Fall 2013
        
Marty Kaplan Norman Lear Center

"Like a boxer, he is relentless." Pardon my preening, but that's what the LA Press Club said when they awarded me First Place for Best Columnist. Hope you're knocked out by what the Lear Center's been up to!

There Were Social Networks Before There Was Facebook
Stanford Professor of Sociology Mark Granovetter has won the 2013 Everett M. Rogers Award. Cited over 24,000 times, Granovetter's 1973 paper "The Strength of Weak Ties" is a social science classic and a milestone in network theory. At the USC Annenberg School on Wednesday, September 18 at 12 noon, Granovetter will present "'The Strength of Weak Ties' Revisited."

The event is free and open to the public but RSVP IS REQUIRED.
Cronkite Awards Honor Best Coverage
Proving that political coverage can be both informative and compelling, the 2013 winners of the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism were presented at the National Press Club in April. Among them: eight local stations and reporters across the country were singled out for quality, and BET and Univision won for national network programming. This competition introduced a new category: the Cronkite/Jackson Prize for Fact Checking Political Messages. Check out all the winners and watch the panel discussion about the future of political journalism.
Weapons of Mass Distraction
In a country as rich as America, why is there little outcry about the increasing gulf between the top and everyone else? Why do we hear so little about crucial issues like climate change? In an interview with Bill Moyers, Marty Kaplan points to forces keeping affected citizens in the dark - especially our well-fed appetite for media distraction. Kaplan also explained "How Big Money, Big Media, Big Data, Bad Science and the Entertainmentization of Everything Are Undermining America" at a benefit for public radio station KSFR 101.1 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 
"The Image of the Washington Journalist in Movies and Television, 1932 to 2013" made its international premiere at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference in Washington, D.C. The eight-and-a-half hour video compilation is the latest project of the Lear Center's Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture. Project director Joe Saltzman said, "We discovered that the Washington journalist is one of the more heroic images of the journalist in popular culture."
The New York Times covered the recent launch of an ambitious new project aimed at measuring the social impact of media, supported by $3.25 million in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Media Impact Project will establish the Lear Center as a hub for best practices, innovation and thought leadership in media metrics. For a taste of the project, watch Johanna Blakley present findings on the film, Food, Inc. at the Media That Matters conference.
Songs in the Key of Los Angeles - Lear Center Popular Music Project director Josh Kun's collaboration with the LA Public Library Foundation - delivered an unforgettable night of music featuring Ozomatli and Stevie Wonder. This fall, the PMP launches a partnership with the Southwest Museum to reimagine the
Charles Fletcher Lummis collection of Mexican American and Native American songs from 1895-1912. PMP is also accepting applications for a weeklong seminar at the Lear Center on Jews in the American pop scene.
Hollwood, Health & Society
Medical and health care experts joined Hollywood producers at the Writers Guild Theater to share facts and stories about the human face of health care and the impact of the Affordable Care Act.

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With over a decade of experience, HH&S has now gone global, launching joint projects in India and Nigeria to use the power of entertainment to change the lives of millions of TV and film viewers.

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HH&S encouraged accurate depictions of climate change by enabling TV writers to tour Santa Cruz Island and to see a screening of the film Chasing Ice. Marty Kaplan also discussed his take on climate news coverage on Lance Bass's radio show.
Hollywood writers were given a first-hand look at innovative programs in East and South Los Angeles which tackle the challenge of getting more fresh, affordable and healthy food into urban communities.

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More Upcoming Events
Discourse surrounding science-based issues is often overwhelmed by controversy and conflicting perceptions, hampering understanding and action. Marty Kaplan is a panelist at the NAS conference on "The Science of Science Communication" September 24 in Washington D.C.

Register Here
Join Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols as they introduce their new book, Dollarocracy: The Money and Media Election Complex That is Destroying America, during a luncheon event at the USC Annenberg School, Monday, October 21, 2013. The event is free to the public.

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Scholars, athletes and practitioners engaged in the intersection of sports and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender experience will gather for a series of panels and discussions examining the implications of sexual orientation and gender identity in sports. RSVP information to come.

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Lear Center managing director and director of research Johanna Blakley will  give her fourth TED talk on September 20, 2013 at TEDxOrangeCoast in Costa Mesa and she will examine "The Evolving Culture of Science Engagement" at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on September 23, 2013.

The Norman Lear Center is a nonpartisan research and public policy center that studies and shapes the impact of entertainment and media on the world. The Lear Center translates its findings into action through testimony, journalism, strategic research and innovative public outreach campaigns. On campus, from its base in the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the Lear Center builds bridges between schools and disciplines whose faculty study aspects of entertainment, media and culture. Beyond campus, it bridges the gap between the entertainment industry and academia, and between them and the public. Join our mailing list here.

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