Fall 2016 USC Annenberg Agenda

usc annenberg agenda EMPOWERING THE NEXT GENERATION OF LEADERS

IDEAS FROM THE USC ANNENBERG SCHOOL FOR COMMUNICATION AND JOURNALISM SUMMER 2016

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features

22 Future Prospects 28 Tracking Shot: Inclusivity in Hollywood also included...

2 Celebrating the Women of Annenberg 4 Meet the New Hufschmid Chair 6 Meet the New Faculty 7 Skate Diplomacy 8 Mentoring Tomorrow’s Radio Talent 10 M {2e} Women’s Leadership Speaker Series Connects Young Alumnae With Students

12 How Community Engagement Shapes our Students 14 # diverSCity: Bringing the Conversation about Diversity to the Forefront

16 China in Focus stay connected with usc annenberg social media

Annenberg Agenda is published twice a year by the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

We welcome your comments. Send your feedback to gdauphin@usc.edu The University of Southern California admits students of any race, color, and national or ethnic origin. annenberg.usc.edu

18 Kim Moses: Be Open to Discovery 19 Judy Smith: Be a Gladiator for Yourself 20 Creating the Next Generation of Empowerment Initiatives 32 Faculty Publications 33 Instagram@uscannenberg 34 USC Annenberg Alumni in Action 36 Alumni Notes 37 Pulitzer Prize for Alumni at the Los Angeles Times 39 B oard of Councilors 41 Day of SCervice 2016

dean’s column

DIVERSITY, INCLUSION AND EMPOWERMENT @ ANNENBERG

By Ernest J. Wilson III

At Annenberg “diversity” is not just an aspiration, it’s an actuality. We think and talk about diversity in our classrooms and hallways, we teach it and we conduct research on it. We change the world around us by engaging deeply with scholars, executives and practitioners beyond the campus.

Just walk into the new Wallis Annenberg Hall, and take a look through the glass walls of the Julie Chen/Leslie Moonves and CBS Media Center. Chances are you’ll be struck by the number of women and students of color making media there. Less visible—but just as important for today’s society—is the diversity and integration of their programs, as public relations, journalism and communications students collaborate at news desks covering sports, L.A. politics, USC’s neighborhood and entertainment. Note the diversity of the technologies they use as well. This is where the excitement really occurs, as students and faculty of different backgrounds bring their unique perspectives to bear on the advancement of a common purpose.

The Media Center is not just a laboratory and classroom but a working newsroom as well, so our students are inventing new ways to understand and report on diverse communities. Indeed, all our programs throughout the school wrestle daily with how to re-invent the meaning of diversity for a new age.

Sometimes, this means fostering difficult, even uncomfortable, conversations about race, gender, sexuality and other differences that characterize American society today. Unless we all feel at least a little discomfort, we’re probably not pressing hard enough to advance our understanding. Confronting our assumptions about tough questions is at the core of an Annenberg education.

Dean Ernest J. Wilson III For example, we need to disentangle the different meanings of diversity. How is diversity different from inclusion?

From empowerment? How do we combine all of them creatively to foster the innovation our world so badly needs?

These are key questions facing the companies who hire our students. Employers tell us constantly not to send them anyone with a conventional perspective on the world because that world is changing deeply in unexpected ways. Organizations—whether in media, communication, finance, technology or education—need diverse perspectives and people who are comfortable with those of different backgrounds.

On a personal note, as an African–American male who grew up in a segregated, southern city—Washington, D.C. —I’m astonished to see so many advances in communication and journalism. Yet I can’t help but recognize how much work remains to be done if we’re to have a media ecology that fully represents today’s diverse realities.

In these pages, you will read about just a portion of the amazing work my colleagues are doing to include and empower those who have too long been excluded. Some programs have been at Annenberg for years, like Stacy Smith’s widely-heralded Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative. Others, like the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg (IDEA) and its summer program for Ph.D. students, both now steered by professor Taj Frazier, are very new.

Over the course of this past year we held many events on the themes of diversity and inclusion. At one, an undergraduate student shared that, for the millennial generation, “we are all diverse in some way.” We should take this insightful comment to heart. Indeed, her comment is very much at the heart of what makes the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism the great institution that it is today.

CELEBRATING THE WOMEN OF ANNENBERG Samantha Chow

Leave no one behind.

That was the premise behind “Women of Annenberg,” a photo project featuring more than 50 women who work across USC Annenberg—faculty members, staff and custodial workers. Portraits of the women were featured in an exhibit and on screens around Wallis Annenberg Hall throughout March, in honor of Women’s History Month.

“I think one of the things is there are so many of us, but we don’t know each other really well,” said lecturer Miki Turner, who, along with her photojournalism class (JOUR 330), spent a week taking portraits and videos of the women. “So this was an opportunity to bond and also to celebrate ourselves and our accomplishments collectively and individually.”

When Turner extended an invitation to all women who work at the school, she said the point was to leave no one behind.

“The plan and the initial intent was always to include everyone who works in these buildings— the original Annenberg building and Wallis Annenberg Hall—because we’re all part of this family,” Turner said. “We all do great work at whatever level we’re at, and it’s time to celebrate all these people.”

With the help of Turner’s photojournalism students, as well as students from the JEDI (Journalism and Emerging Digital Innovation) class taught by professors Amara Aguilar and Rebecca Haggerty, the women had their portraits taken and were filmed talking about the most inspirational woman in their lives.

Professor Alison Trope, one of the participants of the photo shoot, said she was initially leery of being photographed. But, once she saw the kind of momentum the project was gaining, her initial shyness dissipated. Trope, who teaches gender, media and communications, applauded the way the photo shoot was recognizing a wide range of inspirational women.

