Professor Sandra Ball-Rokeach has been elected Chair of the Mass Communication division of the International Communication Association. She is responsible for planning 2004-2005 conference activities for the division, including a program for the ICA conference this year in New Orleans. Ball-Rokeach is the director of the Communication Technology and Community Program at USC Annenberg, and head of The Metamorphosis Project. More about Ball-Rokeach» More about Metamorphosis»

Michael Parks , director of the School of Journalism, was quoted in a April 5 Los Angeles Times article about the increasingly rapid pace of news reporting on the campaign trail. "It's like listening to all-news radio where only the headlines are read," Parks said. "People have the ability to be far better informed through all this technology, but they also have the ability to delude themselves into thinking that 10 or 12 words is all they need to know." Parks also spoke to USA Today April 6 about the media treatment of Tyco juror Ruth Jordan. "One of the guidelines for an editor to use -- and it's similar to that of doctors -- is first, do no harm. There is a public right to know, but we want trials to be successful. It is not in the public interest to have trials redone." L.A. Times story» USA Today story»

30 Erin Auerbach , a second-year print journalism graduate student, has been selected as the $5,000 Art Buchwald Scholarship winner. Her winning essay is titled "Speed dating and other unnatural disasters." The scholarship, sponsored by humorist Art Buchwald, is awarded annually to a journalism major who demonstrates "solid writing skills and a flair for lampooning the fools and foolishment of our day." Read the winning essay»

Felix Gutierrez , a visiting professor in the School of Journalism, was quoted in a March 24 Los Angeles Times article about the purchase of the Los Angeles Sentinel by Danny J. Bakewell, real estate developer and leader of the Los Angeles Brotherhood Crusade. The success of the oldest and largest black-owned weekly newspaper in the West under Bakewell will depend on how well the paper serves its readership, Gutierrez said. "If it becomes only his views, some people who don't agree with him will turn away. And now, they have other sources they can turn to in the black media." L.A. Times story»

Professor Ed Cray's new book, Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie , was featured in the March 29 issue of The New Yorker . The magazine's reviewer called the book a "work of tempered debunking." Cray also discussed Guthrie on WBUR, a Boston public-radio station, and on KCET Television's "Life & Times." "It was that vision of California, the different vision than the Chamber of Commerce put forward, that radicalized him and he became a very major advocate of farmworkers in organizing," Cray told KCET. New Yorker article» WBUR interview» "Life & Times" interview»

On March 12, the 71st anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt's celebrated "Fireside Chats" on radio, visiting professor Norman Corwin told NPR's "Day to Day" that the president was a master of the medium. "His 'Fireside Chats' were not just friendly neighborhood get-togethers. They were substantive," Corwin said. "The choice of that term 'Fireside Chat' is an indication of how shrewdly he used the medium. It was not 'Fireside Addresses,' it was not a press conference, it was nothing but a chat, which invoked the sense of a small group of people sitting around a radio." Listen to Corwin on NPR»

35 Professor Manuel Castells , who holds the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society , was awarded an honorary doctorate March 17 by City University London. Presenter Frank Webster praised Castells as "a prolific author" and "an energetic thinker," adding: "His accounts of 'The Information Age,' his conceptions of the 'network society' and its 'information flows' have rapidly become part and parcel of how we think about our times." Prior to the doctorate presentation, Castells delivered City University's 18th Birley Lecture to a packed audience of faculty and students.

Professor Doe Mayer was one of three USC faculty members presented with the "Remarkable Women" award on March 3. Created to celebrate the achievements and contributions of women faculty, staff, graduate students and undergraduates at USC, the annual awards are a collaboration between the Office of Campus Activities, the Women's Student Assembly, the Center for Women and Men, and Gender Studies. Criteria for faculty selection include achievements in one's field, contributions to USC, commitment to students, commitment to women's issues, community involvement, leadership accomplishment and professional recognition.