As an undergraduate student at USC, seizing the opportunity for research experience should be one of your key priorities during your college career. Being able to engage in real research with a faculty member here at USC can open doors to a wide variety of new opportunities. It can help strengthen your career path and resume, allow you to work more independently, and can give you an opportunity to build meaningful and personal relationships with Annenberg faculty members. Dozens of research projects are conducted by our own faculty each year. The Undergraduate Advisement and Academic Services team has created this web site devoted to helping you establish contact with professors who are seeking out assistance with their own research projects.
Listed below are the current research opportunities available to undergraduate students:
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The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture (IJPC), a project of the Norman Lear Center.
Brief Description:
The mission of the Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture, a project of the Norman Lear Center at USC Annenberg, is to investigate and analyze - through research and publication - the conflicting images of journalists in film, television, radio, fiction, commercials, cartoons, comic books, music, art, video games - demonstrating their impact on the public's perception of news gatherers.
It was founded in 2000 by Joe Saltzman, a professor of journalism at the USC Annenberg School for Communication. Today, the IJPC web site (ijpc.org) and the IJPC database are considered definitive worldwide sources for this subject and are used on a daily basis by scholars, students, and professionals who want to do more research in this area.
Faculty Member:
Joe Saltzman, professor of journalism and director of the IJPC.
Term: All year.
Contact Information: Joe Saltzman (saltzman@usc.edu)
Website: http://ijpc.org
For more information, click here.
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Content Analysis of Popular Films: Examining Character Portrayals
Brief Description: Communication 494, Research Practicum, will be offered by Professor Stacy Smith in the Fall semester of 2009 to assess portrayals of characters in popular media (films). The class will provide firsthand experience in the research process, demonstrating how content analysis in the field of communication are conducted. Dr. Stacy Smith will be leading this investigation and Project Manager Marc Choueiti will be in charge of the training. Training will occur for several weeks during the first half of the semester on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5 - 6:20 p.m. in the ELC (ASC223). Thereafter, students will evaluate programs and collect data during their individual lab time. All inquiries regarding the aforementioned should be sent to choueiti@usc.edu. This course may be taken for 2 - 4 units.
Faculty Member: Stacy Smith
Term: Fall 2009
For more information: E-mail Marc Choueiti at choueiti@usc.edu.
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Research for a New York Times book on Mayor John Lindsay (1965-73)
Brief Description: I am writing one chapter of the book on the Lindsay years and could utilize a researcher to help scour the New York Times archives, Google and Lexis-Nexis for relevant material. I was the City Hall Bureau Chief of The Times during those years.
Paid: $12/hour
Faculty Member: Richard Reeves
Term: Two-six weeks
For more information: rrichcath@aol.com
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Understanding Situations That Can Lead to Critical Job Related Decision in the Navy
Brief Description: This project involves a series of projects designed to help us to better understand situations (e.g., performance related, team related, interpersonal) that could impact decisions by Navy personnel that could impact their careers. We will be coding transcriptions and short videos that highlight these situations.
These situations will then be considered for implementation in a virtual decision making simulation/environment. These projects involve one or more of the following:
1. coding existing transcriptions (and short video clips);
2. literature searches; and
3. assist in survey development, administration and analysis.
Motivated and conscientious students sought. Funded Research.
Paid: Hourly rate based on background and prior work-related research experience.
Faculty Member: Lynn Carol-Miller, Professor of Communication and Psychology.
Term: Fall 2009
For more information: lmiller@usc.edu.