Contact: Geoffrey Baum, (213) 821-1491
LOS ANGELES, November 29, 2004 –
Leroy Aarons, journalism professor and director of the USC Annenberg School’s
Sexual Orientation Issues in the News program, died Sunday, November 28, after a long battle with cancer.
Aarons was a journalist, author, teacher and playwright whose assignments took him around the globe, and whose stewardship of
The Oakland Tribune helped garner a Pulitzer Prize for the paper’s 1989 coverage of the Loma Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco bay area. He also spent 14 years as national correspondent for
The Washington Post, serving as the paper’s bureau chief in New York and Los Angeles.
In 1990 Aarons founded the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association (NLGJA), whose 1,300 members in 23 chapters work with the news industry toward fairer coverage. He was a founding board member of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, a prime source of training for multicultural newsrooms.
As director of the Study of Sexual Orientation Issues in the News program, Aarons led research projects on media coverage of lesbian and gay issues and in 1999, published a landmark study, "Lesbians and Gays in the Newsroom: 10 Years Later." He developed a pioneering journalism course on covering diversity and successfully led the accrediting body for journalism and communication schools, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, to include issues of sexual orientation in its standards for accreditation.
In 1991, Aarons co-authored a radio docudrama with
Geoffrey Cowan, dean of the USC Annenberg School, "Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers." The program won the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Gold Award for best live entertainment program on public radio. It is still broadcast on public radio stations across the country.
Aarons’ book, "Prayers for Bobby," the true account of a family coping with the suicide of a gay son, was published in 1995 by HarperCollins. He is also the author of an opera libretto, "Monticello," about the affair between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, which premiered in Los Angeles in 2001.
"For more than 30 years, Roy Aarons was a close and valued friend," said Cowan. "He was a brilliant, compassionate, and determined reporter, editor, author and teacher whose work transformed both the profession of journalism and journalism education. He will be greatly missed."
Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the USC Annenberg School for Communication (http://annenberg.usc.edu) is among the nation's leading institutions devoted to the study of journalism and communication, and their impact on politics, culture and society. With an enrollment of more than 1,700 graduate and undergraduate students, USC Annenberg offers B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in journalism, communication, and public relations.
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