Contact: Geoffrey Baum, (213) 821-1491
LOS ANGELES, February 10, 2005 – The USC Annenberg School for Communication is establishing the
Leroy F. Aarons Summer Institute on Sexual Orientation Issues in the News, Dean Geoffrey Cowan announced today. The Institute will provide training to college and university faculty in instruction about coverage of sexual orientation and other issues of diversity in the media. The Institute will also develop resource material that will be made available to faculty nationwide.
Cowan made the announcement at February 10, 2005 celebration in memory of
Leroy Aarons, who died November 28, 2004 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 a 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), which has grown to 1,300 members in 24 chapters. He was a founding board member of the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education, a prime source of training for multicultural newsrooms.
As director of USC Annenberg’s Study of Sexual Orientation Issues in the News project, Aarons led research on media coverage of sexual orientation issues. He developed a pioneering journalism course on covering diversity and successfully led the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications to include sexual orientation in its diversity standards for accreditation.
"Roy’s courage and determination helped countless journalists and journalism students," said
Geoffrey Cowan, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication. "We are pleased his legacy will continue at USC Annenberg through this institute that will carry on his work to foster better coverage of social justice issues."
The
Aarons Summer Institute will be based at USC Annenberg’s School of Journalism. Cowan has appointed
Larry Gross and
Félix Gutiérrez to serve as co-directors of the Institute.
Gross, author of
Up from Invisibility: Lesbians, Gay Men and the Media in America, directs USC Annenberg’s School of Communication. He is also the founding co-chair of the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Studies Interest Group of the International Communication Association.
"As issues of sexual diversity continue to merit broad coverage in news and entertainment media, it is critical that faculty have the resources to instruct their students to deal with these issues fairly and effectively," says Gross. "The Aarons Summer Institute will provide both the tools for effective learning as well as a forum for discussion about sexual orientation issues and the media."
Gutiérrez is a journalism professor and co-author of
Racism, Sexism and The Media: The Rise of Class Communication in Multicultural America, winner of the 2003 Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi Medallion for Excellence in Research About Journalism. Previously, he was senior vice president of the Freedom Forum and Newseum and executive director of the Freedom Forum's Pacific Coast Center in San Francisco.
For more information about plans for the Institute, visit
http://annenberg.usc.edu.
Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the USC Annenberg School for Communication 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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