Farnsworth is the author of "Spinner in Chief: How Presidents Sell Their Policies and Themselves" (Paradigm Press). He is also author or coauthor of three other books, "The Nightly News Nightmare: Television's Coverage of U.S. Presidential Elections, 1988-2004" (Rowman & Littlefield [second edition]), "The Mediated Presidency: Television News and Presidential Governance" (Rowman & Littlefield) and "Political Support in a Frustrated America" (Praeger), as well as dozens of articles on the mass media, the presidency, and U.S. and Virginia politics.

Farnsworth was a Canada-U.S. Fulbright Research Scholar at McGill University in Montreal during 2006-7.  Farnsworth worked for 10 years as a daily newspaper journalist before becoming an academic, mostly with the Kansas City Star & Times. He has lectured on the news media and elections and led reporter training seminars in India, the Philippines, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Armenia and Estonia on programs funded by the U.S. government.

He received his Ph.D. (1997) and M.A. (1993) in government from Georgetown University, after having received a B.A. (1990) in history from the University of Missouri and a B.A. (1983) in government from Dartmouth College. Before moving to Mason in 2008, Dr. Farnsworth taught for a dozen years at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., where he won three campus-wide teaching awards.