USC Annenberg News

Dissertation diversity demonstrates School’s scope

Tue, 21 May 2013 01:23:03 GMT

By Alex Reed
Student Writer

From the ethics of organ donation to communications in video gaming, the dissertations produced by the 14 doctoral students graduating this year from USC Annenberg echo and reflect the school’s wide range of scholarship, interest and disciplines.

Other USC Annenberg Ph.D. recipients this year wrote theses with titles such as, “Mapping Out The Transition Toward Information Societies: Social Nature, Growth and Politics” (by Martin Hilbert); “The Emergence of Green IT: The Formation and Implementation of Green IT Strategy and Organizational Change in IT Organizations” (by Jingfang Liu); and, “Helping Haiti: A Rhetorical Analysis of the 2010 Haiti Network Relief Movement” (by Diana Winkelman).

“The diversity of our students' work is dizzying, and is a constant reminder of the immense breadth and power of communication research,” said Communication Professor and doctoral chair Dmitri Williams. “Our students are creating the future with a mix of methods – and on topics that impact Main Street, Wall Street, and our homes and families.”

Communication Professor and Director of Doctoral Studies G. Thomas Goodnight observed that the students’ work produces “a convergence of theory and practice that creates a unique perspective.”

Goodnight has been director of USC Annenberg’s doctoral program since 2002. During a recent interview, he described the field of communication as “a discipline that deals with how messages are circulated and connected across the globe.” Goodnight added: “Annenberg students seem to be leading research along these particular lines.”

Goodnight was the chair of three dissertations this year, including Ryan Gillespie’s that examined organ donation in the United States and the ethics of donating and selling organs. Gillespie said he was impressed – but far from shocked – by the range of issues addressed by his cohort.

“I have learned not to be surprised at the diversity of topics and theoretical and methodological approaches found in our school,” said Gillespie. “It is a very cool thing.”

Adam Kahn’s dissertation, chaired by Williams, looked at video game teams and how they utilize available communication channels. “Annenberg's breadth allows us to come out of the program with a basic understanding of a little bit of everything so that we can converse with scholars across the discipline,” said Kahn.

Goodnight, the doctoral program director, points out that USC Annenberg’s “palette of study” is broad by design. “We accommodate different kinds of methodological approaches,” said Goodnight. “When you have that, you create flexibility for students so they bring and translate their own backgrounds into productive work.”

Learn more about USC Annenberg Doctoral Students

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Congratulations to the Class of 2013!

Fri, 17 May 2013 19:17:05 GMT

By Gretchen Parker

As part of the University of Southern California’s 130th Commencement Ceremonies, USC Annenberg celebrated the conferral of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees to 961 students on May 17. (School of Communication photos; School of Journalism photos.)

As Dean Ernest J. Wilson III welcomed graduates to the ranks of USC Annenberg alumni, he thanked them for the hard work they’ve done as students, interns and collaborators while also completing successful studies.

“We live in an extraordinary and dynamic era where media and communication is at the center of everything we do. The information age is upon us, and much of the established order is completely up for grabs,” Dean Wilson told a sea of graduates and their families gathered at the School of Journalism ceremony, as they settled into seats in Argue Plaza after snapping photos, grabbing hugs and sharing greetings of congratulations with their fellow graduates.

“Journalism graduates, public relations graduates, this is not only your day today – this is your time. This is your era, to seize this world and reinvent it.”

Acknowledging the work USC Annenberg students already are doing to contribute to the news and communication economy, Wilson said, “Many of you are already working day and night to make this truly the golden age of your fields, both in terms of content and in terms of commerce.”

He cited the “Annenberg advantage” as the path that will help grads be productive in the work force. USC Annenberg tears down “the old, rigid silos of the past,” builds cooperation and “insures that our sharp, flexible and inventive graduates can walk into any environment, any enterprise and know that they could do any job in the place.”

Wilson also thanked Geneva Overholser, director of the School of Journalism, for her leadership over the past five years. Overholser will step down from her role next month, after completing her term.

Calling her “universally respected” and “extraordinarily effective,” Wilson said Overholser has “gone beyond our sky-high expectations.”

“Professor Overholser has been an indefatigable advocate for the Fourth Estate as the backbone of democracy,” adding that she remains committed to digital technology, diversity and information in the public interest.

“She has joined me in my own favorite slogan: ‘Innovate, Innovate, Innovate.’”

(View a congratulatory Commencement message from Dean Wilson here.)

School of Journalism Ceremony

As one of her last acts as director, Overholser (pictured, left) delivered the commencement speech to the School of Journalism, taking the chance to tell graduates how well their time at USC Annenberg will prepare them for “a lifetime of productive work.”

“You now have all the tools you need, all the academic grounding, all the theory and practice, to go into your respective fields at this moment of enormous change – this moment of enormous potential, she said. “You are fully equipped to use that preparation to shape these fields – journalism and public relations – for the better. And I expect you to do just that.”

She acknowledged the complex job market that awaits grads, but added: “There has never been a more interesting time to enter these fields than at this moment. You get to reinvent them. You get to write new rules, shape new economic underpinnings, and create new connections with the people formerly known as the audience. You get to find new ways to enrich the civic conversation in this country, help people live fuller lives, and create a stronger citizenry.”