“It really opens up the fact that an everyday woman can be an inspiration,” Trope said. “It doesn’t have to be a great historical figure or someone who has a political role or power. It can be, in my case, my 99-year-old grandmother who still lives by herself and bakes and always has a full fridge. She’s amazing.”

Arriving in the wake of studies conducted by the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg (IDEA) and the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative at USC Annenberg, such as the recent “Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity in Entertainment,” “Women of Annenberg” struck its student participants as particularly timely.

“I think a project like this makes it more concrete,” said Laura Bouzari (B.A. English Literature ’17).

She was glad that the photo shoot opened up opportunities to discuss some of the uncomfortable topics covered by the studies, such as gender inequality, diversity and stereotyping within the professional working environment.

“There are these women that do teach, do have families, work in the entertainment industry, do all that kind of stuff,” Bouzari said. “They should be celebrated for it, and not just shock people that they do.”

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Previous page (clockwise from top left): Amara Aguilar, Annie Mateen, Betzabel Alcantra, Billie Shotlow, Erika Hang, Miki Turner, Rebecca Weintraub This page (beginning top row, left to right): Dana Chinn, Debra Lawler, Patricia Riley, Dorine Lawrence-Hughes, Jennifer Floto, Judy Muller, Karen North, Laura CastaĂąeda, Nancy Ruiz, Patricia Carvajal, Rebecca Haggerty, Sarah Banet-Weiser, Willa Seidenberg, Willow Bay

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MEET THE NEW HUFSCHMID CHAIR Ameera Butt

“It really is the highest honor that faculty members can receive,” said Michael Quick, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at USC, during a formal April 18 ceremony to install Robert V. Kozinets as the Jayne and Hans Hufschmid Chair in Strategic Public Relations and Business Communication.

Quick welcomed USC administrators, friends, students and scholars who gathered in the forum of Wallis Annenberg Hall to mark the official installation.

Endowed chairs are incredibly important to universities, because they help attract the best and brightest faculty, Quick continued.

“Receiving the honor of being in an endowed chair signifies great work in the past, but also the promise of great work in the future,” he said.

Kozinets is a globally recognized expert in marketing research, strategy and social media. He coined the term “netnography,” which applies the anthropological approach

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JOHN ADAMS

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of ethnography to the new types of social experience and interaction that emerge through networked digital communications. The Hufschmid Chair is similarly dedicated to future-focused, interdisciplinary scholarship and is designed to provide academic and research leadership at the intersection of business and communication.

Both Jayne and Hans Hufschmid have strong ties to the university. Jayne Hufschmid earned a bachelor of arts from USC and a Masters in Public Relations, while Hans Hufschmid earned a bachelor of science in business administration from what is now known as the USC Marshall School of Business.

Previous page: Robert Kozinets tries out the Hufschmid chair. © DAVID SPRAGUE This page (clockwise from top left):Jayne Hufschmid (left) and Hans Hufschmid (right). © DAVID SPRAGUE; (L to R) USC Marshall School of Business Dean James Ellis, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism Dean Ernest J. Wilson III, Robert Kozinets, Jayne Hufschmid, Hans Hufschmid, and USC Provost Michael Quick © DAVID SPRAGUE; (L to R) Dean Ernest J. Wilson III, and Robert Kozinets © DAVID SPRAGUE; Jayne Hufschmid (center) © DAVID SPRAGUE; Ulrike Gretzel (left) and Robert Kozinets (right) © DAVID SPRAGUE

The Hufschmids addressed the gathering of attendees, which included faculty from both USC Annenberg and the USC Marshall School of Business, which will jointly administer the position. The Hufschmids said they wanted to give back to the university that educated them and and nurtured their careers.

Jayne Hufschmid said the chair “represents a nod to the very beginning of who we were, what our dreams were and the journey we embarked on.”

Collection of the Los Angeles Public Library

Kozinets aims to use his new role to continue and help business managers and those in other organizations to understand technology, media and consumers better, he told attendees of the ceremony.

“It’s a great privilege that I take extremely seriously, and I consider it the greatest honor to be doing it here at USC among so many distinguished and brilliant scholars, educators and students,” Kozinets said.

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MEET THE NEW FACULTY Samantha Chow

From an educator who invented a digital anthropology concept to the CEO of one of the world’s largest public relations agencies, USC Annenberg has brought on a number of accomplished and brilliant minds to teach classes within the last year.

Fred Cook When Fred Cook, then Golin CEO and now chairman, was appointed director of USC Annenberg Center for Public Relations, it marked the first time the school has had an active CEO lead the Center. Next year, he will teach a course on the relationship between creativity and courage, which he says are two of the qualities the public relations industry desperately needs. Through research and innovation, he looks forward to empowering students and industry leaders to shape the future of the industry. Based on his experiences with USC Annenberg’s faculty and curriculum this year, he feels confident his students will play a leadership role as the next generation of communicators.

Laura Davis Formerly a mobile news editor at BuzzFeed and a deputy mobile editor at the Los Angeles Times, Laura Davis is eager to share her experience with students. As a USC Annenberg alumna (B.A. Journalism ’08), she is excited to teach at her alma mater and be inspired by her students. Davis acted as digital advisor to the graduate-level capstone projects this semester, and will teach Mobile and Emerging Platforms in the fall. As journalists move into a new era of storytelling, she enjoys watching students experiment with new platforms and helping them develop their ideas.

Robert Kozinets A widely recognized educator, Robert Kozinets is a recipient of the Sidney Levy Teaching Award and has taught marketing all over the world. He was previously a professor at Northwestern University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and York University. This spring, he taught the graduate-level class Strategic Public Relations Research, Evaluation and Insights. He has been working on developing a class for 2017 on netnography, a digital anthropology concept that he invented in 1995. He is excited to teach at USC Annenberg, where he hopes to build courses and do research that advance academic and popular understanding about the social and economic impacts of our new digital communications systems. For more on professor Kozinets and his recent installation as the Hufschmid Chair, turn to page 4.

