http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/ Current news items for the Annenberg School for Communications en-us Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:48:21 GMT Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:48:21 GMT 60 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/ http://www.asc.upenn.edu/assets/images/logo.jpg http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss 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 Annenberg Professor <a href="http://www.asc.upenn.edu/ascfaculty/FacultyBio.aspx?id=177">Devra Moehler</a> has, along with Professor Staffan I. Lindberg from the University of Florida, published an article titled &ldquo;Narrowing the Legitimacy Gap: Turnovers as a Cause of Democratic Consolidation&rdquo; in the <em>Journal of Politics</em> (vol. 71, Issue 4, October 2009, pages 1448 &ndash; 1466). <br /> <br /> <strong>Abstract</strong>:<br /> <br /> Democratic consolidation depends on common perceptions of institutional legitimacy among citizens aligned with governing and opposition parties. Elections always result in winners and losers, but if they also create subservient insiders and aggrieved outsiders, the future of the democratic system will be uncertain. This article theorizes about why certain electoral qualities (elections that produce turnovers, are peaceful, accepted by opposition parties, and free and fair) should reduce winner-loser gaps in perceived institutional legitimacy. The hypotheses are tested using a hierarchical two-step statistical procedure to analyze three rounds of Afrobarometer microlevel data combined with national-level data on African elections between 1989 and 2006. The analyses indicate that electoral turnovers (and only turnovers) have a significant moderating effect on the citizenry. Following alternations of power, winners and losers converge in their attitudes about their institutions, thus furthering the consolidation of democracy.<br /> <br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=617 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=617 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT Annenberg doctoral student Mario Rodriguez has published an article in the journal <em>Fast Capitalism</em> (Issue 5.2) titled &quot;Sign Story: Shifting Discourse on 'signage' in <em>Progressive Grocer</em> Magazine, or the Supermarket Under Late Capitalism.&quot;<br /> <br /> <strong>Abstract</strong><br /> <br /> The totalizing forces of Wal-Mart have in recent years become a significant threat to grocery stores. Store owners have responded by shifting their focus to the sale of perishables, reorganization of the spatial order of their stores and re-conceptualization of point-of-sale signs. This study chronicles the discussion of in-store signage in the publication Progressive Grocer from 1996 to 2008, examining the variety of signs and their effects on labor, as well as the implications of signs for the shopping experience, surveillance, and commodities under late capitalism. The study concludes with a discussion of signs in the grocery store in terms of Baudrillard&amp;rsquo;s theory of symbolic exchange. Baudrillard&amp;rsquo;s theory has penetrated culture down to the everyday space of the grocery store and the food we eat.<br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=616 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=616 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT <a href="http://www.asc.upenn.edu/ascfaculty/FacultyBio.aspx?id=154 ">Monroe E. Price</a>, Director of the <a href="http://www.global.asc.upenn.edu/">Center for Global Communication Studies</a>, has published an article in the International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society titled &ldquo;Media Transitions in the Rear-View Mirror: Some Reflections&rdquo;.<br /> <br /> <strong>Abstract</strong><br /> <br /> This essay explores the development of media systems in Central and Eastern Europe in the post-Soviet period, including the influence of social and political factors, outside media assistance, and the drive toward privatization and public service broadcasting, in an effort to understand what the experience teaches about democracy promotion, about the efficacy of various forms of media intervention, and about the utility of various forms of incentives and pressures in setting agendas and effecting political change. Despite differing historical, social, and political traditions and different forms of and reactions to media assistance efforts, factors, both exogenous (&ldquo;Americanization&rdquo; and &ldquo;strategic communication&rdquo;) and endogenous (&ldquo;modernization,&rdquo; secularization and commercialization), ultimately contributed to a homogenization of systems, rendering less relevant the particular distinctions among countries.