ANNENBERG SCHOOL GETS A NEW NAME THAT INVESTS IN JOURNALISM

Recognizing the critically important role journalism plays in a democratic society and USC's role as a leading institution for educating and training journalists, the University of Southern California's Board of Trustees has voted to change the name of the USC Annenberg School for Communication to the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism.

This name change was announced by USC President Steven B. Sample and USC Annenberg School Dean Ernest J. Wilson III.

“Our trustee and dear friend Wallis Annenberg has been advocating for this name change as more reflective of the school's interdisciplinary strengths,” Sample said, “and her arguments were convincing to me and the provost, as well as to the full Board.

“The change emphasizes the centrality of both the School of Communication and the School of Journalism in the overall mission of the USC Annenberg School. It also recognizes the legacy of Ambassador Walter Annenberg, whose early career was centered in journalism, and who recognized that both fields were necessary to the goal of a fully informed and empowered citizenry.”

Wilson and the Annenberg School faculty view the School’s new name as a way not only to provide clarity for their core education mission but also to highlight the “high-velocity momentum” occurring within the school and in the media world.

“We recognize the critical importance of educating and training journalists in the support of a democratic society, and we are investing in new teaching programs as well as expanding the ranks of our faculty with expertise in digital media,” said Wilson.

“Our new name, and particularly the strong support of our primary champion, Wallis Annenberg, both underscores our commitment to journalism and also makes more explicit that we are a ‘full-service school’ offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in communication, journalism and public relations, as well as programs for mid-career professionals. We are continuing to integrate the best of the journalistic tradition with contributions from the fields of communication, media studies and strategic public relations.

“Having all these comprehensive resources together under one roof and networked within this great university and around the world provides a unique perspective on the media world.”

Wilson also acknowledged the pressures on journalism, particularly during the past year.

“The ‘Fourth Estate’ has been under siege,” he said. “As one of the premier educational institutions in the United States to offer comprehensive communication, journalism and public relations programs, it is incumbent upon us to step up and publicly support the future of the profession.”

Organizationally, there will be no change in the governance of the school, Wilson said. The two Annenberg component schools continue to be led by the School of Communication Director Larry Gross and the School of Journalism Director Geneva Overholser. “However,” he added, “this renaming demonstrates that both the university and the Annenberg School are making a major commitment to the role that information in the public interest plays in our modern democracy.”
View the announcement >>

 

DEAN WILSON ELECTED CHAIRMAN OF CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING BOARD

USC Annenberg Dean Ernest J. Wilson III was elected chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting board by unanimous acclamation of the board on Sept. 16, saying in his acceptance speech that “the stars are aligned as perhaps they have not been since 1967” to re-imagine the future of CPB.

“Then, as now, we need to go beyond the present and re-imagine, re-invigorate and expand our inherited vision,” said Dean Wilson, whose responsibilities as USC Annenberg Dean will not change.
Wilson, the longest-serving member of the CPB board, replaces past chairman Chris Boskin, who remains a member of the board. Dean Wilson is an international communication scholar with a focus on the convergence of communication and information technology, public policy and the public interest. He is the first African-American to hold the position of board chair.

“Like Chris, my watchword will be close consultation, inclusiveness and transparency, consultation with my fellow board members, the excellent CPB staff, and with the system as a whole,” Dean Wilson said.

CPB is a private, non-profit corporation created by the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 that promotes public telecommunications services (television, radio, and online) for the American people. Wilson was first appointed to the CPB board by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and re-appointed by President George W. Bush in 2004. During his tenure on the CPB Board, he has chaired the Digital Media Committee and helped launch and chair the Public Awareness Committee.

“The greatest opportunity is that we have truly arrived at a 1967 moment – a moment like the one that happened 40-plus years ago when public broadcasting was first created,” Dean Wilson said.

Factors he cited are a budget increase from Congress, positive discussions with private foundations, interest from local stations, partnerships with national institutions such as NPR and PBS, interest from the White House, and support from both the public and private sector.

“The greatest challenge we face is neither money nor governance – the challenge is that we collectively will fail to seize this unique opportunity to become better than we are, to better serve the American people,” he said. “If there is a common thread to the conversations I have had with all the stakeholders, it is their expectation – indeed their hope and respectful insistence – that we forge a common vision for the future.”

Wilson added that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as a whole is prepared to be a strong partner and a consultative and collaborative leader as it creates a communications future worthy of the American people.

“With the stars fully aligned, we can actually achieve our common goals by re-committing ourselves to accept nothing less than success, because the stakes are so high,” he said. “It is imperative that we pursue and achieve our grand common purpose. And it is truly a grand common purpose. There is probably nothing more noble and grand than to succeed in seizing the tremendous opportunities for public service media in the digital age, and to provide our fellow citizens with the fruits of non-commercial media, which they so richly deserve.”

Serving on the CPB board can help advance the visibility of USC and the Annenberg School. "It demonstrates once again Annenberg's commitment to public service and information in the public interest," he said. "These are two vitally important priorities of this School."
Read the CPB press release >>
Read Broadcasting & Cable's Q&A with Dean Wilson >>

LEADING EXECUTIVES EXAMINE LONG-TERM FUTURE OF MEDIA

Two leading media architects visited USC Annenberg on Sept. 24 for a conversation with communication professor Jonathan Taplin about the long-term future of media in the digital age.

The event, "The Art of the Long View: The Media Company of 2020" with Peter Chernin and Gordon Crawford, was the first in a new series of conversations on the future of media. Taplin’s discussion with Chernin, former News Corp. president, and Crawford, managing director of Capital Group, attracted students, faculty and a live Internet audience for a discussion about the uncertainties of the ever-evolving American media industry and the business models that have and will define it.

“When we first started talking about this series, the point that I had was that it seemed to me most of the media investment conferences that the three of us go to focus very much on the next two quarters or the next two weeks, as Gordon says,” Taplin said. “And so we thought it would be helpful at an institution like Annenberg to have a long view of this. And so today, I’m really pleased to have our first two guests to really think about what the media company of the next 10, 15 years is going to look like.”

Chernin, Crawford and Taplin agreed the constant improvements to the quality, speed and cost of digital media signal an obvious overhaul to the current status quo.

“There’s enormous value creation going on,” Crawford said. “Google did not exist in January, 1999, and it’s got a $160 billion market cap and next year it’s going to have $26 billion of advertising revenues go through their system. That’s more than ABC, NBC and CBS combined.”

He said that, for example, the recording music business has been cut in half, while Apple has thrived, in large part because of its popular iPod music devices.

“The money hasn’t gone away, it’s just been reallocated,” he said.

There will be vast amounts of news-related information, Chernin said, but The New York Times, CBS or ABC won’t be paying for 37 news bureaus around the world.

Crawford said the concept of a physical newspaper being delivered daily is outdated, but the need for journalism is not.

“We’re going to live in a world where the news is instantaneously updated, and it’s going to come to you on your Kindle or your Apple Tablet or your computer screen,” Crawford said. “Is it going to be the local news reporter, the sports reporter of the LA Times, or is it going to be ‘ESPNLosAngeles.com’ that people get up in the morning and read?”

Taplin said he doesn’t want to defend the piece of paper news is printed on, but he does defend that a trusted group of editors and writers can be paid to deliver news.

“(Economic) models will evolve because people today are consuming more news than they ever consumed, they’re listening to more music than they ever listened to, and they’re watching more video than they did,” Crawford said. “But the business models are going to change.”

Chernin said it won’t happen overnight.