Christina Dunbar-Hester Prior to joining USC Annenberg, Christina Dunbar-Hester taught journalism and media studies at Rutgers University. She is among a new generation of scholars exploring the intersection of technology and political engagement and has published an award-winning book on how low power FM radio is used for activism.

Her current research centers on diversity issues in open technology communities like hackerspaces and open source software. She teaches Studies in Communication Theory: Science and Technology Studies which looks at how technology is shaped by historical and contemporary social forces. As an author and researcher herself, Hester is excited to teach at an institution renowned for its world-class researchers and students.

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Neftalie Willams (main; right; insert, left) introduces Syrian refugees to skateboarding techniques, culture and values. © MIKE DREXLER

SKATE DIPLOMACY In March, USC Annenberg lecturer and alum Neftalie Williams traveled to the Dutch city of Eindhoven as part of a unique series of events designed to help integrate young Syrian refugees now living in the Netherlands. Working as a sports envoy with SportsUnited, an international exchange program of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the U.S. Embassy in the Hague,

and Eindhoven’s city government, Williams led skateboarding clinics and gave lectures promoting diversity, tolerance, academic freedom, global citizenship and the benefits of sport.

This was SportsUnited’s first venture into skate diplomacy, placing skateboarding alongside traditional sports such as soccer, hockey, swimming and basketball.

For Williams, it’s a meaningful milestone.

“It’s a testament to skateboarding’s growth worldwide,” Williams said. “And to Annenberg’s dedication to progressive curriculum, engagement and global citizenship.”

Williams is a 2015 graduate of the USC Master of Public Diplomacy program and works with the USC Annenberg Institute of Sports, Media & Society as research and development director.

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MENTORING TOMORROW’S RADIO TALENT Ameera Butt

Sitting in the USC Annenberg Digital Lounge during spring break earlier this year, Noorhan Maamoon (B.A. Print and Digital Journalism ’17) asked her mentor Sonia Narang questions about the script for her upcoming radio story. Nearby, other student and mentor pairs worked on laptops, with their headphones on. Maamoon and four other students were part of NPR’s Next Generation Radio project hosted at USC Annenberg. Organized by the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg (IDEA), the student and mentor pairs included four USC Annenberg students and one student from Cal State Fullerton.

Students competitively applied, and mentor and student teams were picked by Mitchell. In order to apply for the program, radio experience was not necessary. Instead, Mitchell said they were looking for people who understood media.

For this project, Traci Tong was the managing editor. Tong is one of the original and founding producers of “PRI’s The World;” the co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI (Public Radio International) and WGBH.

“ USC Annenberg, of course, gives students a well-rounded background in storytelling.

But I think this project is really going to push them further.”

This was the third Next Generation Radio project this year, following stints in other cities and radio stations across the country. Next Generation Radio was born out of a desire to reach out to students of color interested in public media. It initially started out in 2000 as a side project for founder Doug Mitchell, who has worked as an NPR producer for various shows including “Morning Edition,” and launched radio training projects for the National Association of Black Journalists.

The project isn’t just about the next generation of radio talent, but also the next iteration of content development tools as well, according to Mitchell.

“It’s almost like you want to say next generation quote-unquote radio, because, while we do focus on audio storytelling, there is so much social media going on,” Mitchell said. “We are teaching them proper use of social media, and how to make it part of the content development process.”

The radio pieces, which were non-narrated stories in the style of “This American Life,” tended to be about four minutes long. Subjects ranged from a hula hooping festival to a five-star chef who gave up her career to put her culinary skills to work on Skid Row. Maamoon and others were introduced to a broad range of tools and methods for telling a story: reporting; compiling audio for the radio piece; using social media; shooting photos and videos; posting to the web and writing a web version of the radio story. All of the stories, including videos and photos, ended up on a mobile friendly website at the end of the week.

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Maamoon, who didn’t have any radio experience before the project, did a piece on Mirvette Judeh, a Muslim woman from Buena Park. About a year ago, Judeh decided to put on the hijab, or Muslim head covering, to combat the Islamaphobia she saw around her.

Maamoon, who also wears the hijab, followed Judeh around for a day, taking a peek into her life.

She followed her as she looked at scarves in her closet, grocery shopped and picked up her kids at school. Maamoon noticed as she followed her during the day, Judeh would receive what could only be described as dirty looks from people around them. Maamoon herself had experienced negative reactions to hijab in Los Angeles.

“As a hijabi, when you’re alone, you will notice the looks but it’s easier to rationalize them and justify them to yourself,” she said. “As we were following her, she noticed it more and I noticed it more.”

Narang, Maamoon’s mentor, is an independent producer who contributes stories to “PRI’s The World.” Among other coaching, Narang helped Maamoon decide on questions to ask in the interview and also encouraged her to use social media in the field. Narang shared that she enjoyed seeing her mentee grow progressively more comfortable holding a mic.

“Noorhan was so polite and Mirvette said, ‘I like you and if I like you, you’re in,’” Narang recalled. “I said ‘this is perfect.’ It was great to see them bond and connect. That’s how good radio is made—when you

Noorhan Maamoon (right), a USC Annenberg student, and her mentor, Sonia Narang (top left), take part in NPR Next Generation Radio. ©USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

can connect and your interview subject lets you into their life.”

Emily Lee (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’17) and her mentor, Jolie Myers, managing producer of KCRW’s “Press Play” in Santa Monica, also dove headfirst into the project. Lee had also never done any radio reporting. Her story idea followed a former gang member, Francisco Martinez, who wants to turn an abandoned library in South Central Los Angeles into a community center.

