pittsburgh. As an assistant professor, he taught at George Washington University, but he spent most of his academic career at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale where he established one of the first academic programs in political communication in the country.

The interdisciplinary approach to political communication study and research characterized Sanders's perspective on the ...