Overholser also took the opportunity to address the journalism naysayers – those who say “journalism is over.”

“The journalism that you are helping reinvent is just coming into its own. More people want to be part of it than ever. And the potential for a better, fairer, more inclusive form of information in the public interest is boundless,” she said.

And that new inclusiveness makes journalism a more exciting field than ever before. “What was a top-down, too often arrogant craft, one that left lots of people out, is now a wide-open experiment in progress,” Overholser said.

In fact, she said, thanks to the disruption of the old-school models, journalism and public relations grads have a shot at jobs that wouldn’t have been open to them years ago.

“The fact that the old, rigid system – in which you had to work your way up over a period of decades – has collapsed, means that you fresh graduates can go directly into jobs you could never have dreamed of entering before – and this applies to journalism and PR grads equally,” she said.

“You can hit the ground running, putting to work your open minds and your digital skills, your understanding of social media and your excitement about the future.”

At the same time, while “everything seems up for grabs,” graduates need to keep in mind the tenets that have not changed. Integrity and good judgment are paramount qualities that “remain absolutely critical,” Overholser said.

“Along with your smarts and your skills, you must be sure to bring integrity, to bring good judgment, to your work. Now, when things are changing, these two (along with courage) are needed more than ever. Your skills, however dazzling, cannot compare in importance to your moral leadership.”

By the way, she added, the jobs held by recent grads should inspire anyone with lingering doubts. She listed just a few of the jobs journalism alumni are holding, including posts as: the Sacramento Bureau Chief for Reuters, an investigative reporter at KRQE-TV in Albuquerque, a multimedia writer for The Seattle Times and a production assistant for ESPN. USC Annenberg grads have gone everywhere from WIRED to The Texas Tribune, Talking Points Memo, the LA Times, The Washington Post, ABCNEWS.com, the Huffington Post and People magazine.

“They staff television newsrooms from San Francisco to Spokane, from New Orleans to Duluth,” Overholser said.

As for PR, the list goes on. Recent grads are managers of community affairs, directors of media and communications, risk analysts, publicity coordinators and senior account executives. They work for Weber Shandwick and Ogilvy, Porter Novelli and Burson-Marsteller, MLB.com the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the California Endowment, Disneyland, General Motors, City of Hope and Turner Broadcasting World Wrestling Entertainment.

“We have a publicist for Kobe Bryant and a manager of public information for the Tournament of Roses,” she said.

“And, by the way, there is a whole lot of Trojan Family help behind that wonderful list of jobs, and a whole lot of Trojan Family help in front of each of you,” she added.

On a personal note, Overholser left the new USC Annenberg alumni with a thought on the notion of trying to “have it all” as they pursue career and family.

“Life is full of twists and turns, and you won’t always be in charge of them. What you’ll be in charge of is how you respond to them. Keep love in your heart, and hold fast to your passion for good work, and you’ll be fine.”

School of Communication Ceremony

Los Angeles County Supervisor and former LA City Councilmember Zev Yaroslavsky, speaking to the School of Communication graduates and their families, drew on the experiences of two successful leaders he has worked with – Steven B. Sample, past President of USC, and the late John Wooden, former head basketball coach at UCLA.

He called Wooden a “life coach and a philosopher” and Sample “the man who led USC into the 21st century with soaring academic achievements and a commitment to the community.”

Yaroslavsky said we are ultimately informed by our character, quoting Wooden: “Character is more important than reputation, because reputation is merely what other people think of you; character is what you really are, and only you know what that is.”

“Politics is my line of work, and I can tell you that in my profession, we spend far too much time worrying about what other people think of us, and far too little pondering who we really are, and communicating who we really are.

“What people think of us is important. But what’s far more important are our core values – the values that we are willing to defend regardless of what others think.”

Yaroslavsky cited Sample’s book “The Contrarian’s Guide to Leadership” in which he urges leaders not to form an opinion before gathering relevant facts and arguments.

“A leader who jumps to a conclusion before hearing all the facts will, more often than not, regret it,” he said, adding: “Leaders command a stronger and more loyal organization when their team members know that their opinions will be heard and valued, even if they are contrarian points of view. Avoid the temptation to jump to conclusions before you have all the facts.”

After all, he said, “Leaders aren’t the only ones with good ideas. Good leaders get their best ideas by keeping an open mind and open ears wherever they go.”

Sample wrote that artful listening “is not just an asset – it’s a necessity,” Yaroslavsky said.

And Sample and Wooden both agreed that the great leaders give credit elsewhere but accept blame themselves.

“Any leader who fails to grasp this basic principle will not long endure in that leadership role,” he said. “In any organization, nothing builds confidence in a team, and success in an enterprise, more than the knowledge that the leader will have your back when the going gets tough. People who feel this way about their leader will go to the ends of the earth for him; those who don’t will do the bare minimum, if that.”

Yaroslavsky also touched on the shift in communication since he first took office in 1975, and how important communication is in politics, where “perception is reality.” His own website features interactive pages, stories, links to social media and a video channel dubbed “ZevTV.”

“Back in the day, traditional print and broadcast outlets were the only way to get your message out,” he said, recalling that he used to be known as the master of the 30-second sound bite. “Today, if you can’t say it in six seconds, you’re out of the story.”