“We had to come up with creative ways to tell a story in in different formats, which is what we at Annenberg are all about now: digital convergence of radio, video, text,” Lee said.

Amara Aguilar, associate professor of professional practice for digital journalism, had previously been a Next Gen Radio mentor. She

helped bring the project to Annenberg and served as web developer and producer.

“USC Annenberg, of course, gives students a well-rounded background in storytelling. But I think this project is really going to push them further,” Aguilar said. “This just helps create a kind of personal connection with working professionals, and that’s really, really important as we create these solid pathways in the industry.”

Alums who have come through the project can be heard almost every day in public media stations across the country, Mitchell said.

“I think what we do is reinforce what they’ve wanted to do or open their eyes to what they could do,” Mitchell said. “The golden ticket is to actually learn how to tell the story in a variety of different ways.”

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M{2E} WOMEN’S LEADERSHIP SPEAKER SERIES CONNECTS YOUNG ALUMNAE WITH STUDENTS Olivia Niland

Over the couse of two months this past spring, alumni returned to USC Annenberg for the Media, Economics & Entrepreneurship (M{2e}) program’s Women’s Leadership Society Young Professionals Speaker series. These alumni now work with companies as diverse as Bloomberg, Microsoft and The New York Times.

They returned to share their experiences as women in maledominated fields such as finance and technology, as well as how their Annenberg educations helped them pursue their career paths.

The six speakers who visited for the Wednesday evening talks throughout January, February and March were Adrienne Bankert (B.A. Communication ‘02), broadcast journalist; Piper LeJeune, digital marketing manager; Stephanie Fleischman (M.A. Communication Management ‘09), director of ad innovation at The New York Times; Georgina Stage (B.A Communication ‘14), fixed income specialist at Bloomberg; Erika White (B.A. Communication ‘05, Master of Communication Management ‘15), Director of External Affairs at Texas Pacific Group; and Sara Clayton (B.A. Public Relations ‘15) of Microsoft Azure. All of the speakers, except LeJeune, are Annenberg alumni, and several were students of M{2e} instructors.

The series was created and hosted by professor Christopher Holmes Smith, M{2e} co-director and founder of the program’s Women’s Leadership Society.

The Women’s Leadership Society was launched in 2015 at the same time that M{2e} was officially recognized as a minor.

According to Smith, its goal is to provide women at Annenberg with more leadership opportunities, as well as a forum to talk about issues such as unequal pay or sexual harassment in the workplace.

Clayton was the youngest of the series, having graduated from USC just last spring, which made her easily relatable to the Annenberg students whose shoes she was in not long ago.

During her presentation, “Life and Career Lessons from Coffee and Twitter,” Clayton spoke about how networking via Twitter and utilizing apps to set coffee meetings helped her make contacts in the tech world and “master the art of the hustle.”

“It’s not enough anymore to just have a degree,” Clayton said.

“Entrepreneurialism is something a lot of companies are looking for in recent grads. They want self-starters, they want people who have that drive.”

During her time at USC and in the first months of her job at Microsoft, Clayton used Twitter to follow journalists and tech

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insiders whose careers she found interesting and then tweeted at them to initiate a meeting. She advised students, however, to avoid using informational meetings to ask for a job. “Ask for money and you get advice,” she said. “Ask for advice and you get money.”

Clayton also recommended students build their brand by creating a Twitter account, website, and LinkedIn with a professional photo, and use those platforms to demonstrate to recruiters what makes them stand out.

For Stage, who graduated with a degree in communication, networking enabled her to move from a startup to her position as a fixed income specialist at Bloomberg. She heard about the opportunity from a fellow Annenberg alum, and utilized knowledge she had gained at Annenberg and in the M{2e} program to make the most of her first inperson interview with Bloomberg.

“I treated this like a final exam,” Stage said. “The biggest mistake I see is people not doing enough research on the company itself.”

Stage didn’t have finance experience before being hired at Bloomberg, but said the interpersonal skills she developed as a communication major at Annenberg helped her adapt to a new workplace. Having successfully completed two rigorous training programs during her year

at the company, Stage said she highly encourages students not to be afraid to pursue jobs in fields they didn’t study.

“You can learn anything,” Stage said. “At the end of the day, if someone is going to sit you down and teach you something, you can learn. It’s a matter of having that drive and that passion to stick with it.”

These and other stories of drive and passion are what inspired Smith to create the Young Professionals Speaker series. Smith would regularly learn of the accomplishments of recent alumni, and realized they had important insights to share with current Annenberg students.

“When students reach back to me, if I feel like they’re serious-minded, I’m reaching back to them, and I’m here to help them,” Smith said. “The five Annenberg alumna selected were people who had stayed in touch. They’re people I was really serious about helping and whom I felt I could continue to learn from.”

For Smith, mentoring students and fostering talent is something he sees as an integral part of his role as a professor. For example, after his M{2e} colleague Dana Chinn introduced him to Clayton before her graduation last spring, the two met for coffee, and Smith was able to help Clayton land her dream job at Microsoft.

“That’s what top-notch colleges and research universities are all about,” Smith said. “Initially, students learn from professors, and then the tables turn and we learn from them as they emerge and develop. We’re happy to say ‘I knew them when,’ because that’s how great institutions get greater.”

Stage was another recent graduate and former M{2e} student who kept in touch with Smith. When she was hired at Bloomberg in December 2014, word quickly traveled back to Annenberg: Stage told Smith, who notified a “delighted” Annenberg Dean Ernest J. Wilson III, who in turn shared the news with the Annenberg Board of Trustees over the holidays.