<br /> <br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=613 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=613 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT <div style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Contrary to what many marketers claim, most Americans do not want online advertisements tailored by marketers to their specific interests. That&rsquo;s a conclusion from a new consumer privacy study by the Berkeley Center for Law &amp; Technology at UC Berkeley School of Law (Berkeley Law), and the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. The report, <i><a href="http://ssrn.com/abstract=1478214">Americans Reject Tailored Advertising</a> </i>shows that 66 percent of adults said no to tailored ads. Not only that, when informed of specific behavioral targeting techniques that marketers employ to create the ads, even higher percentages&mdash; between 73 percent and 86 percent&mdash;oppose tailored advertising. Those techniques include tracking behavior on websites and in retail stores.</span></div> <div style="line-height: 150%;">&nbsp;</div> <div style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">The study is the first nationally representative telephone survey that explores Americans&rsquo; opinions about behavioral targeting, a controversial issue now under scrutiny by the Federal Trade Commission and government policymakers. Behavioral targeting involves two types of activities: following consumers&rsquo; actions and then tailoring advertisements for the consumers based on those actions.</span></div> <div style="line-height: 150%;">&nbsp;</div> <div style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">While privacy advocates have lambasted behavioral targeting for tracking and labeling people in ways they do not know or understand, marketers have defended the practice by insisting it gives Americans what they want: advertisements and other forms of content that are as relevant to their lives as possible. Not so, according to lead author <a href="http://www.asc.upenn.edu/ascfaculty/FacultyBio.aspx?id=128">Professor Joseph Turow</a> of the Annenberg School.&nbsp;&ldquo;This study finds that in high percentages, Americans stand on the side of privacy advocates,&rdquo; said Prof. Turow.</span></div> <div style="line-height: 150%;">&nbsp;</div> <div style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Although the study found that younger American adults are less likely to reject tailored advertising, more than half (54 percent) of 18- 24 year-olds rejected it. Prof. Turow noted that &ldquo;contrary to consistent assertions by marketers, young adults have as strong an aversion to being followed online as do older adults.&rdquo;</span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: 150%;">&nbsp;</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">The Berkeley-Annenberg team found that 92 percent of those polled agree there should be a law that requires websites and advertising companies to delete all stored information about an individual, if requested to do so. Sixty-three percent believe advertisers should be legally required to delete information about their internet activity immediately, whether requested or not.</span></div> <div style="text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: 150%;">&nbsp;</div> <div style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">According to co-author Jennifer King, a former research fellow with Berkeley Law, &ldquo;When it comes to privacy and the internet, many Americans think they have far more protections than the law actually offers them. This is a strong signal to regulators that more clarity is needed regarding how the public&rsquo;s information is protected online.&rdquo; </span></div> <div style="line-height: 150%;">&nbsp;</div> <div style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">Study co-author Chris Hoofnagle, a lecturer and research fellow at Berkeley Law, said the findings show a disconnect between American consumers and marketers. &ldquo;Marketers will have to take significant steps to overcome consumer discomfort with tailored advertising.&rdquo;</span></div> <div style="line-height: 150%;">&nbsp;</div> <div style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: &quot;Arial&quot;,&quot;sans-serif&quot;;">The report will be discussed by co-authors Hoofnagle and Turow at the <a href="http://www.law.nyu.edu/centers/ili/colloquia/fall2009/index.htm">New York University School of Law&rsquo;s Workshop on Federal Privacy Legislation</a> on Friday, October 2, 2009. <br /> <br /> <div style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;">For more information about the workshop and the study, contact:</span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: 150%;">&nbsp;</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;">Professor Joseph Turow at 215.898.5842, <a href="mailto:jturow@asc.upenn.edu">jturow@asc.upenn.edu</a>; </span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;">Jennifer King at </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;">415.990.8227, <a href="mailto:jenking@law.berkeley.edu">jenking@law.berkeley.edu</a>; and,</span></div> <div style="line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 150%; font-family: Arial;">Chris Hoofnagle at 510.664.4327, <a href="mailto:choofnagle@law.berkeley.edu">choofnagle@law.berkeley.edu</a>.</span></div> <br /> </span></div> <br /> http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=612 http://www.asc.upenn.edu/news/NewsDetail.aspx?nid=612 Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT