USC Annenberg News

Network Culture Project awards over $1 Million Lindens for “Second Life and the Public Good Community Challenge”

July 3, 2008 14:08

USC Annenberg’s Network Culture Project awarded more than $1 million Linden dollars – the currency used in the virtual world Second Life, which is approximately $4,000 in U.S. dollars – to the three winners of the “Second Life and the Public Good Community Challenge.”

During the past two weeks, five finalists selected from 27 initial entries have worked in Second Life to create spaces devoted to philanthropic causes. Each team has also advocated for additional funding, encouraging visitors to vote in support of their project. It was made possible with support from the MacArthur Foundation.

“Under the leadership of principal investigator Doug Thomas we’ve spent the last year exploring the affordances of virtual worlds," project manager Tori Horton said. "This community challenge is just one example of opportunities that leverage what happens in the virtual world to directly impact the physical world."

Said Thomas: “We were deeply impressed by the scope and capability of the projects that came in," adding that proposals were judged based on two criteria – unique uses of the abilities and affordances of Second Life and real world potential for impact.

Each of the top three community-supported teams will receive $300,000 Linden dollars and virtual "land" in Second Life through the end of 2008. With a total of 409 votes counted, the three winning teams - in no particular order – are Ability Commons, Native Lands Cultural Outreach, and Texas Obesity Research Center. Their projects are as follows:

Ability Commons: A virtual space dedicated to providing support for those living with disabilities. The purpose of the project is to provide a space for educating people about a wide range of disabilities, and to provide a common safe space for discussion and socialization.
Native Lands Cultural Outreach: The Native Lands project will work to develop a comprehensive virtual community in Second Life for native groups throughout the world. The project will provide educational information and social services to support the community.
Texas Obesity Research Center: The Texas Obesity Research project plans to create a virtual space for discussion and education about issues related to, and treatment of, obesity. By removing physical barriers, the project hopes to education in a neutral environment.

In addition, the Network Culture Project will provide additional support to the remaining two finalists. They will each receive $50,000 Linden and virtual land in Second Life to continue development of their projects.

“What an opportunity for all of us to be in the midst of this chance to help drive really disruptive innovation, to drive the kind of change that we’ll all look back on, you know, a decade from now and say, ok, that’s when virtual worlds really started changing the real world,” Second Life co-creator and USC Annenberg spring 2008 lecturer Cory Ondrejka said. “That’s when virtual worlds really started impacting the real world.”

Network Culture Project
MacArthur Foundation

Kun receives Casden Grant to produce groundbreaking musical study

July 2, 2008 16:47

Communication professor Josh Kun is the recent recipient of a $10,000 Casden Institute Faculty Research Grant for his proposal to document African American and Jewish relations in 20th century American life. The project will take the form of a musical anthology, tentatively titled “Go Down Moses: The Secret Musical History of Black-Jewish Relations,” and Kun will produce the study.

“This particular CD project will explore the myriad ways Jews and African-Americans have coalesced, clashed, mobilized, and struggled with each other but through a century’s worth of extraordinary and fascinating musical performance that finds Jews performing black music and African-Americans performing Jewish music and appealing to Jewish audiences,” Kun said. “I believe that the project speaks directly to innovations in the study of Jewish life in the context of multi-racial and multi-ethnic America.”

The CD itself will be released by Reboot Stereophonic, a nationally acclaimed non-profit record label Kun co-founded in 2004 that is dedicated to excavating lost treasures of Jewish-American musical history and re-examining dominant narratives of Jewish-American identity. The label's motto, "History sounds different if you know where to start listening," relates to its mandate of creating musical conversations "otherwise impossible in daily life," according to the label's website.

Kun said he hopes Reboot Stereophonic will do this by "unearthing lost classics from the archive, sounds that are languishing in thrift-store crates across the nation," thereby enabling new stories that accompany them to be told: "hybrid identities, eclectic communities, racial dialogue, and pioneering musical style." He said he plans to use the study to help relate to a greater social agenda.

"Indeed, this CD project understands the question of being ‘Jewish in America' as inseparable from the pluralistic and hybrid mix of American culture and society," Kun said.

Casden Institute Faculty Research Grant
More on Kun

Cole "hits home run" on Fox Business Channel's Glick Report

July 1, 2008 19:14

Jeffrey Cole, director of the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future, “hit a home run” on the Fox Business Channel’s July 1 Glick Report (including links to video), according to the program’s host, Alexis Glick.

Cole’s appearance on the show gave Glick cause to write about “why he was so terrific and the subject so interesting” on Fox Business’ blog as he talked about television and the digital future, and why both TV and print media will flourish in spite – and because – of recent advances in the Internet.

“Newspapers face the biggest challenge,” he said. “But they also face the greatest opportunity. They are back in the breaking-news business. Now for the first time, The New York Times is television. It’s live, it’s audio, it’s video, it competes like never before.”

He had similar news for TV.

“Even though the convention wisdom is that television is going away,” Cole said, “in a broadband world, television is poised for an era of extraordinary growth. A radical shift. It’s not going to be one static environment. The importance of television is only growing.”

Cole pointed to the proliferation of mobile devices that encourage users to watch shows and movies that can be taken anywhere. He also described the impact of changes in advertising that are being pioneered online, in particular the way online companies such as Google transformed advertising by creating a focus on the active consumer.

“More players are getting in,” Cole said. “We think it’s going to be through advertising. Now you only have to pay for the people who express an interest in your product. We think the Web as it moves to television gives advertisers opportunities they never had before.”

Cole also debunked the fears that an increase in ease of access in creating and posting Internet content would glut the online markets with too much non-professional, low-quality product. He said that professional content would always rise above amateur content and that users would be able to tell the difference.

On-air, Glick invited Cole to return to the show.

“Loved the topic,” Glick wrote following the interview. “Jeff was a 10.”

More (including video)
More on Cole

Dean Wilson announces “3-I’s Fund” recipients

July 1, 2008 14:50

Dean Ernest J. Wilson III announced eight project recipients of his “3-I's Fund,” which is funded by a $1 million donation from USC Trustee Wallis Annenberg and designed to advance research related to the new “innovation, internationalization and impact” initiative at the USC Annenberg School.

“Our first call for proposals this spring generated an impressive number and variety of proposals, making the selection a challenge,” associate dean for planning and strategic initiatives Carola Weil said. “We are very excited about this first step in our effort to translate the 3-I's into concrete programs.”

This is the first round of recipients, and another round of proposals is due from USC Annenberg faculty and center directors by Sept. 8.

USC Annenberg faculty and center staff presented brief research proposals that would advance the goals of the fund by further incorporating student participation, inter-disciplinary and school integration, and opportunities for the use of new media and distance education.

“I am thrilled that USC Annenberg is making these paid research opportunities available for students in the master's in communication management program,” said communication professor Janet Fulk, who received a grant to explore new course options for the global communication master’s degree program. “This grant offers a very beneficial learning experience for these students.”

Said journalism professor Joe Saltzman, whose proposal involved further research into the social standing of war correspondents in popular culture: “Currently there is no research in this field. This would offer researchers and scholars around the world basic research and would be the first research and visual evidence of the image of the war correspondent in popular culture done on the subject."

3-I's Fund recipients:

Sandra Ball-Rokeach, Bill Celis , and Willa Seidenberg for “South Los Angeles Project”
Janet Fulk for “New Course Development for the Global Communication Master’s Degree Program”
Tom Goodnight , Laura Castañeda and Coleen Keough for “Support for the Investigation and Creation of a School-wide Undergraduate Honors Program”
Margaret McLaughlin, et al. for “Plan for Developing the ASC Health Communication Program”
Larry Pryor for “Seed Funds for Development of Tools for Environmental Journalism”
Phillip Rodriguez for “Sí Se Puede?: The Battle for Latino Votes”
Joe Saltzman for “The Image of the War Correspondent in Motion Pictures and Television”
Stacy Smith and Alison Trope for “A Revamping of Communication 465: Gender in Media Industries and Products.”

Cull pens book on U.S. public diplomacy during the Cold War

June 30, 2008 13:01

Professor and director of the Master of Public Diplomacy program Nicholas Cull (pictured, right) has published a new book about the history of the U.S. government's public diplomacy efforts titled The Cold War and the United States Information Agency: America Propaganda and Public Diplomacy, 1945-1989 (Cambridge University Press).

"I hope my book will fill in some of the blanks in the history of U.S. public diplomacy, and help prevent the repetition of some of the mistakes of the past," Cull said. "My research shows that public diplomacy is a crucial element of foreign policy, but America's approach has been consistently flawed by in-fighting, a lack of connection to policy making and a marked aversion to listening."