“You might not think that your early-stage progress in whatever career path you choose makes a difference to the institution, but it does,” Smith said. “Please never think that your baby steps don’t matter or don’t count, to you or to anyone.”

Stage and other speakers used the series to also discuss gender equality in the workplace and how that experience differed from being a woman in the classroom, a discussion that Smith aimed to foster when creating the event.

“In school, we learned about the glass ceiling, we learned about equality, but actually going out and working—I was kind of shocked,” Stage said. “Even though we were taking the same tests and doing the same work, I did get the sense that I wasn’t getting the same amount of credit that my male colleagues were. That was definitely sobering.”

Previous page: ©USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT This page (clockwise from top): Piper LeJeune, Digital Marketing Manager © USC ANNENBERG/BENJAMIN DUNN

USC Annenberg Professor Christopher Holmes Smith ©USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

Erika White, Director of External Affairs Texas Pacific Group. ©USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

Sara Clayton, Product Marketing Manager at Microsoft and recent Annenberg grad. ©USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

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HOW COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT SHAPES OUR STUDENTS Alex Reed

USC Annenberg sits in the middle of a rich and diverse urban landscape. At the same time, too often relations between the university and the surrounding community are not what they could be. Two years ago, Dean Ernest J. Wilson III, with support from Annenberg Parents John and Sharon Tesoriero, moved the School significantly closer to closing that gap by creating the role of civic engagement coordinator, tapping USC alumnus Jaime Carias (Master of Public Policy ’10) for the job.

Carias’ role is twofold: he creates opportunities for Annenberg students to interact with their surrounding communities, and for members of the communities to come to the school and learn more about what it does.

“When I started Dean Wilson said, ‘I want our students out in the community. I want them to do service learning projects,’” Carias recalled. “And it makes my job a whole lot easier when I have the Dean saying, ‘Go out into the community. Help our students.’”

“ What I look forward to is being able to grow this platform and have more of our students out in the community and have more of the community, particularly young people, come into Annenberg.”

Carias has since crafted numerous opportunities for students from Annenberg and the surrounding community to connect and learn.

Last summer, Carias organized a three-week program that brought 21 high school students from five South Los Angeles high schools to campus. For two hours every day, the students were taught by Annenberg faculty members from the communication, journalism and public relations programs.

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This program, which Carias said he has plans to hold again, paved the way for smaller scale versions throughout the school year.

Part of Carias’ job is to provide Annenberg’s many student organizations with assistance in organizing events or programming. Among them are Annenberg’s chapters of the National Association of Black Journalists and National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Both chapters were founded with the intention of cultivating a new generation of journalists of color at USC, but they’ve recently begun reaching out to budding journalists in the school’s surrounding communities.

Last year, USC NAHJ president Sebastian Vega (B.A. Broadcast and Digital Journalism ’18) reached out to his NABJ counterpart, president Jordyn Holman (B.A. Print and Digital Journalism ’16), about collaborating and hosting an event that would bring students from local high schools in for a daylong media immersion.

Previous page: Civic Engagement Coordinator Jaime Carias speaks to a group of high school students visiting the Julie Chen/Leslie Moonves and CBS Media Center. © AMY TIERNEY

This page: A group of high school students visit the Julie Chen/Leslie Moonves and CBS Media Center. ©AMY TIERNEY

Holman agreed immediately, saying that programs like these are what inspired her to pursue a career in journalism.

“As a journalism school, we are charged with going into diverse communities to tell their news,” Holman said.

“In return, we should be as open to those diverse communities coming onto our campus, so they can learn about us as well.”

Vega and Holman took their idea to Carias, who helped them make the event a reality. They have since held the event twice, once each during the fall and spring semesters.

Unlike Carias’ summer program, their event focused solely on journalism. The day consisted of a number of student-run workshops that allowed the high school students to explore Annenberg and its state-of-the-art Media Center.

“USC Annenberg is a nationally renowned school, but it’s even more important to be well-known and loved by the surrounding community,” Holman said. “Bringing communities outside of school onto campus serves this mission.”

Another way in which Annenberg engages with the community is through its courses. Every semester, Carias works with professors interested in incorporating service projects and other community interactions into their classes.

Held during the spring semester, professor Roberto Suro’s class, Jour 483: Negotiating and Reporting Global Change, focused on gentrification in Los Angeles. After meeting with Suro, Carias developed a partnership with SAJE, a non-profit devoted to tenant rights, healthy housing, and equitable development in South Los Angeles. The students in his class designed a website for the organization based on testimonials gathered at their monthly tenant clinics.

Carias also paired a research course, Alison Trope’s COMM 494: Research Practicum, with Communication and Technology High School, and Mark Lloyd’s ASCJ 440: Engaging Urban Communities in the Digital Era, with Dorsey High School, where students filmed a documentary.

CMGT 578: Non-Profit Advocacy, taught by professor Gary Wexler, was connected with 13 organizations during the spring semester. The course examined the way non-profits function and how they create impact through communication.

The way Carias sees it, Annenberg’s community engagement projects are beneficial to the surrounding communities and the students and faculty.

“I realized that our students, at the undergraduate and graduate level, love the experience anytime I go with them into the community,” Carias said.

Last semester, he took a group of students to Watts to interview students at a high school. During a conversation after the visit, a student told him that his impression of Watts—the impression based on past news coverage—was changed entirely by the visit. “Today, I realized that this kid I interviewed has the same goals and dreams I do; we just grew up differently,” the student told Carias.

Carias said he looks forward to fostering similar insights and experiences as he expands community involvement programs at Annenberg.

“I think we’ve been able to create a presence out in the community,” Carias said. “What I look forward to is being able to grow this platform and have more of our students out in the community and have more of the community, particularly young people, come into Annenberg.”