But no matter how news consumers access their information, whether via smart phones or tablets, “the bottom line remains that communication is transmitted through the voice of the communicator’s character,” Yaroslavsky said.

“Today, your schooling is formally completed, and I warmly congratulate you on that outstanding accomplishment. But your real education begins now, as you embark on the next chapter of your lives. As you do so, I wish you an abundance of character and wisdom. Good luck to each and every one of you.”

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First students to earn a degree online from USC Annenberg to graduate in commencement ceremony

Tue, 14 May 2013 04:18:14 GMT

By Gretchen Parker

When USC’s leadership began its serious push into online education, USC Annenberg Professor Rebecca Weintraub was at the front of the line.

“I’d been wanting to do this for 10 years, and finally technology caught up. When USC President C.L. Max Nikias made clear he wanted online classes that made sense, I raised my hand really fast,” said Weintraub. “I’ve known we needed to do this for a long time. If working professionals couldn't come to us, we needed to go to them.”

May 17 will mark the first-ever commencement ceremony for students who earned their degree online from USC Annenberg. Known as the trailblazers of the school’s advance into online education, 47 working professional men and women will have earned their master’s degree in Communication Management (MCM), coursework that prepares students to manage the process and flow of communication. The focus is on integrating organizational, strategic and marketing communication – whether applied in the corporate, governmental or nonprofit sectors. (Read about one student who completed his degree requirements while serving in the U.S. Army from Afghanistan.)

The program launched in September 2011; there now are about 140 students enrolled.

USC Annenberg also offers a Communication Management degree on campus – and it’s actually the school’s oldest graduate degree. Every faculty member who teaches online has a Ph.D. and also teaches on campus.

“The program is just as rigorous as the on-campus program,” said Weintraub, who has been teaching an online class at USC Annenberg since 2003. “The bottom line is it’s exactly the same degree, the same program, just a different delivery system.”

And Weintraub soon confirmed that the delivery system attracts exactly the kind of client USC was looking for – working professionals. The classes are stacked with men and women working in public relations, journalism, marketing, corporate communication, education, human resources and healthcare.

They hail from Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Washington D.C., Georgia, Virginia and Alabama, as well as California.

They were drawn to the program because it promised to be rigorous and demanding. “I didn’t feel comfortable doing any other online program,” said new graduate Daniel Kopec, who writes and produces documentary films for PBS in Seattle. “Even in the workplace, I knew the degree would be recognized and would have value, and it wouldn’t be viewed as a second-tier degree.”

“Personally,” said 40-year-old Kopec, “it was such a huge achievement for me, because it was challenging in the way that you want a master’s degree to be challenging. So it was fulfilling to know I could operate at that level.”

Weintraub maintains that the online degree is in many ways more difficult than the one offered inside the halls of Annenberg. That’s because the degree is designed to be learner-centered. In other words, students are tasked with “pulling” information rather than having faculty “push” it toward them.

In a traditional classroom, faculty members deliver lectures and students discuss the material. But online, students are compelled to pull materials together in an active way. One example is a project that tasks MCM students with solving problems as the chief communication officer of the course’s fictional company. On their own and in groups, they integrate the readings, online materials and data they gather to create a strategic communication plan.

“I suspect it feels like they live in a universe of homework,” Weintraub said. “As they are not in class for three hours a week as the on-campus students are, it completely changes the frame of instruction. I don’t know if the workload is heavier – but I suspect it feels so!”

She admits to sending students mini-pep talks throughout the semester. “I remind them, ‘You wanted a rigorous master’s program! You didn’t want an easy one!’”

“I remember many times during the program, thinking, ‘There’s no way I can get through this,’” said John Perez, 34, a healthcare project manager for UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. “And when I got done I thought it was one of the most difficult things I had done in my life. Now there’s no way I’d do anything differently.”

Perez operates at a higher level now, after completing the MCM program, he said.

“When information comes in that’s major or significant for this organization, I look at it very differently than I did two years ago,” Perez said. “I’ll pause, see what the source is, what the risks are, gather my initial thoughts and then present them to the key leaders to see if this is the direction we want to take.

“In the past, I would have a knee-jerk reaction, do something quickly and deal with the fallout. I think strategically now.”

Online MCM students also honed their time-management skills during the program.

“There was no room for procrastination whatsoever,” said Army Maj. Mike Nicholson, 39, who earned the degree while serving as a public affairs officer in Afghanistan. His workdays began at 7 a.m. and lasted until 8 or 9 p.m. After that, he “hit the books,” so to speak. He slept four to five hours a night during most of the 20-month program.

“I tried to stay in a routine,” said Nicholson.” As long as I could stay in a routine, I could keep it straight.”

He usually had Friday mornings off at the base in Kabul, and he’d use that time to catch up. He snuck in time for calls home to his wife and two children.

“It definitely isn’t for everybody,” said Jennifer Davies, 27, who works in corporate communications for Nevada’s statewide energy utility and got engaged, got married and bought a house while earning her degree. “You have to be task-oriented or you’re going to fall behind. Whatever’s going on, you can’t go to bed until it’s done.”

At the same time, she said, “It’s perfect for working professionals who don’t want to give up their jobs and move to LA. All they need is a computer and the ability to carve out time and make it a priority.”

