John worked as a foreign correspondent in Central America and the Caribbean for nearly 10 years. He served as bureau chief in San Salvador, regional correspondent in Mexico City, and foreign editor in Washington, D.C. for United Press International during the 1980s. Newhagen’s research on the effects of emotion in television and on the Internet have been published widely in a number of leading academic journals. Newhagen holds a bachelor’s degree in Latin American Studies and a Master’s degree in Journalism at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a Ph.D. in communication at Stanford University. He came to the University of Maryland to teach in the College of Journalism in July of 1990 and was named Associate Professor Emeritus during the summer of 2014.