“I actually think it is the most exciting time to enter the media business,” Chernin said. “And I think there will be more jobs than there have ever been, I think there will be more opportunities, I think there will be more challenges. I think it will be much harder than when I did it. I think it’s the most exciting time in the world to be 23 years old. I think it’s a world of limitless opportunities, of incredible intellectual challenges, and a great many more jobs than ever existed. There’s so much more content being created and produced.”

“… There’s an entire world of new opportunities that are going to be created outside of these traditional media businesses. And they’re going to be extraordinary, and if I were you I would suggest that this should be a time of incredible optimism.”

Crawford said journalism students should not get dour outlooks on the current media business model confused with their future jobs as journalists.

“What you do as a journalist is one of the most important professions that we have,” Crawford said. “You cannot have a functioning democracy, you cannot have a functioning democracy at all in a city like Los Angeles, which is one of the most multicultural places in the world, without the spotlight of great journalism. It’s critical – if the Los Angeles Times goes down, or if the business model doesn’t work, we need somebody at the L.A. school board, and at the (Department of Water and Power). You need that in a democracy. And we need great journalism.”

“Real journalists are critical to our society and models will evolve for your work to get out there and it’s an extremely important function in our society,” Chernin continued.

Regarding a potential economic model to sustain the delivery of media content in a digital world, Taplin proposed a concept that intrigued both Chernin and Crawford. He pointed to the music publishing business, which pays a license fee to BMI and ASCAP for the rights to play songs.

“What would be wrong with assessing a global copyright license fee at the ISP level of three or four bucks a month and pulling it all in and just like ASCAP and BMI buy sampling first and then eventually buy the routers reading the actual watermarks of everything and doling it out amongst the people who own copyrights?” asked Taplin, adding that the current 1 billion and projected 2 billion broadband users would create a huge pool of money.

“It would be fantastic for the media industry,” Chernin said. “Whether or not it’s politically viable is a different question, but it would be a great thing for the media business.”

“I’ve never really thought about it or heard it proposed and don’t know quite how it would work,” Crawford said.

Crawford explained the differences between the time he entered the field and today, the periodic revolutions in technology have determined the present and future of that world.

“When I came into the business in ‘72, the existing media business was an incredibly attractive business to invest in,” Crawford said. “From 1972 to 1995, it was pretty much like shooting fish in a barrel investing in the media business … There were really no threats to them.”

But he said times are different now.

“It’s critical when you look at the way people consume entertainment and information, it’s critical to understand technology,” Crawford said. “Technology has always been what’s driven these long cycles in the media-entertainment business, and it’s very disruptive. It creates enormous wealth for the new ways in which things are delivered and it also creates huge value destruction. And this has been true. … “Every time one industry is hurt, another industry creates vast value.”

Chernin said in the last 10 or 15 years – because of new technology – media companies can no longer make huge profits by tactics such as charging people for an entire music album when they only want one song.

“The power has now moved to the consumer and you cannot protect those non-consumer-friendly business models any longer,” Chernin said.

Taplin said the changes in the tech world that have led to upheavals in corporate-driven media are not always well-received by these companies; Chernin concurred, saying big media companies protect their “non consumer-friendly business models” because of issues of self-preservation, but added the world of such models may be forever changed.

“I don’t know whether it’s over – I think that may be slightly hyperbolic,” said Chernin, referring to the DVD industry. “…Frankly, in some ways I think the bigger change than Netflix and certainly a bigger change than Red Box is going to be the transition from hard goods – from owning a physical copy of something - to electronic delivery of these things. I think the easiest way to look at that is, ‘When’s the last time anybody in this room bought a CD?’ I think it’s remarkable how quickly those things go.”

Crawford also said consumers would have more access to media content and that this evolution would be ongoing.

“It’s the inevitable, immutable march of technology,” Crawford said. “… You’re going to have bandwidth that’s multiples faster than it is today, storage is going to cost nothing, and these issues are going to get resolved and people are going to have access to every movie ever made, whenever they want it, either on a pay-per-view or subscription basis and you’ll be able to get it on your television, on your Apple tablet, on your iPhone and it’s going to be a great world. And the industry will adjust to it, but that’s where we’re going.”

Taplin used the term “interregnum” – “the old is dying and the new can’t quite be born” -- to refer to the period of discontinuity ahead, and Crawford pointed to two crucial elements that, if implemented, might cause further instability and speculation.

“A couple of the wild cards are if Congress or the FCC imposes a la carte pricing on cable networks then 250 of your 400 channels will disappear overnight because they just don’t have the support to survive,” Crawford said. “And the other thing, which would be terrible, is if piracy goes unchecked.”

Crawford said he is hopeful the prevalence of privacy will change.

“As countries move up the developmental cycle, things like rule of law begin to come in,” Crawford said. “They’re beginning to develop their own film industry, and the Chinese actors and actresses and screenwriters don’t want to get it stolen. I think over the next 20 years China will crack down on the guy on the corner and a legitimate market will develop.”

Taplin asked if the television world would look very different over the next decade, with niche networks, cable restrictions and pay walls facing off over revenue and audience priorities. Chernin agreed that it was “not going to happen overnight,” but that the matter should be studied closely.

“I think it is the single-biggest question facing the industry,” said Chernin, adding that huge companies such as News Corp., Time Warner, Disney and Viacom are essentially cable companies because that is where most of their profit comes.

“Are consumers going to go, ‘Wait a second. This $120 a month that I’m paying for 400 channels when I want to watch 10 or 15 of them?’” Chernin said. “Will that sustain?”
View the discussion online >>
Read NY Times coverage of the event >>

CROWD-FUNDED JOURNALISM COMES TO LOS ANGELES AS SPOT.US PARTNERS WITH USC ANNENBERG

Spot.Us, the community funded journalism project founded less than a year ago in San Francisco, announced it is expanding to Los Angeles through a collaboration with USC Annenberg’s School of Journalism.

The USC Annenberg partnership, which will integrate Spot.Us’ innovative news delivery method with the journalism academy and strengthen ties to the local media community, is made possible by additional funding from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, one of the original backers of the project. Among other things, the grant will fund local staff to coordinate freelancers and publications in the Los Angeles area and further site development.

"We've had a lot of success in the Bay Area, and we want to be a network for community journalism, not just a single city site," said Spot.Us founder David Cohn. "We are committed to civic journalism because that is what has been hit the hardest, and to really cover civic issues, you have to be local. The partnership with USC gives us the perfect opportunity to work in another city taking all we have learned and built in San Francisco."

A pioneer in community-funded journalism, Spot.Us is the only “crowd-sourced” Web site that focuses on local, long-form reporting. Visitors to the site may choose to donate money to support investigative reporting into an issue of their choice. Once completed, the reports are solicited for distribution through local media outlets – If no outlet is found, the story is posted on the Spot.Us site. If wider distribution is found, the story is sold to the outlet and the donation is refunded. By encouraging partnerships with other news organizations, the project expanded the readership of its stories beyond the site, collaborating with national news giants like The New York Times and local organizations including The Oakland Tribune and radio station KALW.

Launched in November of 2008 after being selected a winner of Knight Foundation’s "Knight News Challenge," over 800 people have funded more than 30 projects on Spot.Us with an average donation of just over $40. The site has also received support from local foundations like the Full Circle Fund. “Knight Foundation funded – and continues to fund – Spot.Us because it uniquely combines local investigative journalism with Web 2.0 technology," said Gary Kebbel, journalism program director at the Knight Foundation.

