Stephen D. O’Leary, a former associate professor of communication at USC Annenberg known for his scholarship on religion and media, as well as his love of choral music, has died. Suffering from liver cancer, he passed away on Jan. 24, according to his family. He was 60 years old.
USC Annenberg students in an “Advanced Disruption: Innovation with Emerging Technology” journalism class, run by Robert Hernandez, associate professor of professional practice, teamed with a local nonprofit to create immersive stories. Using virtual reality and 360-degree videos, our students partnered with Peace4Kids, an organization working with youth in foster care, to help create these narratives. This is the behind-the-scenes look at the experience.
From the moment he first saw the University Park campus as a prospective undergraduate student in the mid-’90s, JaBari Brown knew he wanted to be part of the USC culture. “It was just one of those things where, I could see myself here,” he said.
Dylan Valley was in Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport coming back from a fellowship conference in Berkeley, California to his hometown of Cape Town when he received an email that his virtual reality film, Azibuye – The Occupation had gotten into the Sundance Film Festival. “I started dancing in the terminal,” Valley said.
Harry Vaughn’s desk was covered with notes for his introduction and the question-and-answer session that would follow the 2020 Sundance Film Festival screening of Whirlybird by documentarian and fellow USC Annenberg graduate Matt Yoka. Vaughn (MA, specialized journalism (the arts)) and Yoka, (MA, specialized journalism) had a lot in common beyond their degrees. While they hadn’t met, or even known about each other before Yoka’s documentary was accepted into the festival, they were both native Los Angelenos, later learning they even attended high schools across the street from each other in La Cañada.
When Megan Jordan travels overseas, packing for her digital life can be tricky. She leaves her personal cellphone and computer at home, and carries only work devices stripped of sensitive data. And when she visits a hotel’s gym, she steers clear of anyone working out nearby because they could potentially download her data.
On Saturday, Jan. 25, the TIME’S UP Foundation and the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative released a new report, “Inclusion at Film Festivals,” which examined the gender, race, and ethnicity of narrative film directors, film festival programmers, and executives from 2017–2019.
When Ivy Schamis began describing what happened at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida on Feb. 14, 2018, she stood up and walked to the door of the classroom on the third floor of the Annenberg School for Communication building.
