Education

Ph.D., Mass Communications, University of South Carolina
M.A.J., Journalism, Marshall University
B.A., Print Journalism, Marshall University

About Dr. Matthew Haught

Dr. Matthew Haught joined the faculty of the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media in 2013 after earning his Ph.D. in Mass Communications from the University of South Carolina. He specializes in visual communications and teaches design, photography, creative strategy and multimedia communications to undergraduate and graduate students.

Dr. Haught earned his Bachelor of Arts in Print Journalism in 2007 and his Master of Arts in Journalism in 2010 from the W. Page Pitt School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Marshall University. While he was writing for the newspaper there, he was an extra in the 2006 Warner Bros. motion picture "We Are Marshall."

Dr. Haught worked in newspaper and magazines for six years, helped start two magazines, participated in four newspaper redesigns and was front page editor and sports web editor/writer for the now-defunct Charleston Daily Mail for four years in West Virginia's capital city.

His research explores visual communication and social media. He studies how people send messages, what the messages are and what they mean. He also studies the means people use to send visual messages, such as smartphones and emerging communication technology. Dr. Haught seeks to address the new technologies as they are developed and understand how they will affect visual communication.

Dr. Haught is the book review editor for Newspaper Research Journal and is a past head of the Visual Communication and the Newspaper and Online News divisions of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.