Stories funded by Spot.Us cover the gamut of community concerns, from environmental to budgetary to cultural. "Breaking the Wall of Silence" is an investigative report into the civilian oversight of police in Oakland. A story from the City Budget Watchdog series, "A Tale of Two Zip Codes," examined diminishing anti-poverty programs in the Tenderloin neighborhood. One popular story, "Follow the Trash," which details where a local community's recycling goes after pick up, turned into a collaboration with San Francisco magazine, allowing those who helped fund it to reinvest their money in other stories.

"With traditional journalism models facing economic challenge, it's clear that we must find new ways to support the critically important work of journalism. Spot.Us represents a new way to ensure that communities get the stories that matter most to them," said School of Journalism director Geneva Overholser.
Visit the Spot.Us Web site >>

INCOMING J-SCHOOL STUDENTS "TWEET" THEIR WAY AROUND LOS ANGELES

Incoming first-year graduate journalism student reporters spent one day during their orientation busing, walking and "tweeting" around various sections of Los Angeles — from Skid Row to the La Brea Tar Pits to Watts — as part of an orientation assignment at USC Annenberg.

Groups of about 10 students split up into eight groups to get a feel for the city and become familiar with using the social networking Web site Twitter as a reporting tool. They tweeted about what they saw and how they enjoyed the experience during a six-hour period of time. Their first assignment was to write an online news story.

"I hope our students got a sense of the vibrancy and rich diversity of Los Angeles," School of Journalism Director Geneva Overholser said. "Even for long-time Angelenos, this great city offers an unparalleled range of experiences."

Elizabeth Geli (M.A., Specialized Journalism '10, Twitter: @elizgeli), who sent out 12 tweets from the La Brea Tar Pits, said she is a huge believer in the power of Twitter and enjoyed being able to share her experiences with her future classmates.

"When I returned from the tour Geneva Overholser already knew about my experience and discussed with me a specific quote that I had tweeted," Geli said. "That is a kind of amazing communication that would never have happened without Twitter. It connects people in new and positive ways."

Said Overholser: "It was thrilling to see the tweets, full of interesting and engaging observations. All of us in the Journalism School office were exclaiming to one another, laughing and shouting with delight: 'Did you see this video? Did you see that twitpic?' I’m so grateful to our colleagues who put these terrific experiences together."

Students were also able to instantaneously see their peers' updates from Skid Row, downtown, the La Brea Tar Pits, Watts, gang rehabilitation and job training group Homeboy Industries, Little Ethiopia, LA Live, and a tour of the LA transit system's various stops.

"We exposed grad students to some of the top issues and personalities in Los Angeles," said journalism professor Alan Mittelstaedt, who led his group around Los Angeles and Hollywood during a tour of the LA transit system. "Like the rest of us, they came back amazed in most cases and shocked in others."

LeTania Kirkland (M.A., Print Journalism '11 @letaniakirkland) said she always wanted to know more about Homeboy Industries, and this was her opportunity to find out more about it from its director, Father Gregory Boyle.

"It was a great experience," Kirkland said. "Father Boyle had lots of interesting things to say in regards to gang intervention and what works and what helps. He's interested in helping former gang members find jobs and get their lives back on track."

Piya Sinha-Roy (M.A., Print Journalism '11 @PiyaSRoy) said exploring Little Ethiopia was the perfect way to cap her first week in the United States after moving from England.

"The last couple of days have been spent listening to lectures at orientation," Sinha-Roy said. "All of us students are in the same boat. We got to know each other, but also did our own reporting. We all enjoyed ourselves, and got out of our comfort zones. We were initially nervous about exploring an unknown area, but within a half hour we were settled and comfortable."

She also said she was surprised by the easy usability of the buses in Los Angeles.

"It is no different from London's buses," she said. "I was stunned by the preconceptions everyone has about Los Angeles public transportation."

Jason Ma (M.A., Specialized Journalism '10), who was part of Mittelstaedt's group touring public transportation, also was surprised about the aesthetics of the public transportation system.

"It was good to get off campus and into the city," Ma said. "The subway trains were comparable to the ones I've seen in Washington D.C. and other places."

Evan Pondel (M.A., Specialized Journalism '10 @epondel), who explored the Watts area, said he had never been to the area even though he grew up in Los Angeles.

"You always hear about Watts as being a dangerous place with lots of gang activity," said Pondel, who is still wary about diving into the world of Twitter. "It was such a pleasant day. It was hard to imagine any gang activity there. It was such a contradiction to the way it's portrayed in movies."

He also said he is inspired to go back and learn more and report on what he sees.

"I now have a sense of the geography and will feel comfortable going there," he said. "The trip showed us as reporters how much interesting material there is. It's an area ripe with stories."

Janine Rayford (M.A., Print Journalism '11 @JanineRayford) shared Pondel's uneasiness about Twitter and excitement for learning more about Watts.

"People from the community were speaking so positively about their neighborhoods," Rayford said. "These people live there and are the real experts on their area. I loved learning from them. The worst part, though, was seeing a massive hospital (Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital) closed down and just taking up space. The area has challenges to deal with that many don't know about."

Heather Hope (M.A., Broadcast Journalism '11 @HOPE4Heather) took a tour of LA Live, which she said she would never have been able to do with friends or family. She got a behind-the-scenes look at places such as the Grammy Museum, Staples Center and Nokia Theatre.

"We took the DASH to downtown," said Hope, explaining that it only cost 25 cents to ride and was a fast trip to the heart of the city. "I didn't even know what that was until today. The whole experience throughout the day was great because it opened up new places for future story ideas."

She also said it helped ease her concerns about using Twitter.

"Before I didn't want to let everyone know what I was doing," she said. "It's great to use when referring to a story. I was apprehensive before, but will update a lot more now."

Skid Row in downtown is a place most people in Los Angeles have never wanted to visit, but Specialized Journalism student Lauren Whaley (@laurenwhaley) said she was thrilled to explore the area.

"I was hoping to visit Watts," said Whaley, who explained that the students learned the area they would visit by random numbering earlier in the day. "Skid Row was my second choice, and I'm very grateful for the chance to go and dispel the myth that this is a scary place. It's not somewhere I would have ever gone to explore on my own, so it was extra gratifying."

Whaley and her group, led by journalism professor Marc Cooper, talked to former journalist and current Lamp Community director of public policy Anat Rubin about issues affecting people who are homeless.

"Her thesis was that if you provide people with housing, other issues can start to be worked on like mental health issues and drug use," Whaley said.

All of the students interviewed, including those such as Hillel Aron — (M.A., Online Journalism '11 @hillelaron) who grew up two blocks away from the Little Ethiopia he visited — said they saw new places and learned new things.

"It was good to see some of the students who lived in LA their whole lives see new parts of the city," Cooper said. "It helps confirm our rationale for doing this. USC students are like everyone else in that most people live in their self-enclosed world. This helped them see new things and think about new stories."

Shotgun Spratling (M.A., Print Journalism '11 @BlueWorkhorse), who toured downtown with journalism professor Sandy Tolan, said one of the most interesting encounters of the day occurred on the 10-minute bus ride downtown.

"I didn't come into the day with any expectations," Spratling said. "It turned out awesome getting points of view and stories from different people. I enjoyed the whole day because each speaker was passionate about the history of Union Station, Chinatown, Koreatown, everywhere."

He is a long-time user of Twitter and other online tools, but said the School's focus on new media is something he has really enjoyed.

"We are a part of the change that is taking place in journalism," he said. "The School is embracing the change, rather than say, 'This is the way it has always been done.'"

