http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/ Current news items for the Annenberg School for Communications en-us Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:09:56 GMT Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:09:56 GMT 60 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/ http://www.asc.upenn.edu/assets/images/logo.jpg http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Dell H. Hymes, Ph.D., former dean of the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania, and who worked with many Annenberg students during his time at Penn, died November 13 in Charlottesville, Va. He was 82-years-old. Details are available at the <a href="http://www.gse.upenn.edu/node/1065 ">GSE web site</a>.<br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=627 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=627 Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT <a href="http://www.asc.upenn.edu/ascfaculty/FacultyBio.aspx?id=118">Elihu Katz</a>, Ph.D., Distinguished Trustee Professor of Communication, has published the article &quot;Media-Government-Public: Coalitions and Oppositions&quot; in <em>The Communication Review</em> (Vol. 12, Issue 3, July 2009, pages 199 - 204).<br /> <br /> <strong>Abstract: </strong><br /> Triangles, famously, describe coalitions and oppositions. It may be useful to think of the news as a triangle of relations among M, G and P, that is, among Media, Government (or Establishment), and People. Thus, &ldquo;routine news&rdquo; is typically initiated by G, resulting in a coalition with M. &ldquo;Investigative reporting&rdquo; of accidents and scandals is initiated by M, and aims for a coalition with P in opposition to G. Similarly, a &ldquo;revolutionary scenario&rdquo; is initiated by P against G, seeking to enlist M. A &ldquo;disaster&rdquo; scenario introduces a subversive agent S, aiming to undermine the system, but tempting M into a hate-love relationship. <br /> <br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=626 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=626 Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT <a href="http://www.asc.upenn.edu/ascfaculty/FacultyBio.aspx?id=137">Martin Fishbein</a>, Ph.D., the Harry C. Coles, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Communication, was the principal investigator in a study published in the Journal of Sex Research titled &ldquo;Estimating the Longitudinal Association Between Adolescent Sexual Behavior and Exposure to Sexual Media Content,&rdquo; (April 2009). Michael Hennessy from the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) was the lead author of the article, along with Prof. Fishbein&rsquo;s, and the APPC&rsquo;s Amy Bleakley, and Amy Jordan from the Annenberg Public Policy Center.<br /> <br /> The research behind the article indicates that sexual trajectory development differs by race and ethnicity, and that if understanding the role and relationship of media exposure to sexual activity by teens may require analysis of younger subjects.<br /> <br /> <strong>Abstract:</strong><br /> <br /> The purpose of this study is to estimate the association between adolescent sexual behavior and exposure to sexual media content. A three-wave, longitudinal survey sample (N=506) of 14- to 16-year-olds at baseline is analyzed using growth curves. Growth trajectories are linear for sexual behavior but not for exposure to sexual media content. The signs of the exposure slopes are not uniformly positive: Hispanic and African American respondents show declines of exposure to sexual media content over the age range investigated here. Although changes in exposure to sex content are highly associated with changes in sexual behavior among Whites, there is little or no association between changes in these variables among Blacks.<br /> <br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=625 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=625 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT The past decade has seen dramatic changes in the information and communication environment. Parameters as to who has access to information gathering and dissemination have altered rapidly and irreversibly. As the traditional news media model is threatened by shrinking audiences, the availability of free content online, and the declining fortunes of mainstream media, civil society actors such as NGOs and advocacy networks are becoming increasingly significant players. <br /> <br /> This essay series, organized by the Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) at the Annenberg School, University of Pennsylvania, in cooperation with the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University, seeks to examine what these changes mean for NGOs, traditional media outlets, news consumers, and society at large. Each week, for the next three months, we will feature a new essay on the subject. To what extent do NGOs take on functions as information intermediaries, working in cooperation with, or even in the stead of, traditional news organizations? Are we witnessing a general trend, or do NGOs fulfill specific purposes in times of crisis or critical events that focus attention on a specific (international) topic? And what are the consequences of this for the fields of advocacy and journalism?<br /> <br /> These essays are the outcome of recent workshops that have explored various aspects of these developments and are part of a larger project supported by the Ford Foundation.<br /> <br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=624 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=624 Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Ph.D., the Elizabeth Ware Packard Professor of Communication and Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center, is the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award, part of the 2009 Spectrum Awards from the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Red Cross.<br /> <br /> Prof. Jamieson was presented with this award during a breakfast ceremony in Philadelphia on November 5. <br /> <br /> &ldquo;(Dr. Jamieson) embodies the spirit of the Red Cross,&rdquo; said Tom Foley, CEO of the Southeastern Pennsylvania chapter of the American Red Cross. &ldquo;She is a pioneer who operates at the very highest echelons of her field.