Davies said she also appreciated the real-time aspect of the program and investigating communication blunders or marketing campaigns that had popped up in the news only days or weeks before. The online platform allows the flexibility to update content regularly.

“Then we would read about it, research it, discuss it, analyze it, respond to our classmates and offer feedback. So it’s really an all-encompassing experience. You really apply what you learn,” she said.

Now Davies says she’s much more analytical in her job, especially now that she has training in marketing and can connect the dots of how theory, organization and application work in the communication world.

“You get so caught up in learning your job that you don’t think about the strategy behind it,” she said. “It’s important to know where you want to go before you get going.”

Now her hard work has paid off; Davies recently accepted a new job with the City of Las Vegas as an assistant public information officer. With nearly 500 other applicants vying for the position, Davies is certain her MCM degree helped set her apart.

Meanwhile, though they were separated by states and time zones, the MCM students became friends.

Perez, who’s also an ordained minister, officiated at the wedding of classmate Anna Tretyakov. Some students became the best of friends and talk daily. Others fly regularly to visit each other. A homecoming reception last fall drew more than 50 (including some first-year MCM students) from all over the country. They couldn’t wait to lay eyes on each other for the first time in person.

And that, program leaders say, is by design.

The goal of the degree is not just to impart theory and content. Faculty members also are intent on students graduating with the ability to work with all kinds of colleagues from unfamiliar backgrounds. To that end, they require group collaboration as a central focus of each course – and not by groups that students choose. They’re assigned to groups, which are mixed and switched up regularly. No cliques allowed here, said Neil Teixeira, director of distance learning for USC Annenberg.

“It’s new challenges, new experiences, new people to meet and work with,” Teixeira said, a method that mimics the real-world working environment, where professionals must work with people they don’t know.

“You can’t rely on just working with a team you know. You have to be prepared for the collaborative environment no matter who’s in it. If we can prepare our students to manage team projects and team expectations well, we can prepare them for all kinds of environments, and provide a skill that is going to be applicable in almost any field.”

The strong bond also was forged because of their unique position as the first class in the program, Teixeira said.

“We told them, ‘You’ll make suggestions that will lead to innovations that will impact students to come. I think that empowered them to say, ‘We’re part of a special group at Annenberg,’” he said.

And their input was crucial, Weintraub said.

“I feel particularly proud of these students because they were the early adopters,” she said. “They were the pioneers. They partnered with us and gave us feedback, and their commitment was phenomenal. There was no way of envisioning the rigor, the demands on their time, and they stuck with it. Every graduate is special, but you only have one first-born.

“I said, ‘We’re going here’ and who knew we’d actually arrive? And we’re right on schedule.”

Faculty members of MCM include: Daniela Baroffio, Michael Cody, Matthew Curtis, Andrea B. Hollingshead, Susan Resnick West, Paolo Sigismondi, Kimberlie Stephens.

Global Alliance, USC to partner on first ongoing global study of public relations practice

Tue, 14 May 2013 04:18:14 GMT

The world’s first ongoing global study of public relations and communication management practice was announced today following the signing of a partnership agreement between the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA) and the Strategic Communication and Public Relations Center at USC Annenberg.

Based on the longstanding GAP (Generally Accepted Practices) Study conducted every two years in the United States since 2002, the global survey will analyse current practice, trends and new developments in the profession, providing country data and comparative analysis of the practice between countries and continents.

“The public relations profession is growing and changing, and the Global Alliance believes that we must understand this evolution in order to promote high standards and be effective advocates for the value of PR to organisations – and to society,” said Global Alliance chair Daniel Tisch. “This ambitious survey will provide global benchmark data that can help us chart our profession’s development in the years to come.”

“With GAP VIII to be fielded in the fall of this year the GAP study has established itself as a leading source of actionable U.S.-centric data of use to practitioners and scholars alike. Now, in keeping with the globalization of the discipline, the time has come to take a world-centric view of how it is evolving in different settings. We’ll gradually roll-out the concept with the ultimate goal of establishing a truly global, cooperative research network,” said Professor Jerry Swerling, Director of the Strategic Communication and PR Center at the Annenberg School at USC.

The GA and USC will announce the first participating countries in the next few weeks, and expect to begin the research later this year.

“The GA-USC partnership is a perfect combination of expertise and resources,” said Professor Anne Gregory, Global Alliance chair-elect and chair of the GA’s Research and Education Committee, who led the initiative with USC colleagues. “GA members can provide access to the world’s largest pool of public relations practitioners, and USC has the expertise to conduct a study of this scale and sophistication. We expect this survey to develop into the most important reference point for the profession in the coming years and look forward to working with USC and our partners in countries across the globe.”

The survey will contain a range of common questions to provide this benchmark information, but also can be customised by each participating country so that they can obtain specific information for their own purposes.

About the Global Alliance
The Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (www.globalalliancepr.org) is the confederation of the world's major public relations and communication management associations and institutions, representing 160,000 practitioners and academics around the globe. The Global Alliance's mission is to unify the public relations profession, raise professional standards all over the world, share knowledge for the benefit of its members and be the global voice for public relations in the public interest.The Global Alliance is the convener of the World Public Relations Forum, to be held next in Madrid, Spain, in September 2014.