Sample tweets from the tour:

• @JanineRayford: Today I saw a national park made of cement, met the mother of humanity face to face and tripped over chains on a slave ship
• @PiyaSRoy: Just had a great chat with guys from under the skin tattoo parlour on pico.
• @Treblalbert: After going thru a slave ship replica,the question is posed to us:why are so many blacks still enslaved in our penitentiaries today?
• @elizgeli: the backstage tour at La Brea was very cool. SO many bones! Heading back to SC on the bus soon!
• @stephrguzman: Lunch group discusses gentrification and "white flight" occuring throughout LA communities. Think Silverlake, echo park, and DT la
• @olgakhazan: Rice left on one important question re: LA gangs- "What do you do about the ones who arent ready to change?"
• @IanJoulain: Getting the grand tour of Watts. Just told that this area was called Mud Town in the 60's

Those who are interested can read more about the School of Journalism's activities by going to Twitter.com and searching "#ascgj09."
Follow USC Annenberg on Twitter >>

PUBLIC RELATIONS COURSES TACKLE EMERGING DIGITAL MEDIA

Ask any public relations practitioner and he or she will tell you that a communicator is only as effective as his or her audience research.

As the media environment has exploded into new digital realms, the ability to build buzz has grown along with it. In a world where a public relations disaster is only an Internet meme away, how can the next generation of PR professionals keep track of their clients’ reputations?

These questions were the driving force behind a summer-long project undertaken by USC Annenberg’s PR faculty to integrate emerging digital media into undergraduate research methods course work. The updated research course curriculum aims to train students to paint a comprehensive picture using a vast range of data sources. (Changes in the undergraduate research course, the first of many social media-driven course revisions now in various stages of implementation, follow an already-completed update of the graduate PR curriculum, which resulted in a wholly new approach to be called “Digital, Social and Mass Media Strategies.”)

“It was a much-needed project, though daunting at first, as there are no real data available on how best to incorporate these new media platforms into the classroom,” said public relations professor Jennifer Floto, who took the lead in reorganizing the Research and Analysis course.

Examining the course syllabus line by line, Floto and her colleagues decided which research techniques were outdated and found spaces for the incorporation of new techniques and means of evaluation. Traditional media audits, for example, were determined to have become a thing of the past.

“While it will be important to show that an article appeared in the Los Angeles Times,” Floto explained, “clients will be asking our students — the practitioners of the future — to know how to do an audit of how their company is faring on Twitter.”

To develop the new curriculum, public relations professors came together for meetings and held conference calls throughout the summer. Adjunct professors Dimitri Czupylo and Sarah Huouh (a graduate of the Annenberg PR program who was named PR Week’s first college "Student of the Year" in 2000), offered personal insight based on their own experiences as current practitioners and past students.

“We’re not here to turn the students into pure researchers,” Czupylo said. “But if they don’t have this skill set, which now must include social media, they won’t have the respect of their research colleagues.”

Floto also incorporated what she learned in a teleseminar that focused on how to teach digital media and the ways in which research is evolving in the digital realm. As all the elements came together, the education plan began to evolve, keeping the same structure but with updated content that both professors and students anticipate will provide a valuable learning experience.

“I’m eager to see how the new curriculum will be incorporated into this class,” said Kirsten Erickson (B.A., Public Relations ’10). “While I’ve worked with social media in my internships, I feel that having a concrete set of research skills within the digital landscape will really set me apart from other candidates when I enter the professional world.”

To give her students an even deeper understanding of online communities, professor Melissa Robinson, senior vice president of digital communications at Weber Shandwick, plans to teach many elements of her course within a global context, providing her students with the skills to understand and communicate with international audiences.

Floto sees great promise in the new curriculum and is confident that Annenberg will continue to stay on the cutting-edge of the fast-changing communication environment.

“Other institutions are just dabbling with social media, but we’re making a big splash.”

NIH AWARDS $3 MILLION GRANT TO RESEARCH NARRATIVES AS WAY TO IMPROVE CANCER KNOWLEDGE

What caused Pinocchio’s nose to grow longer? What was the name of your 2nd-grade teacher?

If the first question seemed much easier to answer, you’re not alone, which is why communication professor and principal investigator Sheila Murphy and joint-principal investigator Lourdes Baezconde-Garbinati and their colleagues will research narratives as a way to learn and retain information about important topics such as cancer. Baezconde-Garbinati is an assistant professor of research at the USC Keck School of Medicine.

The proposal, “Transforming Cancer, Knowledge, Attitudes and Behavior through Narrative,” was awarded a five-year $3.075 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Others involved with the grant include Sandra Ball-Rokeach (co-PI), Ph.D., USC Annenberg; Robert Haile (co-PI), Ph.D., USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center; Sandra de Castro Buffington (co-PI), Hollywood, Health & Society at USC Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center; Chih-Ping Chou (co-I), Ph.D., USC Keck School of Medicine; Dr. Vickie Cortessis (Co-I), USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center; Doe Mayer (co-PI), Ph.D., USC Annenberg/USC School of Cinematic Arts; Dr. Meghan Bridget Moran (Post doctoral associate/research associate), USC Keck School of Medicine; Dr. Laila Muderspach (Co-I), LA County USC Hospital; Gerry Power, Ph.D. (consultant), BBC World Service Trust; Tom Valente (co-PI), Ph.D., USC Keck School of Medicine; and Mariana Amatullo, Art Center College of Design.

This team of medical researchers, script writers, artists, physicians, psychologists, anthropologists, communication scholars and public health professionals will examine and reinvent how health-related information is conveyed. The purpose of the research is to challenge the underlying assumption that the traditional straightforward recitation of the facts is the optimal way to convey health-related information.As Murphy points out, the power and perseverance of a narrative or story structure has been recognized and utilized for thousands of years, but when it comes time to craft health messages designed to convey crucial, potentially life-saving health information, Western medicine all but ignores the use of narrative. The proposed research empirically tests whether utilizing a narrative format might produce a greater and longer lasting impact on knowledge, attitudes and prevention behavior.

The research also questions the assumption of a “one-size-fits-all” message strategy by testing whether narratives may be particularly effective for cultures with a strong oral history, for recent immigrants, for older generations and for populations with low literacy.

“Although the research will focus on breast and cervical cancer, the results have clear implications for virtually all health care communication,” Murphy said. “This research could radically change how health messages are conveyed across different ethnic groups, generations and modalities."

The grant is classified under the NIH Director’s new T-R01 Program that strives to accelerate the current pace of discovery through the support of highly innovative research. T-R01s provide a new opportunity for scientists that is unmatched by any other NIH program. Since no budget cap is imposed and preliminary results are not required, scientists are free to propose new, bold ideas that may require significant resources to pursue. They are also given the flexibility to work in large, complex teams if the complexity of the research problem demands it.

NIH director Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., said the appeal of this and other recent NIH grants is that investigators are encouraged to challenge the status quo with innovative ideas, while being given the necessary resources to test them.

"The fact that we continue to receive such strong proposals for funding through the programs reflects the wealth of creative ideas in science today,” Collin said.

Grant timeline:

Years 1-2:
Focus on understanding existing cancer portrayals by analyzing the frequency and type of cancer depictions on the 10 most popular primetime television programs. To assess the impact these primetime portrayals have on between 10 to 20 million viewers each week, they will work with Hollywood, Health and Society and the television networks to identify upcoming episodes involving breast and cervical cancer. By measuring any change in viewers’ cancer-related knowledge, attitudes and behavior before and after these episodes air, they can determine the key elements that make a story or narrative more or less effective.

Year 3:
Empirically test whether utilizing a narrative format produces a greater and longer lasting impact on cancer knowledge, attitudes and prevention behavior. Four hundred females between the ages of 25-65 with no pre-existing cancer history will be presented with a narrative involving a young woman who is diagnosed with cervical cancer. The same factual information will be presented to another 400 women in the non-narrative control condition.

