Conversations @ Annenberg: Newsmakers, thought leaders and change agents on leadership and the issues they care most about.

Graduate students in Professor Phil Seib’s JOUR 542 foreign reporting class have spent the past semester collaborating with The Pacific Council on International Policy (PCIP), a nonpartisan foreign affairs organization whose aim is to effect change on issues at home and abroad.

Patricia Dean, accomplished broadcast journalist, professor of professional practice and former associate director of USC Annenberg’s School of Journalism, died on Nov. 17 at the age of 72. A lifelong mentor to colleagues and students alike, Dean nurtured and inspired many throughout her career spanning more than four decades.

What happens when 6,595 people, 17 cats and dogs and two rare bonobo apes descend from the sky into Gander, a small town of 9,600 in Newfoundland, Canada? This is the basis of the musical Come From Away, opening at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles on Nov. 28. The play, set on Sept. 11, 2001 and the five days that follow, is a true story of the kindness of strangers and what transpired when 38 planes were diverted to Gander’s airport after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.

Since the launch of the long-form documentary program Impact in 2001, the show’s USC Annenberg undergraduate and graduate student journalists have given viewers an in-depth look at stories happening in and around the region. Now, they’re about to reach an even wider audience.

When the president of the United States disparages journalists and calls their work “fake news,” how should the Fourth Estate respond?

Technology has changed how journalists interact with their audience — instead of having direct access via a television screen or a newspaper, modern journalists need to understand what networked press freedom is and how to navigate the algorithms inherent in a new social media landscape. USC Annenberg Associate Professor Mike Ananny researches the intersection between technology and journalism and discusses how critical it is to understand how they work together.

A bustling Trojan Family Weekend saw USC Annenberg host a series of talks around campus. On Oct. 12 in the packed Sheindlin Forum, parents had the opportunity to hear a spirited discussion among Ben Carrington, associate professor of sociology and journalism, and three panelists, including two adjunct professors and a parent, titled, “Game Face: The rise of athlete activism.”