About the Strategic Communication and Public Relations Center
Created in 2002 with the mission of advancing the study, practice and value of the public relations discipline by means of applied research conducted in partnership with other visionary organizations, the Strategic Communication and Public Relations Center is located in Los Angeles at USC Annenberg.

Screening sexy: Film females and the story that isn't changing

Mon, 13 May 2013 17:53:11 GMT

In the last five years, Hollywood has generated well-known and popular female-driven fare like Bridesmaids, The Hunger Games and the Twilight franchise. Given the success of these blockbusters, you might think that the number of roles for women is on the rise. Think again.

Across five years (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012), 500 top-grossing films at the U.S. box office, and over 21,000 speaking characters, a new study by USC Annenberg found that females represented less than one-third (28.4%) of all speaking characters in 2012 films. When they are on screen, 31% of women in 2012 were shown with at least some exposed skin, and 31.6% were depicted wearing sexually revealing clothing.

Even worse? “There has been no meaningful change in the prevalence of women on screen across the five years studied. In fact, 2012 features the lowest percentage of females in the five years covered in this report,” said Communication Professor Stacy L. Smith, the principal investigator. “The last few years have seen a wealth of great advocacy for more women on screen. Unfortunately, that investment has not yet paid off with an increase in female characters or a decrease in their hypersexualization.”

The authors also examined how the presentation of women varied by the age of the character. “The findings are as provocative as the outfits, especially when teenage female characters are considered,” Smith said.

Over half of female teen characters (56.6%) were shown in sexy attire in 2012, compared with 39.9% of women between the ages of 21 and 39. 2012 capped off a three-year increase in the hypersexualization of teen girls, while for other age groups the numbers do not show the same hike.

When a female works behind the camera in the key creative role of writer or director, there are more women shown on screen, and fewer female characters are hypersexualized.

“One factor that may matter in the presentation of women on screen is the presence of a female writer or director,” said Marc Choueiti, a co-author on the study. “Though we still need further work to explore the reasons for this relationship.”

Despite their positive impact for on-screen depictions, female directors were outnumbered 5 to 1 in 2012 by their male counterparts. Only 24 women have directed top-grossing films in the last five years.

Today’s report is the latest in a series of studies from Smith and her team at the USC Annenberg School.

Full report

Army major earns USC Annenberg master’s degree online – from Afghanistan

Fri, 10 May 2013 17:40:44 GMT

By Gretchen Parker

When 39-year-old Army Maj. Mike Nicholson applied for admission to USC Annenberg’s online Master of Communication Management program, he knew he might soon receive orders to deploy.

But the way Nicholson saw it, there would always be one reason or another to put off getting his graduate degree. Why let orders to report to Afghanistan get in the way?

On May 17, Nicholson will be one of 47 students who will have earned MCM degrees online. It will be the first-ever commencement ceremony for a master’s degree delivered online from USC Annenberg (read more here). Other grads completed their coursework from their homes in places such as Texas, Florida, New Jersey, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Washington D.C., Georgia, Virginia and Alabama, as well as California.

Nicholson, a native of Southern California, is world-traveled after 16 years as an active-duty Army officer, and he’s used to moving house and home for work. When he started the master’s program, he was stationed at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas while completing a program at the Army’s School of Advanced Military Studies. Four months later, he was on his way to work at NATOs strategic headquarters in Kabul, Afghanistan, where he spent the next year – and three semesters.

He’s now back home at Fort Leavenworth with his wife, Emily, his 8-year-old daughter, Allie, and his 6-year-old son, Noah.

As a public affairs officer for the Army, Nicholson’s workdays in Kabul began at 7 a.m. and lasted until 8 or 9 p.m. After that, he “hit the books,” so to speak. He worked every day. He slept four to five hours a night during most of the12-month deployment.

“I tried to stay in a routine,” said Nicholson.” As long as I could stay in a routine, I could keep it straight.”

He usually had Friday mornings off, and he’d use that time to catch up. Nicholson said he discovered the structure and rigor of a military career served him well as he pushed himself to meet the demands of working a full-time deployment while simultaneously earning a master’s degree.

“There was no room for procrastination whatsoever,” said Nicholson. “It was an extremely busy year, and I appreciated the flexibility of the program and how it was delivered.”

His classmates and professors stayed flexible as he traveled beyond Afghanistan for work – to NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, to Turkey for a strategic communication conference and to Germany to train incoming military and civilian staff. But the onus was on him to work ahead of schedule and stay accountable in the group projects that are a focus of the program.

Part of Nicholson’s job in Kabul was crisis communication. Early in his deployment, news broke of the burning of Korans at Bagram Air Base in Kabul. Citizen protests escalated into deadly riots that drew international attention.

He told his colleagues, “Turn on the news, and if you see stuff going on, you’ll know I’m busy.” But he’d also shoot them an email letting them know he was tied up, and he’d check back in as soon as he could.

“I can’t even imagine the obstacles he had to overcome to make sure things were getting turned in on time,” said classmate and fellow graduate Jennifer Davies, a 27-year-old corporate communications officer for Nevada’s statewide energy utility. “We talked about having to go to work all day – and who knows what he was having to do all day and still was getting it all done.”

Others in the program appreciated Nicholson’s unique take on lessons and projects, Davies said.