Because they also question the assumption of a “one-size-fits-all” message strategy, the sample will be equally divided among four ethnic groups – African Americans, European Americans, Korean Americans and Mexican Americans – all of whom are at elevated risk for breast or cervical cancer. In addition to cultural differences, they predict that narratives may be particularly effective for cultures with a strong oral history, for recent immigrants, for older generations, and for those with low literacy. They will add context and depth to these findings by using qualitative techniques such as focus groups and consulting with medical anthropologists to further understand how women of different ages, ethnicities, acculturation and education levels understand cancer, its cause, prevention and treatment.

Years 4-5:
Examine the effect of communication modality to determine which communication channel or channels might produce the strongest and longest-lasting changes in information retention and motivation. More specifically, they will conduct a field experiment in which a fresh sample of 800 females will be randomly assigned to the same cancer narrative but 200 (50 of each ethnicity) will be exposed to the narrative in a print format, 200 in an audio format (similar to radio), 200 in an audiovisual format (similar to television or YouTube), and 200 in an interactive format requiring responses from the individual (similar to a videogame). This design will allow them to test whether the effectiveness of a narrative may vary as a function of channel and whether there is an interaction between modality and key demographic factors such as generation, level of acculturation and education. In sum, each of these methodological tools provides an important piece to the overall puzzle of how to best convey health information to increasingly diverse audiences. The final year of the project will be devoted to widely disseminating the results of the research in both academic and nonacademic venues.

USC ANNENBERG UNVEILS "THE 21ST CENTURY FAMILY OF MAN"

USC Annenberg unveiled its latest photo gallery and the School’s first exhibit presented by a student during a reception at the School on Sept 17.

"The 21st Century Family of Man: Photography as Public Diplomacy" is the work of Master of Public Diplomacy student Paul S. Rockower, and pays tribute to "The Family of Man" exhibition that opened at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1955.

The original "The Family of Man" photo exhibit is a world-renowned photo gallery of nearly 500 photographs from around 200 different artists depicting people of all ages, from all over the world, to demonstrate human commonalities.

“What I’m trying to do here is a little different than that,” Rockower said. “I’m trying to still keep that message that we are all the same. That family is family wherever it is. That faith is the same. That people are the same wherever you go. What I’m trying to do with my exhibit is to bring images of the world here to USC to try and excite people’s interests to see more of the world.”

Rockower, a self-taught photographer, cultivated his talent the last several years during his travels around the world. His goal is to visit 50 countries by the time he is 30, or “50 by 30,” as he puts it. He is only five countries from his goal.

After seeing Annenberg’s photo exhibits World Press Photo and "Cerca de la Cerca," Rockower approached the School about creating his own.

“I boldly declared that I could put something together that would rival what they had up,” he said. “To their credit, they said, ‘Let’s see a proposal then.’”

At the time, Rockower was taking a cultural diplomacy with professor and director of the Master Program in Public Diplmacy Nick Cull, a course that helped Rockower establish the exhibit’s overall theme: to pay homage to the "The Family of Man" exhibit from the Cold War era.

“Through this cultural diplomacy class, I had this idea of trying to take this instance of cultural diplomacy and reimagining it based on my own photographs, and integrate the public diplomacy education I’d been receiving here at USC into something that was an actual exhibit,” Rockower explained. “My hope is that people will see this and will see the colors and the images, and be intrigued and want to go explore more. I’m going to try and get people to travel more and do what I did for a number of years.”

The exhibition is divided into four categories: “The Family of Man” — which is derived from the original gallery, “Children of Man” — which captures young people from all over the world, “Faith of Man” — which seeks to highlight similarities and differences of spiritual life, and “Wonders of Man”— which depicts seven different wonders from the globe including the Sphinx and the Great Wall of China.

The use of "man" in the title was criticized by some when the first "The Family of Man" opened, explained the director of Annenberg's School of Communication Larry Gross at the gallery reception. However, as a tribute to the esteemed collection, a conscious effort was placed in keeping "man" in Rockower's exhibit, he said.

The photographs range from intimate moments to grandiose statues. Most notable is Rockower’s ability to capture raw emotion in his human subjects.

“I think the best way to be a good photographer is to be humble,” Rockower said. “I think you need to be very easy with your subjects. Try to make them comfortable. Try not to be obtrusive. Be respectful.”

The gallery of more than 60 photographs is a culmination of Rockower’s work throughout the last decade. At 18, he took a year to travel to Israel, and after that, there was no turning back.

“I travel as much as I can," he said. "I don’t have a car. I don’t have a TV. My TV is the bus window or the train window."

Since that time, his travels have taken him from Beijing to Cairo, from Buenos Aires to Tierra del Fuego, and back up to Lima.

At the gallery’s reception, Rockower’s mentor and professor Cull praised the collection saying, “I couldn’t believe one person could have the time to go to all these places, let alone capture them.”

USC Center on Public Diplomacy director Philip Seib echoed Cull's thoughts and emphasized the gallery's importance for public diplomacy.

“Paul has done a remarkable job, not just with his technique, but also in the breadth of this collection," Seib said. "It reminds us that images as a tool as a purveyor of diplomacy are tremendously valuable."

In his closing remarks, Rockower expanded on his goals.

"The world is a narrow bridge. But the work that we do through public diplomacy is try to widen this bridge."

"The 21st Century Family of Man: Photography as Public Diplomacy" is exhibited in the Annenberg Gallery on the second floor of the Annenberg School building, 3502 Watt Way in Los Angeles until May 17, 2010.
Learn more about the exhibit >>

SEIB EDITS NEW BOOK ON REDIRECTING U.S. FOREIGN POLICY

Journalism professor and director of the USC Center on Public Diplomacy at the Annenberg School Philip Seib edited Toward a New Public Diplomacy: Redirecting U.S. Foreign Policy, a recently released book with chapters written by experts from around the world.

"This book is designed to encourage policy makers to take a new look at U.S. public diplomacy — to set aside many old practices and embrace new opportunities," Seib said. "The book's authors underscore the breadth of public diplomacy venues and the options digital media technologies offer."

Toward a New Public Diplomacy explains public diplomacy and makes the case for why it will be the crucial element in the much-needed reinvention of American foreign policy.

"This timely volume is a must-read for everyone interested in international relations, new media, and U.S. public diplomacy," said Holli A. Semetko, Ph.D., Vice Provost for International Affairs, Director of The Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning and Professor of Political Science at Emory University. "Philip Seib brings together a distinguished array of experts whose collective contribution is a roadmap for what needs to be done at the start of the Obama era. The book contains valuable insights on the power and limitations of America’s ‘soft power,’ the special contexts of China, Egypt, and Russia, and the diplomacy opportunities in new technology.”

Said R. S. Zaharna, American University, Washington, DC, author of Strategic U.S. Public Diplomacy in a Global Communication Era: “This book is innovative and tackles some of the important — but often ignored — fields that can energize the thinking about public diplomacy beyond its current narrow confines. "The rich insights from the contributors are a much-needed complement to the usual tallying of statistical polling data."

Said Joseph S. Nye, Jr., University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard and author of The Powers to Lead: "President Obama has reminded us that ‘our security emanates from the justness of our cause,’ while Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says, ‘We must use what has been called smart power,' the full range of tools at our disposal. A new foreign policy will require a new public diplomacy, and this important book is tells us how to go about it.”

