 Meyer earned a bachelor of science degree in journalism from the University of Kansas in 1975 and earned a master of arts degree in journalism from Marquette University in 1998.From 1975 to 1977 Meyer worked as a Sunday edition editor, assistant news editor and reporter for Illinois' Bloomington Pantagraph, and later as a news photo and graphics editor, assistant news editor, systems editor, copy desk chief and reporter for the Milwaukee Journal, now the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, from 1977 to 1994.Meyer, a former adjunct lecturer at Marquette University, is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Illinois, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1996.