“I think that military perspective was enlightening, and he’d had a lot of leadership roles and knew what worked and what didn’t,” she said. “He offered a lot of really great and candid feedback because he’d been in those situations, both as a leader and as the person being told what to do. He offered a really rounded perspective for us.”

In some ways, taking on the MCM program while working on the other side of the world made sense, Nicholson said. “When you deploy down there, all you have to do is work. I wasn’t kicking in doors, but it was heavy-thinking type of work. I did need a break and would switch to schoolwork,” he said.

And that was where he discovered a rich symbiosis between his job and his studies.

Nicholson’s focus in public affairs is on strategic communication planning, which gelled perfectly with the coursework of the MCM degree.

“I work in a field that directly applies to what I was studying,” he said. “It contributed to the work I was doing on a daily basis, so both fed into each other. I brought ideas from what I was learning and immediately used them in my day-to-day environment.”

Gaining that rounded perspective – considering communication problems from all angles by moving back and forth between school and work – paid off.

Nicholson says he still taps into his academic experience, and the perspective he gained from his diverse classmates, almost daily.

“There are more areas you’re able to make connections with, both from an academic and a practitioner sense. In the program, we were all working in the field – some were in marketing firms, public relations firms – everyone was in the communication field. It gave us all better breadth.”

He added that he wasn’t the only one juggling many hours of work with the rigorous MCM program.

“I saw the same discipline in people who were working in other fields,” he said. “Most people had full-time jobs, families and these classes going on, so you learn pretty quickly how to manage your time. Because we all have a lot to balance.”

FCC’s Zachary Katz Named Senior Fellow of USC Annenberg’s Center on Communication Leadership & Policy

Thu, 09 May 2013 22:22:37 GMT

Zachary Katz, the respected Chief of Staff of the Federal Communications Commission, has been appointed a Senior Fellow of the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy (CCLP) at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. The appointment begins in July 2013 following his planned departure from the FCC.

As a senior fellow, Katz will help develop, lead and advise on programs and research projects related to broadband, mobile and media initiatives. He joins a distinguished group of CCLP senior fellows that include journalists and media executives such as Cinny Kennard, Adam Clayton Powell III and Narda Zacchino, authors and policymakers such as Dan Glickman, Richard Reeves and Morley Winograd and pioneering leadership scholar Warren Bennis, among others.

“I am excited to be joining USC Annenberg and contributing to the important work of its Center on Communication Leadership & Policy,” Katz said. “I look forward to working with this outstanding community of leaders and scholars to help advance the power of communications technologies and media to serve the public interest.”

“Zac Katz is a brilliant legal mind who has been engaged in many of the major communication policy debates of recent years,” said Geoffrey Cowan, CCLP director, USC University Professor and president of the Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands. “He brings a wealth of experience to our work in this area. I am delighted that he has agreed to serve as a senior fellow.”

As FCC Chief of Staff, Katz has played a key role in the agency’s policymaking agenda. He previously served as Chairman Julius Genachowski’s Chief Counsel and led a number of high-priority initiatives, including protecting Internet openness and creating the Connect America Fund, the largest broadband infrastructure program ever established.

Katz joined the FCC in 2009 from the White House Counsel’s Office and previously practiced law at Munger, Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles. Mr. Katz served as a law clerk for Judge Kim M. Wardlaw of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after receiving his law degree from Yale, where he was Editor-in-Chief of The Yale Law Journal and a leader of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization. Before law school he worked with technology companies at a strategy consulting and investment firm in Silicon Valley.

About the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy

Based at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the Center on Communication Leadership & Policy is a policy center that conducts academic research and organizes programs to develop ways in which communication leadership, policy, technology and mobile innovation can contribute to a more informed electorate and a better world. For more information, visit http://communicationleadership.usc.edu.

Dean Wilson hosts “Pattern Recognition: What Employers Are Looking For in a Competitive Environment”

Tue, 07 May 2013 22:17:08 GMT

By Alex Reed
Student Writer

What do a science journalist who writes about string theory, an art historian, and a numbers-crunching political scientist all have in common? Their disciplines depend upon successful pattern recognition.

Dean Ernest J. Wilson III welcomed Journalism Professor K.C. Cole and USC Dornsife Professors Nicholas Weller and Kate Flint on April 25 for a panel discussion on recognizing patterns and how that skill can help students become more competitive in the job market.

After speaking to employers in communications, media, entertainment and other fields, Dean Wilson and other USC Annenberg leaders learned that most employers are looking for people who can recognize and foresee trends within their field.

“They want people who have the skill and knowledge to be able to recognize patterns in the world before other people can recognize them, because that gives us a competitive advantage,” Dean Wilson said.

Dean Wilson added that, as a result, USC Annenberg encourages similar skills not only through the Annenberg Innovation Lab, but also through a new venture that hopes to incorporate interdisciplinary studies, which has also proven to be highly regarded by employers.

In a room so crowded that extra chairs were brought in by Annenberg staff, each panelist gave their own brief lecture on their understanding of pattern recognition and how it can be seen in their fields.

Weller, assistant professor of Political Science and International Relations, explained pattern recognition as taking and classifying information, while trying to “predict something that you haven’t seen.”

While he advised that people should be aware of uncertainty and the unknown, he also warned against false positives in predicting patterns.

“If we believe that we found patterns that we haven’t actually found and we change laws, we change institutions, we change our own behavior, we actually can hurt ourselves,” Weller said.