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#diverSCity: BRINGING THE CONVERSATION ABOUT DIVERSITY TO THE FOREFRONT Yashashree Pisolkar

This page (left): Enrique Legaspi (left), a teacher at CATS and Alison Trope (right) pose for a photo during a class visit to USC. © STELLA CHUNG

This page (center): The CATS class visits USC and takes their group photo in front of Tommy Trojan. © STELLA CHUNG

Next page (right): Two students share thoughts on USC’s diversity climate at the #diverSCity event. © STELLA CHUNG

In recent years media coverage of student protests and incidents of alleged racism on college campuses has increased awareness of diversity issues at institutions of higher education across the nation. While media headlines have sparked conversation, at USC Annenberg, various student groups and clubs have been working to confront these issues head-on.

Last fall, students from USC Annenberg Media, the school’s student run news outlet, launched #diverSCity, an editorial project that aims to document the diversity climate on campus.

Students from professors Rebecca Haggerty and Amara Aguilar’s JOUR 499: Mobile and Emerging Platforms class teamed up with Annenberg Media producers to initiate the #diverSCity project with a booth along Trousdale Parkway.

The set up featured fliers and snacks, posters explaining the initiative, a whiteboard and two chairs. The whiteboard was divided into two sections: the left side read “Problem” and the right side read “Solution.” The event was designed to increase conversation about diversity on campus through the use of student interaction and participation.

The #diverSCity team encouraged students walking on Trousdale to come to the booth. One participant, Annenberg Media Executive Producer Fernando Hurtado directed passerby to a portion of the whiteboard that shared

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the story of the USC Muslim Student Union’s President, Nesma Madkour. The caption for her image read: “People find out I’m president of the Muslim Student Union and they get shocked because they tell me, ‘You don’t even look Muslim.’”

Hurtado said the project is a way for students to reflect on a personal problem they or their peers have encountered on campus, and then take it a step further by proposing a solution. The handwritten notes from the event will be posted to the #diverSCity Facebook page, where they will act as a permanent crowd-sourced archive and conversation-starter.

“How do you feel when you come to such a diverse university, but still face discrimination and racial profiling?”

Hurtado asked. “Obviously, it’s great that we have the so many diverse and international students at USC, but that comes with a lot of responsibilities and, unfortunately, a lot of problems.”

These issues are what Professor Haggerty hopes her journalism students will be equipped to explore. In her class, Haggerty urged her students to experiment with multiple ways to tell a given story. The #diverSCity initiative takes that a step further by extending that story into a live, engagementfocused space where students can safely write and talk about their personal struggles.

“Traditionally, journalism is about pushing one product out, but now with the way the industry is changing, it’s more about facilitating and creating conversations, and that’s what we wanted to do here,” Haggerty said.

“Traditionally, journalism is about pushing one product out, but now with the way the industry is changing, it’s more about facilitating and creating conversations, and that’s what we wanted to do here.”

Junior Kevin McAllister, another Annenberg Media student volunteer at the event, helped create conversation by inviting passersby to sit down and be paired up with another student to share life experiences and reflect on diversity on campus.

“Reading a lot of these up on the board, it’s really interesting to hear a different take,” McAllister said. “The goal with the board was to show the

diversity within the problems about diversity. So this is a great way for people to walk by and see what people are feeling.”

Throughout the event, team photographers also recorded videos of these conversations to later populate the #diverSCity @ AnnenbergMedia Facebook page.

Annenberg’s efforts to engage the greater USC and Los Angeles community in conversation about these difficult issues are apparent on multiple levels. Alison Trope’s COMM 494: Research Practicum participates in a service learning project at Communication and Technology School (CATS) in the Diego Rivera Learning Complex in South Los Angeles. Students enrolled in the practicum work on the Critical Media Project, which Trope launched two years ago in order to increase media literacy and promote discussion about media representations of diversity in the media. As a part of the research, four Annenberg students actively work with CATS students and teach them about media literacy.

According to Trope, the #diverSCity event coincided perfectly with CATS’ student field trip to USC, which is why she brought them to the booth. Within 10 minutes of interacting with Annenberg Media and JOUR 499 students, the high school students had populated the whiteboard with their problems and solutions.

By the end of the hour-long campaign, every inch of the whiteboard was covered. Even as student volunteers gradually started to pack up the posters and chairs, students still paused by the table to take a look at the problems and solutions.

“As a communication and journalism school we have the responsibility to the voice of a lot of people,” Hurtado said.

“We can’t be biased or anything, but what we can do is expand the definition of diversity. And that’s what we tried to do today.”

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CHINA IN FOCUS

Words and Images by Peter Winter (B.A. International Relations and East Asian Languages & Culture ’08; M.A. Public Diplomacy ’10) Peter Winter (pictured bottom, next page) completed both his undergraduate and graduate degrees at USC. As an undergraduate, he majored in International Relations and East Asian Languages & Culture (Chinese). At USC Annenberg, he was in the Master of Public Diplomacy program. Here he describes how he came to photograph every province in China.

Throughout my time at USC, China was a huge focus. I first traveled to China in 2005 for a two-week student trip. I later returned to Beijing for my junior year and lived there from fall 2006 until summer of 2007. In 2010, as I was nearing graduation, the US-China Institute received a grant to oversee the “Student Ambassadors Program” at the USA Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo—the modern day World’s Fair. The Institute offered me a job overseeing the program, which brought 160 American college students, all of whom spoke Chinese, to work as cultural ambassadors and guides at the USA Pavilion.

I served as the Director of the Student Ambassadors Program for the six-month Expo and lived in Shanghai for about a year.