The Cold War explores the history and effectiveness of American "soft power" in dealings with foreign nations from the end of World War II to the end of the Cold War, and provides a comprehensive survey of American propaganda and its effects and lessons.

"In 'The Cold War and the United States Information Agency,' Nick Cull has written the definitive history of U.S. public diplomacy," said Kristin M. Lord, associate dean of the Elliot School of International Relations at The George Washington University. "It is a masterwork, meticulously researched and engagingly written, and should be required reading for anyone who cares about U.S. foreign policy."

Basing his approach on more than a hundred interviews and scores of newly declassified documents, Cull details the need for a new, concerted effort in the field of public diplomacy if the United States is to be a continuing player on the international diplomatic stage.

"At a time when public diplomacy is more important than ever before, Nick Cull has provided a comprehensive examination that should be of great value to professionals, scholars, and concerned citizens," said Melvyn P. Leffler, professor of American history at the University of Virginia. "Thoroughly researched and clearly organized, the book illuminates the evolution of public diplomacy in the United States during the Cold War, highlights successes and failures, and suggests lessons for the future."

The Cold War and the United States Information Agency
More on Cull

Annenberg TV News nabs three LA Press Club awards

June 30, 2008 10:46

The Los Angeles Press Club awarded USC Annenberg’s student-run Annenberg TV News two first-place and one second-place awards during the recent Southern California Journalism Awards ceremony.

"This was slick and well-written, with solid talent and stories," the judges wrote about ATVN's first-place finish in the Broadcast News category for a piece titled "Your Health and Wellness."

ATVN Executive producers Patrick Becker (B.A. Communication '08 -- pictured right) and Katherine Riese (B.A. Broadcast Journalism/M.A. Online Journalism '08 -- pictured below left, and top with assignment desk manager Stacey Persoff and executive producer Shawn Chitnis) won first-place honors in the Web site/Blog category for ATVN.org.

"Online and broadcast journalism are so intertwined, and ATVN is the perfect environment to experiment with both technologies," Riese said. "We wanted the site to work with the broadcast, but we also looked at ways to offer additional resources and stories. It has a pretty good foundation now, and hopefully it will continue to grow."

Said Becker: "Katie and I completely redesigned the site this year, adding more stories and Web Exclusives, and making it easier to navigate. It's a real honor to be recognized by such a prestigious organization."

The ATVN staff also won second place for its team coverage in the Broadcast TV category.

"These shows had good information, looked good and made great use of graphics," the judges wrote about the second-place finish for a package of shows on Oct. 22 and 22, and Nov. 5 and 6.

This year’s awards marked the 50th anniversary of the Southern California Journalism Awards.

Annenberg TV News
Your Health and Wellness
Awards list
Los Angeles Press Club
More Annenberg winners

Alumnus Van Cleave racking up the awards in D.C.

June 27, 2008 16:44

USC Annenberg alumnus Kris Van Cleave (B.A. Broadcast Journalism '02) recently won the Washington, D.C. area Emmy Award for "reporter: general assignment," which is his fifth since graduation.

Since moving to Washington D.C.'s WJLA-TV ABC- 7 News/NewsChannel 8 last year, Van Cleave has been a fixture on the awards circuit. He recently won three Society of Professional Journalists "Dateline Awards," including both a first- and second-place finish in the television general news category for pieces on "International Students" and "Bright Light Fight," respectively.

"Since I started in this business my goal has been to find and tell interesting stories, and just cover the news," Van Cleave said. "Along the way, there have been some great stories that I've had the privilege to tell, and some huge events — most recently the Virginia Tech Massacre."

Van Cleave said he has been very fortunate to have his work recognized, but that it is not what motivates him.

"I think Annenberg provided the foundation," he said. "It's the starting point. One of my professors set me up with the internship at KTLA which lead to my job there. The classes and student programs--ATVN and IMPACT--let me get feet wet, helping prepare me to take on the CyberGuy job at KTLA. So Annenberg was the beginning."

A recent Washington Life Magazine article featured Van Cleave's achievements and talked about his some other intangibles that sets him apart from other reporters: "The laid-back new guy with the big smile and cool designer glasses broke the usual newscaster mold when he moved from San Diego to cover metro for WJLA-TV ABC- 7 News/NewsChannel 8 a year and a half ago," according to the article. "But don’t be fooled. Beyond the funky, earnest on-air charm is one intrepid reporter – and he’s got four (now five) Emmys to prove it."

