Goldman is Associate Professor of Communication and Commonwealth Honors College at University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he has been appointed since 2013. Previous postdoctoral appointments were at the University of Pennsylvania, first at the Institute for the Study of Citizens and Politics (2011), and then at the Annenberg School for Communication (2011-13).

Goldman’s research and teaching investigate the effects of mass media and political communication on stereotyping and prejudice, particularly around public opinion about race, gender and sexuality. He holds a PhD and MA in Communication from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Political Communication from George Washington University. Goldman’s first book, co-authored with Diana C. Mutz, The Obama Effect: How the 2088 Campaign Changed White Racial Attitudes (RSF, 2014) won the 2015 Frank Luther Mott – Kappa Tau Alpha Research Award for the best book on journalism and mass communication. Goldman has published with the New York Times, the Journal of Politics, the International Journal of Public Opinion Research, and Political Psychology.  

At RSF he is working on a new book exploring how people of color understand popular narratives about rising diversity in light of the fact that they will soon become the numerical majority in the U.S., while White people will become the numerical minority. The book is drawing on a media content analysis and nationally representative panel survey with large samples of Asian, Black, Latino, Multiracial, and White Americans conducted by Goldman and an interdisciplinary team of researchers.