&rdquo;<br /> <br /> &ldquo;Kathleen Hall Jamieson follows a tradition of outstanding community leaders, including Trudy Rubin, columnist and editorial board member for the Philadelphia Inquirer, Dr. Amy Gutmann, president of the University of Pennsylvania, Dawn Staley, head coach of Temple University&rsquo;s Women&rsquo;s Basketball Team, and Sister Mary Scullion, co-founder and executive director of Project H.O.M.E,&rdquo; said Karol Wasylyshyn, Chapter Board member and chair of the Spectrum Committee. &ldquo;On behalf of the Spectrum Committee and Board of Directors, I am thrilled to welcome them into this elite circle of women.&rdquo;<br /> <br /> Also honored was Shelly Yanoff, executive director of Public Citizens for Children and Youth, who received the Clara Barton Outstanding Humanitarian Award for Community Service.<br /> <br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=623 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=623 Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT <div style="text-align: center;"><strong>Technology is <em><u>not</u></em> the great isolator some think it to be</strong></div> <br /> People who use modern information and communication technologies have larger and more diverse social networks than previously thought, according to new national survey findings that for the first time explore how people use the Internet and mobile phones to interact with key family and friends. <br /> <br /> These new findings challenge fears that use of new technologies has contributed to a long-term increase in social isolation in the United States.<br /> <br /> The findings from a joint study by the Annenberg School for Communication and the Pew Internet &amp; American Life Project show that, on average, the size of people&rsquo;s discussion networks &ndash; those with whom people discuss important matters&ndash; is 12% larger amongst mobile phone users, 9% larger for those who share photos online, and 9% bigger for those who use instant messaging. The diversity of people&rsquo;s core networks &ndash; their closest and most significant confidants &ndash; tends to be 25% larger for mobile phone users, 15% larger for basic internet users, and even larger for frequent internet users, those who use instant messaging, and those who share digital photos online.<br /> <br /> The survey was conducted by researchers led by Keith N. Hampton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Communication and the Pew Internet Project. <a href="http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/2009/Hampton_Pew/Internet_Project.pdf ">More &hellip;</a><br /> <br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=622 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=622 Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521749046"><img height="259" align="left" width="175" src="http://www.asc.upenn.edu/userfiles/image/Cover_small.jpg" alt="" /></a><a href="http://www.asc.upenn.edu/ascfaculty/FacultyBio.aspx?id=165">Marwan M. Kraidy</a>, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, has published <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521749046"><em>Reality Television and Arab Politics:&nbsp; Contention in Public Life</em></a>,&nbsp; (Cambridge, 2009).<br /> <br /> <strong>About the book: </strong><br /> <br /> What does it mean to be modern outside the West? Based on a wealth of primary data collected over five years, Reality Television and Arab Politics analyzes how reality television stirred an explosive mix of religion, politics, and sexuality, fuelling heated polemics over cultural authenticity, gender relations, and political participation in the Arab world. The controversies, Kraidy argues, are best understood as a social laboratory in which actors experiment with various forms of modernity, continuing a long-standing Arab preoccupation with specifying terms of engagement with Western modernity. Women and youth take center stage in this process. Against the backdrop of dramatic upheaval in the Middle East, this book challenges the notion of a monolithic &lsquo;Arab Street&rsquo; and offers an original perspective on Arab media, shifting attention away from a narrow focus on al-Jazeera, toward a vibrant media sphere that compels broad popular engagement and contentious political performance.<br /> <br /> <strong>What some readers have said:</strong><br /> <br /> 'Kraidy demolishes the notion that Arab television is all about news programs, and everything else is 'mere entertainment'. Reality Television and Arab Politics leaves no doubt that entertainment must be taken seriously. This book is indispensable for the study and teaching of Arab media.' <br /> -&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Walter Armbrust, St. Anthony&rsquo;s College, Oxford University</em><br /> <br /> 'What a splendid book! With a focus on the reality TV genre, Marwan Kraidy offers a wide-ranging analysis of Arab media in a process of dramatic change, highlighting how they in turn contribute to the dynamics of political, social and cultural transitions. These media take on profound relevance in regard to democratization, evolving notions of collective and individual identity, and perceptions of modernization. In a series of fascinating case studies, he traces the reception of pan-Arab reality TV programming, elucidating audience patterns, responses from political and religious elites, and the often intense &lsquo;culture wars&rsquo; that emerge between various factions. In the process, we learn a good deal about Arab politics and culture, as well as specifics about these societies and the sharp contrasts between them: Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Dubai. Not least we are offered insights into the complex character of Islam, and the some of the key issues that it is facing, especially in regard to new media cultures. This volume should attract many readers from a variety of disciplines. Kraidy writes with a fine style, and his text is both lucid and engaging. The case studies are structured almost as mini-thrillers. He tells a compelling story with each one &ndash; and in the end leaves the reader very edified.' <br /> -&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<em> Peter Dahlgren, Lund University, Sweden (and a former visiting scholar through the Annenberg&nbsp; Scholars Program in Culture and Communication)</em><br /> <br /> 'Marwan Kraidy is the best analyst of television we have. Perhaps his greatest expertise is to do with reality television and the