He gave the example of the “hot hand” in sports to explain how people can find false patterns, saying that although a basketball player can make 10 shots in a row, his making an 11^th shot, while being a likely outcome, is not a pattern.

Weller’s comments segued into a discussion about innovation – and where innovation comes from.

“That’s something we have a much harder time wrapping our heads around. It’s easy to think of how to borrow from another discipline, and import and utilize,” he said. “The harder thing to figure out is: how do you fundamentally innovate within a discipline that’s different than borrowing from another discipline.”

Cole added to Weller’s “hot hand” example by noting that it comes up a lot in discussions of the job world.

“Somebody will give a great talk and then everybody will ignore that their record is actually pretty mediocre, [but] then somebody with a better record will give a mediocre talk,” said Cole. People often don’t realize “that the person who gave the mediocre talk is going to give a much better talk next time than the person who gave a great talk.”

Cole also discussed game theory and its role in the professional world, saying that people should strive to find “stable solutions” because creating a pattern out of being the person that is “going for the kill is not a good strategy.”

“Competition is not always the best way to survive,” Cole said. “Cooperation is equally important.”

Looking at pattern recognition from a completely different perspective, Provost Professor of English and Art History Flint observed patterns as they apply to artists, photographers, and writers.

Accompanied by a slideshow presentation of photographs and artwork, Flint explained that art allows people to think “about ways that patterns have been recorded.”

One way is through “artists and photographers who have chosen to locate, arrange, or mount certain patterns that they have found in the world in a way that has aesthetic significance,” Flint said.

From the discussion, students, as well as the faculty and staff in attendance, were able to see how ideas such as pattern recognition can apply to vastly different fields and consider how their fields will “intersect with other fields,” and also encourage interdisciplinary learning.

Finding new ways to promote pattern recognition and interdisciplinary studies is an effort by Dean Wilson to design programs and foster better teaching at USC Annenberg.

“The purpose [of the discussion] was to have comments and conversation so that when we design a whole course on [pattern recognition], students will be able to leave that course saying, ‘OK, now here’s how I can be more competitive,’” Dean Wilson said.

Pattern Recognition: What Employers Are Looking For in a Competitive Environment

Tolan’s class partners with The California Report to profile diverse group of graduating high school seniors

Fri, 03 May 2013 13:33:50 GMT

By Jackson DeMos

USC Annenberg and KQED's state-wide radio newsmagazine, The California Report, are today airing the first in a series titled “Graduation Day” that details the difficult decisions awaiting eight high school seniors as independence quickly approaches.

Students in Professor Sandy Tolan’s journalism class spent the last semester profiling the struggles and aspirations of a diverse group of graduating high school students that will run on state-wide public radio. The in-depth radio and multimedia stories will air on The California Report, produced out of KQED in San Francisco. One profile will run each week for the next two months. Local radio times vary throughout the state.

"'Graduation Day' is really a rare glimpse into the day-to-day lives and challenges of high school students in California who are making some really tough choices about their lives,” said The California Report Associate Senior Producer Victoria Mauleón, who flew from San Francisco to help Tolan teach the students and edit their work. "Ultimately, the profiles show we have a lot to learn and plenty to be both inspired and worried about."

Profiles range from a 19-year-old gang member struggling to get his diploma to a Mormon basketball player deciding whether to postpone a college scholarship to go on a religious mission. Mauleón said it is the tension that these types of stories create that make them so professional and interesting.

Graduate journalism students Leah Bailly, Molly Gray, Helena Liikanen-Renger, Shako Liu, Jasmin López, Laura Santana, Aaron Schrank and Tricia Tongco all focused an entire semester getting to know and profiling individual high school seniors.

Schrank, who came up with the idea for the “Graduation Day” series on the first day of the semester, profiled a 17-year-old student in foster care who helps take care of her four brothers ages 5 and younger. She has already attended seven high schools.

“Her story sheds light on how complicated family dynamics and a difficult-to-navigate foster care system make planning for the future more difficult,” Schrank said. “Half of all foster kids don't graduate high school. And only a fraction finish college.”

The profiles have already appeared on Annenberg Radio News, but The California Report offers USC Annenberg students the chance to refine the stories even further and reach a state-wide audience. Neon Tommy, housed at USC Annenberg and directed by Journalism Professor Marc Cooper, will curate additional multimedia content.

“The results are really impressive and a tribute to how hard these fine young reporters worked,” Tolan said. “I’m really proud of this group. Collectively, the diversity and cumulative impact of these portraits will provide contemporary snapshots of people on the cusp of adulthood.”

The journalism students agreed that Tolan and Mauleón challenged them to make their stories better than they thought possible. Liu said the demanding nature of the course opened up a new world for her as a journalist.

“Sometimes during the process it was frustrating that I couldn't get the sound they wanted,” Liu said. “But when I finally got those sounds and edited them into my track, I understood why they were so demanding. Those were important elements in setting the scene that helped tell a better story.”

Tolan said he was impressed with all the profiles, but added that Liu had a particularly challenging subject because she has only been in the United States for two years and decided to do her package on a gang member trying to find his way into adulthood.

