Why Annenberg Matters
Since its founding in 1958, Annenberg has been at the forefront of socially transforming breakthroughs in areas such as public health, democracy, media literacy and data science. Our new video series explores the impact of Annenberg’s groundbreaking work, past and present, revealing how our research and scholarship are shaping the future of health, media and social understanding. As the landscape of higher education shifts, these videos highlight some of what is at stake.
In Service of a Healthier, Happier World
How we talk about health matters. At the Annenberg School, scholars study how messages spread, who they reach and how they change lives. By examining the role of interpersonal and mass-mediated communication on health-related attitudes, opinions and behaviors, our scholars seek to improve the quality of personal and public health.
In Service of an Informed Democracy
Determining fact over fiction matters. For decades, scholars at the School have been researching not just misinformation but also what it means to be a citizen, to be able to participate in free elections, and to experience the privileges of our Constitution. The Annenberg Public Policy Center is one of many centers at the School that produces research, conferences and policy discussions to inform policymakers, journalists and the general public about the role media plays in their lives and in the life of the nation.
Connecting Culture and Democracy
In a democracy, media matters. In the mid-20th century, Gilbert Seldes, the founding dean of the Annenberg School, proposed a revolutionary idea: that cultural forms like jazz, comics and television were crucial to shaping our democracy. Today, as digital platforms proliferate and global media landscapes transform, Annenberg scholars continue to explore how emerging cultural expressions profoundly influence our identity, worldview and potential for societal transformation.
Making Sense of the World with Data
How we use data matters. Since Klaus Krippendorff, the Gregory Bateson Professor Emeritus of Communication at Annenberg, transformed the practice of content analysis advancing the fields of political science, social science, marketing, national security and AI — the School has been at the forefront of computational social science. To this day, our scholars use data to inform decision making across industry, policy and health care domains — and ultimately, to make sense of the world.