Arab world. So when he puts these elements together, the result is riveting. More than that, it provides an essential guide to the future of media and cultural analysis more generally, because Kraidy has an eye for the large canvas as well as the minute detail. A remarkable work.' <br /> -&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Toby Miller, author of Makeover Nation: The United States of Reinvention</em><br /> <br /> 'We&rsquo;ve all heard about the satellite news revolution in the Middle East, but Marwan Kraidy shows the revolution on the ground. Reality TV simultaneously evokes and mirrors the ambitions of Arabs to become modern on their own terms. Kraidy&rsquo;s broad narrative sweep reflects the desires of those who use reality TV to achieve power, money, and fame; he analyzes just as acutely its viewers and fans whose aim is to find unspoiled heroes and alternative universes where cherished values are untarnished by religious and political cant.'<br /> -&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Mary Ann Tetreault, Trinity University, Texas</em><br /> <br /> 'This important book introduces a much needed internationally comparative dimension to the analysis of the global trade in reality television formats, as well as providing a detailed, nuanced, and exhaustively researched account of the production and consumption of reality TV in the Arab world. Marwan Kraidy demonstrates the dramatic socio-cultural impact of reality TV in this context, outlining a far more complicated and politically contingent role than is usually understood by Western accounts of the format.' <br /> -&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <em>Graeme Turner, University of Queensland, Australia</em><br /> <br /> <br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=619 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=619 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT Annenberg alumnus Oren Meyers (ASC &rsquo;00, GR &rsquo;04), currently with the Department of Communication, University of Haifa in Israel, has published an article in the Journal of Communication (Volume 59, Issue 3, pages 456 &ndash; 480) titled &ldquo;Prime Time Commemoration: An Analysis of Television Broadcasts on Israel's Memorial Day for the Holocaust and the Heroism&rdquo;. His co-authors are Eyal Zandberg and Motti Neiger, both with the School of Communication, Netanya Academic College in Israel.<br /> <br /> <strong>Abstract:</strong><br /> <br /> This study explores the ways in which commercial media perceive and manifest their public mnemonic role. It does so via an exploration of the &quot;memory menu&quot;&mdash;the contents and flow of programming&mdash;offered by Channel 2, Israel's leading commercial television channel, on the eve of the country's Memorial Day for the Holocaust and the Heroism (MDHH), in which the airing of commercials is banned. In order to do so, the study incorporates a multilevel analysis that probes the structure of entire broadcasting evenings as well as the narrative building blocks that constitute each item. The study investigates the ways in which commercial media outlets operate in the context of &quot;commercial vacuums&quot; as they substitute material capital with symbolic capital. This process is illuminated through Channel 2's inability to work MDHH into its extremely successful routine broadcasting formulas. The channel's MDHH broadcasts construct a commemorative narrative that is insulated from day-to-day Israeli public Holocaust memory discourse; hence they operate as a significant site of Israeli postmemory work. Furthermore, such a narrative not only commemorates the memory of the Holocaust itself but also the ways in which Israeli culture used to narrate the memory of the Holocaust in the past.<br /> <br /> <br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=620 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=620 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT Annenberg alumna Magdalena Wojcieszak (GR &rsquo;08), currently with the IE School of Communication at the IE University in Segovia, Spain has published an article in the Journal of Communication (Volume 59, Issue 3, pages 562-586) titled &ldquo;&rsquo; Carrying Online Participation Offline&rsquo;&mdash;Mobilization by Radical Online Groups and Politically Dissimilar Offline Ties&rdquo;. <br /> <br /> <strong>Abstract:</strong><br /> <br /> This study analyzes survey data obtained from members in neo-Nazi and environmentalist discussion forums. It assesses the links between participation in radical and ideologically homogeneous online groups and two forms of political engagement (Movement Support and Movement Promotion). This study also tests whether perceived political dissimilarity of offline friends and family (core ties) and of more distant interpersonal associates (significant ties) encourages or thwarts political engagement and whether it moderates the influence exerted by online groups. As expected, political engagement among the analyzed respondents increases with online participation, also controlling for extremism, political discussion and news media use. Although dissimilar core ties neither encourage nor discourage political engagement, they moderate the mobilizing influence from neo-Nazi and radical environmentalist online groups. Dissimilar significant ties, in turn, do not directly affect political engagement and do not interact with online participation. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.<br /> <br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=621 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=621 Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT <a href="http://www.asc.upenn.edu/ascfaculty/FacultyBio.aspx?id=108 ">Barbie Zelizer</a>, Ph.D., the Raymond Williams Professor of Communication and Director of the Annenberg Scholars Program in Culture and Communication, will deliver the keynote address during the symposium <a href="http://www.ryerson.ca/news/events/General_Public/20091030_imagearts.html">&ldquo;War at a Distance: Documentary Practice, Visual Culture and Public Conversations about Military Conflict&rdquo;</a> this Friday, October 30, at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.<br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=618 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=618 Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT