At USC Annenberg, we don’t just cover the news, we make it. “Quoted: USC Annenberg in the News” gathers a selection of the week’s news stories featuring and written by the school's leaders, faculty, staff and others.
T-Mobile Goes for Tweets With Only Unique Super Bowl Ad Online
T-Mobile US Inc. is the only Super Bowl advertiser that took NBC up on the chance to show a different commercial to viewers live streaming the game instead of watching on TV.
Professor Jonathan Taplin told Bloomberg News: "The decision by many of them not to create a unique commercial for streaming viewers is a missed opportunity."
Taplin said online video platforms like Hulu and YouTube allow viewers of an ad to click on the screen and be taken directly to the brand’s website, leading to greater sales.
"That ability to marry the transactional and advertising is pretty powerful," he said. "It’s obviously where the future of advertising is going."
El Super Bowl Is NFL’s Salesman for Growth Outside U.S
As more than 110 million Americans tune in Sunday to watch Tom Brady’s New England Patriots take on the Seattle Seahawks, Mark Waller will be focused on whether fans from Mexico to the U.K. join them.
Waller is head of the National Football League’s international operation, an important growth area for a sport whose cultural dominance ends at the U.S. border. His challenge is to expand the league’s business in countries where fans can’t attend live games, don’t have a home team and are more apt to enjoy popular international sports like soccer.
Bloomberg News quoted professor and Director of the Annenberg Institute of Sports, Media & Society, Dan Durbin, about the lack of international appeal of American football.
“International audiences follow soccer and rugby, sports with constant action and flow, often without the necessity of commercial interruption, not having been socialized into watching this sort of stop/start commercial-break sport, they don’t get NFL football,” Durbin said.
Al Jazeera English is Growing Fast, But Still Dogged by Challenges
Eight years after Al Jazeera English launched as the Arab world’s counterweight to CNN Intl. and BBC World, the Doha-based 24-hour news network, now airing in 130 countries, is still in expansion mode despite a few setbacks — perhaps most notably having three of its journalists jailed in Egypt — and the perception by some that its reporting is biased.
Variety quoted Philip Seib in a story about about the growth of Al Jazeera English from his recent study on Al Jazeera and its effect on world politics.
“It’s a slap by the Egyptian government at the Qatari government, not so much at Al Jazeera,” Seib said. “But this is one of the problems of being so closely identified with the government."
The Christian-Science Monitor also cited Seib's research.
USC Annenberg to Issue Report Cards Grading the Entertainment Industry on Diversity
Indiewire featured the Annenberg Comprehensive Analysis and Report on Diversity (CARD), a diversity "scorecard" for the media industry, including film and television. The report was developed by professor Stacy Smith and colleagues from the Annenberg school to measure the representation of women and minorities, both in front of as well as behind the camera.
"We need a broader look at who is doing well, and who needs to step up their game. The USC Annenberg CARD will do just that," Smith said.
CARD will also examine LGBT portrayals in media.
The Washington Post and The San Francisco Gate also cited Smith's research finding underrepresentation of women and minorities in Hollywood films.
