14 Facts About Jennings Bryant

Jennings Bryant was Distinguished Professor Emeritus at The University of Alabama.

Jennings Bryant was married to Sara Poteat Bryant for 43 years.

Jennings Bryant received a bachelor's degree in history from Davidson College in 1967.

Jennings Bryant completed his Master's of Divinity work in Communication and Counseling in 1971, graduating from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary with highest honors.

One of the more widely cited articles Jennings Bryant helped author was a large research project on the effects of exposure to the television show "Blue's Clues" on television viewing behavior and cognitive development of children.

Jennings Bryant has been published in other areas of effects research, including Cultivation theory with co-author Dorina Miron, pornography, and video games.

Jennings Bryant has authored, co-authored, or edited 27 books, 77 chapters, 20 scholarly encyclopedia entries, and 78 articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as 129 technical reports totaling over 8,000 pages.

Jennings Bryant was the Advisory Editor of the 12-volume, 5,694 page International Encyclopedia of Communication, which was published by Wiley-Blackwell in 2008 and is updated quarterly.

Jennings Bryant served as a member of the editorial board of 23 peer-reviewed journals between 1978 and present day, including as Founding Co-Editor of the journal Media Psychology, which most recently earned an impact score of 0.618 from SJR, making it the 26th-ranked Applied Psychology journal and 26th-ranked Communication journal currently in print.

Additionally, Jennings Bryant served as a reviewer for work done on behalf of 26 outside foundations, including the National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, the Netherlands Royal Academy for Sciences, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Kellogg Foundation.

Jennings Bryant was a Spencer Foundation Fellow in Formative Evaluation for Children's Television Workshop in New York in 1972 where he worked on research underpinning the creation of new segments and formats for Sesame Street and The Electric Company.

Jennings Bryant contributed writing to several other children's television shows between 1970 and 1980 and created two companies dedicated to the creation of, and consulting for, television programming for children.

Jennings Bryant has been a paid consultant for over 60 major media companies, many of them dealing with children's programming and media effects.

Jennings Bryant has received 67 awards or official recognitions in his career for his contributions to research, service, teaching, and community, including 28 Top-Rated or prize winning conference paper presentations, several Distinguished or Outstanding teacher awards, multiple Fellowships, and over $3,300,000 worth of research grant funding.