“Shako’s doggedness and willingness to keep going back for more information is an example of something the entire class did to make their stories into professional NPR quality,” Tolan said. “She was not intimidated by it, which was really inspiring. I love teaching because every year I get inspired by my students, and this class is one of the best examples of that in my career.”

Liu said she hopes her story has an impact by bringing attention to a group of young people who she said are often stereotyped and neglected.

“Many people think they are simply bad people and that's why they join gangs,” Liu said. “But the story focuses on him feeling like he had no choice to join and no choice to leave.”

Part of what made the profiles so professional and moving was the authentic connections the USC Annenberg students had with the high school students. They spent months getting to know each other.

“All of this time spent proved to be worthwhile,” said Schrank, who hopes to be a public radio reporter after he graduates from USC Annenberg. “I'd say that's what I learned – that there's no time wasted when it comes to a project like this. The more time you spend with a subject, the more comfortable they are with your presence. And this allows you to get authentic moments on tape that you otherwise would not.”

Tolan’s students also said they enjoyed the collaborative nature of the class that allowed them to work together, learn from each other, and share and overcome similar challenges.

“One of the most important things I learned in this class and in my J-school education overall is how to work with people on multiple levels - whether it's collaborating with another reporter on a story or being receptive to constructive criticism,” Tongco said.

Schrank said the collaborative component of the class was instrumental because he and his peers had input from a room full of thoughtful people throughout the semester.

“The result of this collaborative approach is that not only are the individual stories memorable, but they have a cumulative impact, as they were all produced with similar themes and goals in mind,” Schrank said.

School of Journalism Director Geneva Overholser sat in on Tolan’s final class of the semester and listened to the students’ final radio pieces.

“It makes me so proud to hear your professional and deeply moving work,” Overholser said at the end of class. “It is rich and powerful and makes me have so much hope for the future of our profession.”

The California Report
KQED
School of Journalism
Neon Tommy
Annenberg Radio News

Michael Parks to lead School of Journalism as interim director

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 22:27:46 GMT

USC Annenberg Professor Michael Parks, the Pulitzer Prize-winning former Los Angeles Times editor who led the School of Journalism from 2001 to 2008, will return to the helm in mid-June as interim director.

Parks is a journalist and educator whose assignments have taken him around the globe, and whose coverage of the struggle against apartheid in South Africa earned him the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting. From 1997-2000, Parks served as editor of the Los Angeles Times, a period during which the LAT garnered four additional Pulitzer Prizes.

“Michael Parks is a real star. His extraordinary wisdom and experience will be invaluable to our students, faculty and staff,” said USC Annenberg Dean Ernest J. Wilson III.

Construction is rolling forward on an 88,000-square-foot, five-floor building scheduled to open in Fall 2014 in the heart of USC’s main campus. Wallis Annenberg Hall will feature a 20,000-square-foot digitally converged newsroom, multipurpose broadcast studios, an open layout and spaces that reflect the school’s dedication to transparency, collaboration and experimentation.

Along with the new construction, USC Annenberg has launched a $150 million fundraising initiative, which will invest in the incoming generations of students and scholars exploring the digital future. The drive will pay for capital projects to enhance Wallis Annenberg Hall – labs, studios and technology – as well as student scholarships, fellowships, residencies, research centers and start-ups led by students and faculty. The initiative is part of the broader, multi-year, $6 billion Campaign for the University of Southern California.

“We have great students and a terrific faculty that is looking forward to taking full advantage of this wonderful new building and all the opportunities that it will provide in developing an even more innovative program for our students,” Parks said. “I’m proud to lead the USC Annenberg Journalism School as we move closer to this remarkable milestone.”

Parks joined the USC Annenberg faculty in fall 2000. In fall 2001, he became interim director of the School of Journalism. He was named director of the school in March 2002 and finished his term in June of 2008. From his first overseas assignment covering the war in Vietnam as The Baltimore Sun's Saigon correspondent, Parks has reported on major international news events from a variety of international cities, including Beijing, Moscow, Hong Kong, Johannesburg and Jerusalem.

As editor of the Los Angeles Times, Parks was responsible for news coverage and editorial page positions of the largest metropolitan newspaper in the United States. Under his direction, the Times grew an enhanced online news site, www.latimes.com.

At USC Annenberg, Parks has guided the creation and adoption of an innovative core curriculum that trains students to report stories for print, broadcast and new media. Under his direction, the school expanded its international reporting programs and its focus on developing expertise in covering diverse communities. The School of Journalism also deepened its commitment to mid-career training and professional development for journalists through the work of the Online Journalism Program, the USC Annenberg Getty Arts Journalism Fellowship program and the Strategic Public Relations Center.

Parks will be the interim replacement for Geneva Overholser, who is completing her five-year term as director in mid-June. The search will continue for a long-term director.

During her tenure, Overholser launched several key initiatives, including award-winning digital news site Neon Tommy, and civic engagement projects. The school strengthened its digital expertise, doubled its public relations faculty and added a total of 12 new faculty members to the school.

Under her direction, USC Annenberg strengthened the curriculum and news laboratories to give students a deeper practicum experience; partnerships with outside media organizations expanded dramatically, giving journalism and public relations students the opportunity to work alongside professionals in their fields and to build career experience as they pursue their degrees. USC Annenberg also won the 2012 national diversity award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) under Overholser’s leadership.