A Sept. 14 event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. featured several of the chapter authors, including Seib and Nick Cull who serves as director of the USC Master of Public Diplomacy program.
Read more about the Washington, D.C. event >>

BEYOND BROADCAST '09 DRAWS WORLDWIDE PARTICIPANTS

The fourth annual Beyond Broadcast conference opened June 3 at USC Annenberg with a call to “make the local global” – and vice versa – and to embrace both the challenges and merits of new media platforms that have transformed storytelling for the journalist and communication professional.

This year’s theme, “Public Service Media from Local to Global,” focused on the ways local and global engagement and entrepreneurism have been fostered and advanced by traditional and new media practitioners and scholars, many of whom were on hand to present the fruits of their research and field work. Communication scholar Henry Jenkins’ and Annenberg dean Ernest J. Wilson III’s opening remarks can be found here.

The conference’s first full day of roundtable sessions, panels and speakers on June 4 opened with presentations by Entertainment-Education professionals and a keynote speech by communication professor Sandra Ball-Rokeach on “Public Service Media: Three Conceptual Tools.” Ball-Rokeach’s speech, covered the importance of enabling storytelling in individual communities. The world of entertainment in public service, tales from the foundries of digital media startups and the various ways to measure the impact of new media also received detailed attention from the international panelists and participants.

Beyond Broadcast’s second full day brought about discussions about changing lives through story-telling, maintaining editorial quality in a participatory environment, and a host of other topics surrounding local to global public service media and Web 2.0.

“All these things are a journey,” said the panel’s moderator, Michael Kleeman, a senior fellow at the University of California, San Diego. “The one thing I’m very proud that we did here, and this was Dean Wilson's vision, was to bringing a broader number of voices from around the world to the table.”
View archived video from the event >>

ROSENSTIEL DISSECTS "STATE OF THE NEWS MEDIA 2009" AT ANNENBERG EVENT

Tom Rosenstiel, director of the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, presented students and faculty with a portrait of the 2009 news media at a Sept. 2 presentation at USC Annenberg titled “Fighting for Survival: The State of the News Media 2009."

Within the media landscape, the big players of cable, online, network and local television, newspapers and magazines are constantly at war for the attention of the American public. While cable and online media sources come out on top, citing significant audience increases in 2008, battles still lie ahead for these outlets.

“Journalism’s challenge is not fundamentally an audience problem,” Rosenstiel said. “It is a revenue problem.”

Research shows that revenue is down drastically in print media, with a significant increase in cable advertising but a minimal increase in online ads.

“Audiences are migrating online, but advertisers are not,” he said, attributing this trend to the general ineffectiveness of many online advertising techniques in the context of the ways in which audiences access information online.

“The way we read a newspaper or watch a broadcast is dramatically different from the way we interface with information online,” he said. “Online we are hunter-gatherers, not having a relationship with just one news organization. And while a search ad may be complementary to this type of online activity, pop-up and banner advertisements present an intrusion for audiences seeking information.”

While the revenue presents a challenge, a new and dynamic information model presents an opportunity for individual journalists. Rosenstiel described this model as a rapidly flowing stream of information, and journalists that are able to insert their content into this stream will be the most successful.

“You don’t need to work at the L.A. Times anymore to be a significant journalist in L.A.,” he said.

With this new model in mind, professional journalists have lost their status as the only gatekeepers. “We may have a gate here, but the fence is torn down on both sides.”

What Rosenstiel described as the “trust me” era of journalism in which journalists served as gatekeepers has been replaced with a new era of “show me” journalism, in which audiences express their demands of journalists to openly divulge the source of their information and prove its legitimacy. Thus the role of the journalist has shifted to that of the “committed observer,” with the responsibility to be the eyes and ears for their audience.

Adjusting to new informational models and exploring new revenue models, today and tomorrow’s journalists have a formidable task in front of them, one that integrates both journalistic tools along with business sense in the media’s fight for survival.

Rosenstiel also participated in an open forum on Sept. 2 hosted by the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy in which he highlighted his findings and went on to speak candidly about the opportunity and eagerness that exist in today’s newsrooms and within the journalistic community.

He noted that while it may be a daunting task for individual journalists to create their own alternative news sites, there is a unique chance for them to become expert journalists in a particular area, creating “spectacular” outlets that might challenge and eventually elevate the quality of mainstream media.
Watch video from the presentation >>
See photos from the event >>

SUMMIT EXPLORES EVOLVING ROLE OF ARTS JOURNALISM

The first National Summit on Arts Journalism to be “defined and shaped” by the production tools of online interactivity launched successfully at USC Annenberg on Oct. 2 and was streamed live to several locations worldwide.

Conceived of as a “virtual online event” by its co-directors, Douglas McLennan and journalism professor Sasha Anawalt, the National Arts Journalism Program’s summit featured roundtable discussions in addition to multimedia presentations by ten arts journalists vying for cash awards.

“This Summit is a big ambitious experiment,” Anawalt said. “We're trying to start discussions beyond just a one-time conference in a room somewhere.”

Following taped broadcasts of welcome addresses by USC Annenberg Dean Ernest J. Wilson III and School of Journalism director Geneva Overholser, McLennan introduced five of the “showcased” projects – the first of which was the multimedia tool SOPHIE, developed by USC’s Holly Willis, director of academic programs for the Institute for Multimedia Literacy – in videotaped segments. NPR Music, Cedar Rapids Gazette, InstantEncore and ArtBabble were the other projects honored for their innovative approaches to covering the arts.

“It’s time we started talking to each other about the issues that really matter to us, because culture is really important,” McLennan said, adding that “profound cultural changes” were occurring in the arts and he called for a series of ideas to replace the changing ways of covering the arts. “Good critical response to art is always going to be important in some way.”

While rolling Twitter posts by participants, journalists in the room covering the event and from around the globe appeared on screens set up offstage, the summit continued with panel discussions on both the “art of arts journalism” and the “business of arts journalism” in addition to five more project presentations. The summit was also Webcast on ustream.tv and will be made available on YouTube and at the NAJP Web site.

“One of the revolutions here is that the tools that we use to get the word out have become either free or so cheap,” said McLennan, “We’re all broadcasting to the world. So we made a conscious choice to use all these free tools.”

As the journalists and panelists texted and tweeted their thoughts throughout the conference, Anawalt reminded the audience that the focus of art was not just a virtual experience for writers.

“None of us would do this without the artists,” Anawalt said. “And I want to salute them and thank them for giving us the life we all have.”
Learn more about the Summit >>

USC ANNENBERG REMEMBERS ALUMNUS AND USC TRUSTEE HERB KLEIN

USC Annenberg mourns the death of alumnus and USC Trustee Herb Klein (B.A., Journalism '40), who spent more than 50 years with Copley Newspapers and was the first White House director of communications for Richard Nixon. He was 91.

"Herb Klein was a true Trojan," said USC Annenberg Dean Ernest J. Wilson III. "Herb was always a friend of the School. And he became a good friend of mine. His writing and his work made fundamental impacts on many facets of journalism, communication and public policy. His confident character and warm demeanor will live on through the work of our students, faculty and alumni. We will all sorely miss him."

In 2004, Klein received the inaugural Half-Century Trojans Hall of Fame award to honor a lifetime of dedication to USC.

“Herb Klein was a statesman, a journalist, an author and a leader,” said USC president Steven B. Sample, “but if you ask me what impressed me most about Herb, I will tell you: Herb Klein was a superstar in the Trojan Family. I can tell you that all who study, work and teach at USC have benefited from Herb’s generous support and his guidance of our university during his more than two decades as a USC trustee.”