Feature on Van Cleave
More on Van Cleave
Emmy Award list

Pop+Politics invited to cover Democratic Convention

June 27, 2008 14:40

Pop and Politics, a non-profit news source and new media training center based at USC Annenberg and active online as a blogger’s Web site, has been announced as one of only 150 official blogs credentialed to cover the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Denver. The popular blog and e-magazine will send two of its staffers and one new addition to the DNC - a high school student journalist from San Diego.

The online version of Pop and Politics, which will host the submissions from the convention floor, currently features contributions from Annenberg journalism students in addition to both professional and amateur stringers worldwide.

The concept of the revamped P+P, which is primarily geared toward the 18-29 year-old demographic, is to give young journalists the opportunity to cover important political events while following a mandate of youth voter education with a focus on “content democracy,” according to the website. As for the upcoming convention, the editors at P+P are confident that they will add to what they call their already “earth-shattering content” on the PopandPolitics.com web page.

Writer/editor Chris Nelson (M.A. Print Journalism '09) and political analyst Max Zimbert (M.A. Print Journalism '09) hope to “cut through partisan punditry” in an effort to offer “insightful analysis outside the mainstream media echo chamber to is readers,” according to Nelson. The two will team up with a Southern California high school student who expressed an interest in helping to cover the DNC. Nelson recalled his early days as an Annenberg student and the importance of mentorship in refining his own journalism skills.

“Under the tutelage of Marc Cooper for Newswriting at Annenberg,” said Nelson, “both Max and I learned the basics from a savvy political journalist working in the field at LA Weekly and the Huffington Post during the primaries. Having both been published now on the Huffington Post's ‘Off The Bus’ section, at which Marc is the editorial director, we both look to take our political reporting to the next level by covering the DNC for Pop and Politics.”

Nelson added that, although many on the team support Sen. Barack Obama’s candidacy, old-fashioned journalistic objectivity will be paramount in the Pop and Politics coverage of the Convention.

“In line with most basic of journalistic tenets, we'll keep it honest,” said Nelson. "While it’s tempting to be enamored with Obama’s candidacy, we realize that the choice in front of every citizen heading to the voting booths in November is one of the most important we’ll ever face throughout the trajectory of our personal civic duty...We simply want to offer up the sharpest knife possible so that our readers can cut through the mainstream media fog with ease when making this critical decision.”

But the main focus of the USC group will be to bring news as occurs to the young online readership of Pop and Politics. Program director Kim Cooper admitted that it is an exciting time for the blog and the website in general as the Convention approaches.

“We want to be there when history happens,” Cooper said.

Pop and Politics

Get Smart director and alumnus Segal talks college with MovieMaker Magazine

June 25, 2008 10:31

Peter Segal (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’84), director of the film version of Get Smart, America’s top-grossing movie on its opening weekend, recently sat for an interview with MovieMaker magazine and said he had been pulled in two professional directions while a student at USC.

The article detailed Segal’s success at creating the atmosphere of collaboration and improvisation that has made the film a hit nationwide, and he also described his days as a student weighing his post-collegiate options.

“You know, when I was in school I had no idea that I was going to wind up making movies” Segal said in the interview. “I thought originally I was going to go into journalism so that’s what I was studying at USC — Broadcast Journalism and English. I was a double major. The first two years at USC were very writing-intensive and then my first production class in television introduced me to the making of television things. I fell in love with it and thought, ‘Well, okay. How do I get into this business?'"

Get Smart, featuring Steve Carell (pictured with Segal, left) premiered on June 18 with a fundraising benefit in Westwood in support of the USC School of Cinematic Arts, where Segal crashed classes that his roommate, a Cinema major, took while at USC.

More
Get Smart

Alumna Bermudez joins LA Times on California desk

June 25, 2008 09:35

Recent USC alumna Esmeralda Bermudez (B.A. Print Journalism '03) will join the Los Angeles Times' California Desk later this month after a successful stint with the Oregonian, The Times announced.

"I first met Esme in December and was immediately impressed by her energy, drive and commitment to the best sort of journalistic values," Times California Editor David Lauter said.

Bermudez, a native of El Salvador, was a Livingston Award finalist for a series (including this article) she wrote about a 39-year-old Portland-area woman and two of her young-adult children who were deported to Guatemala after 13 years of living in Oregon.

"Now, she'll have an opportunity to put her reporting talent and her knowledge of immigrant culture and society to work here, in the city where she grew up," Lauter said. "That's a happy conjunction both for her and for us."