One thing I’m pretty proud of is that I’ve traveled to every province in China. I didn’t set out with the intent of visiting all the provinces. Initially, I just wanted to travel and see the cool sights I had read about before my initial trip in 2005. A few years in, though, I began to realize how close I was to seeing every province. With every trip, the goal loomed closer and closer, and I had to finish!

Many Americans tend to think of China as this homogeneous, monolithic place. But from province to province, from town to town, you see the sheer diversity of the country: its people, its food, its landscapes, its languages. I always found it incredible that you could go between towns separated by just a few miles and discover a completely different dialect or cuisine.

Going through school, it’s easy to think you are “right” about any one issue after reading hundreds of academic journals or writing your end-all thesis on the topic. When you get out and start living in these places, you realize that no piece of paper, no matter how artfully written, fully captures the reality. There are complexities and contradictions everywhere, and you gain something valuable by looking at them head-on and realizing they can coexist.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRETT VAN ORT—JUNE 2014

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KIM MOSES: Be Open to Discovery Kim Moses, Principal and Executive Producer with Sander/ Moses Productions, delivered the 2016 USC Annenberg School of Communication Graduation Ceremony speech on May 13, 2016.

Here is an excerpt from her address.

I have a ritual that I do before I speak. I walk around, as I did this morning, and I shake hands with as many people as I can and I look very deeply into their eyes. I do this because I want to be present for myself, and also I do it because I want to connect with you.

Kim Moses speaks at the 2016 School of Communication Commencement ceremony. © USC ANNENBERG/BENJAMIN DUNN

When you go out into the business world, you be present. Because being present enables you to discovery and discovery is the real trigger for action. There’s a big mindset in my industry—he who is fastest on the trigger wins.

Wrong. A person succeeds because she knows what the hell she’s talking about, because she’s taken the time to discover and moreover, she’s probably let the other person talk first. And she’s listened and then she’s had her say. This is not about being polite. This is about giving yourself the advantage of discovering what the room is all about, and then taking control of that room.

After the weekend—and the parties stop—you’ve got your degree, your passport to the future. But how do you make the most of this access and springboard it into an industry that’s in the throes of reinvention? Do it one step at a time.

You get a job, a beginning, a start. Chances are you aren’t going to get the job of your dreams next week, that’s not going to happen. But ride the wave that’s there. Get off the beach and get into the ocean, or you might

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miss the most spectacular adventure of your life. And on that job, look around and see what needs to be done. And do it. Even if you’re not told to. And do it better than anybody else. Believe me, they won’t be able to live without you.

One of my first jobs was on Capitol Hill. I worked for the committee on Science and Technology. This was geekdom before anybody knew what it was. And Al Gore was on my subcommittee and we held the first global warming hearings. Watching him go from that congressional hearing to “An Inconvenient Truth” was the most remarkable branding lesson I’ve ever had. Gore had a message, he used discovery to sharpen that message. He took that message to the masses on every level. He shared that message and he changed the world. That’s badass and beautiful.

It was a great job. I was making good money. I was traveling the world, but I had a deep passion. I wanted to be in the entertainment industry.

I quit my job, I moved to Hollywood, I took a PA job. I was 30 years old.

Everybody I knew thought I had lost my mind!

I took that job and I never looked back.

I have three brothers—and the day each of us graduated from high school, my dad said “Get out. Don’t fail. Don’t come back.” That didn’t mean don’t come home. It didn’t mean you’re not loved. What it meant was get out there and find your way in the world. What it continues to mean for me is that I have to go beyond the limits imposed by systems.

And it means doing that purposefully. This is what I call “transcending.”

So how do you transcend and go beyond the limits that are imposed on you by a system and people within that system? You continue to be open to discovery. You listen to your inner voice and you break rules purposefully.

When I shared my global plan with people in Hollywood, everyone said to me, “Don’t do that, don’t go there.” Over and over I was told, it’s impossible. When somebody tells me it’s impossible, I’m in!

I would not have multiple deals with international studios all around the world. I would still be paddling around in the same ecosystem as everyone else in Hollywood.

So I purposefully break rules to transcend from Donora to Capitol Hill.

From Capitol Hill to Hollywood. From Hollywood to the global market.

There are times that you’re going to have to transcend the unimaginable.

A couple of days ago I lost my husband, the love of my life. And he passed away unexpectedly. I am transcending before your very eyes.

Anyway, I say it to my kids. I said it to my husband. I say it to my staff.

And I say it to myself. And I’m saying this to you. Next week when you leave the gate, you stumble and you fall, you get up and get going. You transcend. Because you are a badass and beautiful and you’re gonna love the path to discovery.

THANK YOU.

JUDY SMITH: Be a Gladiator for Yourself Judy A. Smith, President of strategic and crisis communications firm Smith & Company and the inspiration for television’s Olivia Pope, delivered the 2016 USC Annenberg School of Journalism Graduation Ceremony speech on May 13, 2016.

Here is an excerpt from her address.

You are about to enter into a new phase in your life. We are saying good-bye because you are no longer that freshman, that sophomore, that junior, that senior—but you’re also saying hello. You’re saying hello really to the unknown, but it’s also a new incredible phase. It’s both, I think, exciting, and frightening at the same time. I think you should embrace both of those things.

Everybody always says this: you need a strategy and a plan to navigate it. And I just want to tell you, I don’t think I ever had a strategy and plan that came out the way it intended it to. You’re just opening up a new chapter in a book and there’s a lot to write. You can’t really predict how it’s going to turn out.

For example, I would never have thought as I started my communications career, that folks would say I’m the No. 1 crisis communications person in the country, I’d be called “the fixer” or there’d be a show after me. And people will be calling me the real Olivia Pope.

How can you plan that out? What are the odds of that? You can’t. So don’t think you have to have a plan or have to have it all figured out.