While at USC, Klein was sports editor of the Daily Trojan, writing a column his senior year called “Sports Scribbles.” After graduation, the Los Angeles native took a job as a copy boy for the Alhambra Post-Advocate, and in 1946, upon his return from a tour in the Navy during World War II, he was named news editor. That same year he met Richard Nixon and quickly launched a parallel career in politics, working on all of Nixon’s congressional, gubernatorial, vice presidential and presidential campaigns.

In 1950, Klein accepted a position with the San Diego Union as an editorial writer. He progressed rapidly through the newspaper’s ranks and was named editor in 1959. In 1969 he was named White House director of communications following Nixon’s election as president. He held this position until 1973. He drew upon this experience in his 1980 book, Making It Perfectly Clear, which examined the relationship between U.S. presidents and members of the media through various administrations.

After leaving the White House, Klein served as vice president of Metromedia, Inc. He was appointed editor in chief of Copley Press in 1980, overseeing nine daily and 20 weekly newspapers. He retired in 2003 as vice president and editor in chief of the company and served as a national fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a business consultant, in addition to writing syndicated columns.

Klein, who lived in La Jolla, was instrumental in getting the Super Bowl to come to San Diego three times, and served in a leadership role for the Holiday Bowl. His legacy in the San Diego sports world is indelible.

Klein met his wife, Marjorie (Galbraith) Klein (B.S., Business Administration ’41), during his senior year in an international relations class. The couple’s two daughters and two of their grandsons all graduated from USC. Herb’s brother, uncle and aunt also attended USC, as did Marjorie’s two brothers.

“One of the things I take a lot of pride in is the fact that there have been four generations of my family going to USC,” Herb Klein told USC's Trojan Family Magazine in 2004. “USC is a very big part of our family life.”

Friends of Klein endowed the Herb Klein Scholarship in Government and Political Reporting in 2005 at USC Annenberg to honor his distinguished career. Recipients include:

• 2005-06: Lindsey Davis (B.A., Print Journalism and International Relations ’06)
• 2006-07: Rebekah Sanders (B.A., Print Journalism ’07)
• 2007-08: Elexander Michaelson (B.A., Broadcast Journalism and Political Science ’08)
• 2008-09: Beth Palkovic (B.A., Broadcast Journalism and Psychology ’09)
• 2009-10: Rohan Venkataramakrishnan (B.A. Print Journalism ‘11)

Klein is survived by a brother, Kenneth; daughter, Patricia Root; three grandsons, Tom Howell, Michael Mayne and Christopher Mayne; and three great-grandsons, Nick Howell, Zachary Mayne and Joshua Mayne.
Read a 1973 Time Magazine feature on Klein >>
Read the Associated Press obituary >>

 

KREPS HONORED FOR RESEARCH ON HEALTH COMMUNICATION
Gary L. Kreps (Ph.D. Communication ’79) received the Centennial Health Communication Scholar Award from the Eastern Communication Association in recognition of his groundbreaking body of work examining the role of communication in health care and health promotion.  Kreps holds the Eileen and Steve Mandell Endowed Chair in Health Communication, is director of the Center for Health and Risk Communication, and is professor and chair of the Department of Communication at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

ALUMNA TAKES HELM AT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA NEWSPAPER
Toni Sciacqua (B.A. Print Journalism ’97) has been named editor of The Daily Breeze.  Sciacqua previously served as the Torrance, California-based newspapers managing editor.  In her new role, Sciacqua will take over both the print and online editions of the 65,000-circulation daily, which covers the South Bay and Harbor Area communities of Los Angeles.  Prior to joining the Breeze as as copy editor and designer in 1998, she worked on the copy desk of the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

HOPE HEADS TO EUROPEAN COMMISSION
Stacy Hope (B.A. Print Journalism/International Relations ’98) accepted the position as senior communications advisor at the Delegation of the European Commission. Hope also recently received a Widney Alumni House Award from the USC Alumni Association at its 2009 Volunteer Recognition Dinner.

Michael Halperin’s (B.A. Telecommunications ’55) play, Freedom, Texas, will premiere in Los Angeles this month.

Clarence Brown (B.A. Journalism ’73 and M.A. Communication Management ’87) recently received the Gold Paragon Award of the National Council for Marketing and Public Relations for the best recruitment marketing campaign among the nation's community colleges. Clarence is director of marketing and communication at Mt. San Antonio College, California's largest community college.

Nelson Morais (B.A. Journalism ’78) was hired as a reporter for The Newport Plain Talk.

Sandra Harper (B.A. Print Journalism ’79) will publish her second book Over the Holidays this fall.

Steve Travers (B.A. Communication ’83) published his latest book What It Means to Be a Trojan.

Tom McCluskey (B.A. Broadcast Journalism/English ’85) started his own production company. McCluskey moved to Los Angeles from Connecticut this summer and was married on July 4th.

Toper Taylor (B.A. Public Relations ’85) received a President's Award from the USC Alumni Association at its 2009 Volunteer Recognition Dinner.

Gregory Pollack’s (B.A. Public Relations ’86) article, “Define Your Brand and Sharpen Your Competitive Edge,” was published on September 8, 2009 in the weekly e-newsletter Chief Marketer Report. Pollack is the founder and president of PBM Marketing Solutions.

Katherine Turman (B.A. Journalism ’86) will soon publish her book Louder Than Hell: The Unflinching Oral History of Heavy Metal.

A.J. Kroener (B.A. Communication ’87) was promoted to senior vice president and manager of City National Bank's Century City Towers Banking Office. He formerly served as vice president and manager of that office since 1997 and, before that, managed City National’s Santa Monica banking office. Kroener earlier held commercial lending positions at First L.A. Bank offices in Woodland Hills, Century City and Santa Monica. First L.A. Bank was acquired by City National in 1996.

Janet Metzger (Ph.D. Communication Arts and Sciences ’87) was appointed professor of intercultural studies at Johnson Bible College to set up programs in Urban Studies and Islamic Studies.

Rick Wang (B.A. Social Sciences and Communication ’88) received a Widney Alumni House Award at the 2009 Volunteer Recognition Dinner from the USC Alumni Association.

Anh Do (B.A. Print Journalism/English '89), who teaches News Reporting at USC Annenberg, spoke at a Master's Tea hosted by Davenport College at Yale University in early April. Her lecture was titled: “Chasing News across Culture and Generations.” Later that month, she discussed the emerging ethnic media during a panel at a “Vietnamese American Experience” class at California State University, Long Beach.

Marco Bracamontes (M.A. Communication Management ’90) created an exhibit celebrating Edward Doheny's influence on the Mexican oil industry that was on display at the Aberdeen Exhibition & Conference Center.

Joanna Brody’s (M.A. Communication Management ’91) eco-friendly Southern California home was featured in a New York Times article, “Prefab, High-Concept and Green.” Brody owns and operates a public relations agency based in Los Angeles.

Rizza Barnes (B.A. Print Journalism ’96) accepted the position of director of communications for the graduate division at UC Irvine. Barnes formerly worked as the director of publications in the Public Relations department of the USC Gould School of Law.

Petula Dvorak (B.A. Print Journalism/International Relations ’97) accepted the position of Metro columnist for The Washington Post.

Jae Kim (B.A. Communication ’97) joined the creative group at BET as senior director of original programming, focusing on dramas and comedies, and also developing some non-scripted fare.

Darryl Albertson (Ph.D. Communication Arts and Sciences ’99) was appointed vice president of talent management for Cardinal Health.  In this role, Albertson leads the staffing, organizational and leadership development, and training functions for CareFusion, a medical device company formed by Cardinal Health in the summer of 2009.

