Chaffee, Steven H. (1935–2001)

Steven H. Chaffee received his Ph.D. from Stanford University where he studied communication under mass communication icon Wilbur Schramm. His particular expertise was in political communication theory, especially in regard to news.

[Page 96]Chaffee was on the faculty of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1965 until 1981. In 1982 he joined the faculty at Stanford University where he remained until retiring from Stanford in 1999 to become the first holder of the Arthur N. Rupe Chair in Social Effects of Mass Communication at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

A prolific writer and scholar, Chaffee published 13 books and more than 100 journal articles and book chapters. In 1975 he edited Political Communication: Issues and Strategies for Research, an early resource for students and scholars of the developing field of political communication. Among his best-known works was the graduate text, Handbook of Communication Science which he coedited with Charles Berger. Chaffee also served for several years as the editor of the journal, Communication Research.

A recognized leader in the communication discipline, Chaffee served as president of the International Communication Association (ICA). He also spearheaded the development of research for the Kids Voting project, an effort to encourage children to become involved in elections. Part of his interest in these efforts derived from findings that the involvement of children made their parents more likely to vote.

In addition to being named an ICA fellow, Chaffee received the B. Aubrey Fisher Award for service to students in 1992 and the Paul Deutchmann award for research excellence from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication in 1999. In 2001 the American Political Science Association awarded him the Murray J. Edelman Career Achievement Award.