Kevin M. Lerner, Ph.D.

Kevin M. Lerner, Ph.D.

Kevin M. Lerner

Kevin M. Lerner is an Associate Professor of Journalism at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York and Chair of the Department of Communication. His research focuses on the intellectual history of journalism through press criticism, satire, and magazines. His first book, Provoking the Press: (MORE) Magazine and the Crisis of Confidence in American Journalism was published by the University of Missouri Press in 2019. It will be available in paperback in the spring of 2023. He is also the editor of the forthcoming Insights on Literary Journalism, to be published by Routledge.

He has published peer-reviewed research about the editorial process leading to the publication of the Pentagon Papers; how The New York Times established its corrections policy; how press criticism influences institutional newsrooms; and how Spy magazine influenced the tone and process of contemporary journalism. His academic writing has been published in Journalism: Theory, Practice, and Criticism; American JournalismJournalism History; and The Journal of Magazine and New Media Research, as well as in peer-reviewed books published by The University of Pennsylvania and Peter Lang. He is a former editor of the Journal of Magazine Media.

Lerner has judged the National Magazine Awards, the ASME Next Awards and the Columbia Scholastic Press Awards. He earned his Ph.D. from Rutgers University, a master’s in journalism from Columbia University, and a B.A. in nonfiction writing from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to his academic career, he was the founding editor of the website for Architectural Record magazine—where he was part of a team that won the National Magazine Award—and has published journalism in The New York TimesThe Washington PostNew York magazine, Slate, The Columbia Journalism Review, and The Nieman Lab. 

He has taught American press history, mass communication law, and an undergraduate honors seminar investigating the fake news phenomenon and how critics weaponized it to delegitimize the press.

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