Doerte Lindner (B.A. Communication ’00) was named vice president and manager of City National Bank’s Pasadena Banking Office. She oversees the delivery of the bank’s full range of financial products and services, including commercial, consumer and real estate loans; cash management; deposit; international banking; and foreign exchange. She also manages the office’s customer service and business development efforts. Before joining City National, Lindner managed Citibank’s Pasadena branch. As a member of the German Olympic diving team, Lindner won a Bronze Medal at the 2000 Summer Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.
She was a member of the university’s 1997 NCAA championship swimming and diving team. Lindner currently is a volunteer coach with the USC Trojan Diving Club.

José Zavala (M.A. Strategic Public Relations ’01) is the director of global communications for Fox Mobile Group.

Jennifer Holtz (M.A. Global Communication ’04) graduated from Syracuse Law School.

Jonathan Abrams (B.A. Print Journalism ’05) appeared in an installment of “Talk to the Newsroom” on NYTimes.com, talking about covering the NBA for the newspaper and website.

Lindsay Branham (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’05) has spent the last several years living in Africa, working on a feature length documentary about child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Her report for CNN on child soldiers in the Congo can be found here. A short film she directed and wrote about child soldiers in the Congo and a peace campaign she developed can also be found online at www.discoverthejourney.org/paix.

Matt Cassel (B.A. Communication ’05), a former New England Patriots quarterback, has agreed to a six-year deal with the Kansas City Chiefs. ESPN cites him as the only known quarterback to start an NFL game at quarterback without ever starting at quarterback in college. He was a backup during his career with the Trojans.

Elizabeth Newman (B.A. Communication ’05) was promoted to agent at Creative Artists Agency (CAA), working in the TV department.

Zachary Franklin (B.A. Print Journalism ’07) will attend Fudan University in Shanghai, China this fall, where he will be working toward a master's degree in Chinese Economics over the next two years. He just completed eighteen months of Mandarin study at the Academy of Chinese Language Study in Beijing, China.

Daniel Heimpel (M.A. Print Journalism ’07) received an award for excellence in political coverage in print journalism from the Los Angeles Press Club this June at the club’s annual awards. Judges said, “Mr. Heimpel’s thoughtful columns dare to challenge political correctness and the status quo, making him an essential voice in Southern California’s political scene.” Heimpel writes for the LA Weekly.

Laura Lane (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’07) hosts Inside Deal on ESPN.com.

Dave Taylor (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’07) was promoted to the position of producer and editor at ReelzChannel, a cable network reaching 46-million homes nationwide. Taylor is currently working on the shows The Big Tease, The Big Tease on Demand and Secret's Out with Leonard Maltin.  He has launched two recurring interstitials - This Month On... and My Favorite Movie, as well as produced and edited many segments of ReelzChannel Movie News.

Anna Berthold (M.P.D. ’08) works as a technical and multimedia producer and social media strategist for The African Commons Project, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

David Chong (M.A. Broadcast Journalism ’08) was hired as newsroom coordinator at Minnesota Public Radio in Saint Paul. In his new position, Chong works with regional news. He will also continue to freelance as a reporter and producer.

Sana A. Khan (M.P.D. ’08) works as assistant manager of business operations of Canoe Ventures, LLC, a media/advertising solutions joint-venture launched by a group of national cable operators and multimedia companies, namely TimeWarner Cable, Comcast Corporation, Cox Communications, and Bright House. Khan’s position focuses on corporate strategy and management, project management, and external relations.

Theresa Mutter (M.P.D. ’08) works as a program associate with Peace Brigades International-USA, an international human rights non-profit organization in Washington, D.C.

Joseph Popiolkowski (M.P.D. ’08) works as a digital media producer at The Buffalo News.

Hanna Ingber Win (M.A. Print Journalism ’08) wrote the cover story for a recent edition of LA Weekly on Iraqi refugees. The story was produced out of her 2008 USC Annenberg News21 fellowship. Win is currently foreign editor of The Huffington Post.

Monica Alba (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’09) accepted a position as junior fellow for the Center on Communication Leadership at the USC Annenberg School.

Myriam Benlamlih (M.A. Global Communication ’09) joined InterMedia, a Washington, D.C.-based media and communications consulting organization that specializes in international development, where she will be managing projects on the Middle East and North Africa region.

Ned Dannenberg (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’09) was hired as broadcast news producer and multimedia producer for WRDW, a CBS affiliate in Augusta, Georgia. Ned formerly worked as an executive producer and producer for Annenberg TV News.

Daniela Gerson (M.A. Specialized Journalism ’09) received a first-prize RIAS Berlin Commission radio award. The award was for her feature Too Many Geister (Too Many Ghosts), which she co-produced with Wibke Bergemann, and tells Daniela’s story of moving to Germany as the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors.  The commission wrote, "This moving story shows how the past colors the present. It is a unique and fresh look at issues of enduring importance. Personal and engaging in style, the report makes particularly good use of sound." The one-hour German-language radio feature was initially broadcast on Deutschlandradio Kultur in 2008.The RIAS Berlin Commission (formerly Radio in the American Sector) presents awards for media contributions that further German-American understanding.

Jamie Hersch (B.A. Broadcast Journalism/Religion ’09) was hired as a multimedia reporter at WKOW-TV, the ABC affiliate in Madison, Wisconsin. Jamie will be the station's first full-fledged multimedia journalist. She will deliver video reports to the station's website throughout the day and put together stories for the daily broadcasts as well.

Anne Hsu (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’09) works as a producer for KPSP Local 2 News, a CBS affiliate in Palm Springs, California. Anne was an executive producer and producer for Annenberg TV News.

Whitney Mares (M.A. Strategic Public Relations ’09) was the youngest person named to PRWeek's "40 Under 40" in 2009.

Chris McKinnon (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’09) works at KREX-TV in Grand Junction, Colorado as an anchor, reporter, and producer. In his time at Annenberg TV News, Chris was a producer and anchor.

Mark Naylor (M.P.D. ’09) recently accepted a position as foreign service officer and vice consul at the United States Embassy in Monrovia, Liberia. He will be there for two years beginning in November 2009, working in the Consular Section of the Embassy. He will be handling and processing visas, and working in the American Citizen Services division.

Mark Sanchez (B.A. Communication ’09) was the fifth overall pick in the 2009 NFL draft, after being selected by the New York Jets.

Rebecca Soni (B.A. Communication ’09) of USC's Trojan Swim Club broke the world record time for the 100-meter breaststroke at this year’s World Championships in Rome, Italy. Soni swam the 100-meter breaststroke in 1 minute 4.84 seconds in the semifinals of the event.

Anna Trinidad (B.A. Communication ’09) works as an associate producer for KGET-TV, an NBC affiliate in Bakersfield, California. In her time at USC, Trinidad worked as the art director and producer of Annenberg TV News.

Torey Van Oot (B.A. Print Journalism ’09) was hired as the chief correspondent for the Sacramento Bee's "Capitol Alert" blog.

In memoriam
Roger V. Wetherington (M.A. Journalism ’79 and Ph.D., Communication’86) died on July 25, at the age of 67, after suffering a seizure. He is survived by his wife, Andra Miller; son, Brady Miller Wetherington; sister, Janice Evans; cousin, Ora Katherine Smith; and his two treasured companions, Claude Ashby and Mieczyslaw Pawlowski. Dr. Wetherington was a journalism professor at St. John's University in Queens. He taught additional classes in Staten Island, and spent a year in Kazakhstan teaching on a Fulbright Scholar fellowship. He also served as a part-time editor on the weekends at The New York Times. After serving as reporter and editor at the Daily News, he began his teaching career in California at Long Beach State University.