When I graduated from undergrad somebody told me that I argued well. I thought that was a compliment. And they said, “You ought to try law school.” So I said, “Ok I’ll give it a shot.” So I went to paralegal school just to get a certificate to see if I would like it. I’m thinking, “Ok this is pretty good,” so I spent a summer in a big muckity muck law firm.

About two days before I was supposed to go to the law firm, I got a call from my buddy Francis, who worked at the Iran-Contra investigation. She says, “What do you think about our messaging?” And I said, “Ok if you really want to know the truth, it kind of sucks.” She says “Really?” I said, “First of all, journalism students and journalists are not following what you guys are saying. The messages need to be more transparent, they need to be crisper.” I said, “You guys got to do a better job.”

The next day, as I’m getting ready to go, I get a call from Judge Walsh, who is running the Iran-Contra investigation, and he says, “Ms. Smith, I understand you think our messaging sucks.” I said “Sir, I don’t think if those were the precise words.” He says “Well, come on in here, I want to talk to you about what we should be doing.”

I go in and I’m sort of nervous about it. Judge Walsh says, “So let’s get right to it. Tell me why we suck.” So I tell him, and he says “I want to hire you.” And I said, “Well, sir, I’m going to work at Rogers & Wells. They’ve got my office all set up for me.” He says, “You mean Bill’s shop?”

Judy Smith speaks at the 2016 School of Journalism Commencement ceremony. © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

So he’s calling Bill, and he says, “Look, I have this wonderful woman here in my office, and her name is Judy Smith.” Bill says, “Well, Larry, I wish I could help you but Judy is scheduled to come in two days.”

All of a sudden, Larry says, “Well, Bill you remember that Johnson case we worked on back in 1978?” I don’t know really what happened in that Johnson case. I just know that Larry then handed the phone to me and Bill said, “Judy, you should take that job.”

I tell you that story only to remind you of this very fact—that there is no timetable for success. There is no plan. You have to be flexible and willing to step out of your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to take chances. Don’t be afraid to fail. Because for me, oftentimes, that really, honestly, brings you much closer to what you want to achieve.

Be a gladiator for yourself! It doesn’t mean it’s going to guarantee you success, but I can tell you this: if you give into your fear or your doubt, that will certainly hold you back. It won’t get you where you want to go. It won’t let you express your vision, to express your hope.

Now let me just say this in closing. I want you to take down something. All right, here we go: I will always, always be a badass because that is who I am.

All right, let me hear it. Repeat it. Now let’s get out there and handle it. Congratulations.

GOOD LUCK!

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CREATING THE NEXT GENERATION OF EMPOWERMENT INITIATIVES Ameera Butt

How can Annenberg students best study, examine and learn about diversity and identity?

That was the underlying question Sarah BanetWeiser asked herself in 2014 when she came on board as the School of Communication Director.

The question was the first step in a journey that led to the formation of the Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg (IDEA), an interdisciplinary initiative that brings together a cohort of acclaimed scholars, leading research, impactful events and courses.

For Banet-Weiser, IDEA was born out of a desire to consolidate all of the work being done at Annenberg on issues of difference, diversity, marginalization and disenfranchisement across multiple fields—work that encompasses fields from the social sciences to the humanities.

Initially launched in 2015, IDEA immediately created much needed opportunities for USC Annenberg students, alumni and the public to discuss inclusion, equity, identity, culture and difference. Last spring, Robeson Taj Frazier, associate professor in communication, took the helm with an eye on building on that foundation.

Banet-Weiser described Frazier as the perfect person for the position.

“Taj is one of the most interesting and creative thinkers in the field of communication today,” BanetWeiser said. “He is engaged in so many different intersections of power, of theory, of culture and he really, truly thinks in a capacious way. What’s coming up is really up to Taj and Taj’s vision.”

At the same time, Banet-Weiser stressed that IDEA is not just a narrow project tied to a single person or administrator. “This is not just something that individual faculty members do at Annenberg, but this is what Annenberg does,” she said.

As the new director of IDEA, Frazier plans to expand research, add two distinct faculty advisory and industry/community advisory boards to help guide IDEA’s activities, and push for more relationships with nonprofit and private communication entities. He said the faculty advisory board will help steer the Center’s

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BRETT VAN ORT

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pedagogical and research objectives while the industry/community board will help develop institutional partnerships, internship/employment pipelines, and dialogues with industry and community practitioners.

“The school is in a unique position in terms of cultivating dialogue, research and education revolving around thinking about questions of difference in communication industries, but even more broadly the role of communication within our society,” Frazier said.

The Center is looking to expand its reach when it comes to research, including finalizing a research partnership with Azteca America, which will create and facilitate several new pedagogical and research initiatives. Azteca America is owned by TV Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V., and is one of the two largest producers of Spanish language content in the world. The partnership emerged from a proposal by Amara Aguilar, associate professor of professional practice in digital journalism, and Laura Castañeda, professor in journalism.

Aguilar and Castañeda will be teaching a course in the fall that will provide undergraduates with Spanish-language television industry, digital media and changing media landscape exposure and media research opportunities. The course will help IDEA conduct original qualitative and quantitative research on Hispanic millennials, according to Frazier.

All new initiatives require funding and IDEA has been no different. Its first group of donors included the James Irvine Foundation, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, USC Annenberg Dean Ernest J. Wilson III’s office and a generous, anonymous funder.

For Banet-Weiser, the initial support is heartening, but the work of maintaining that support continues. “Sometimes it’s hard for people to invest in this kind of

“ The school is in a unique position of cultivating dialogue, research and education revolving around questions of difference in communication industries.” research; it’s easier if there’s a shiny object at the end, rather than politics,” she said.

In so much as IDEA has a shiny object, it is to connect the many strands of research and teaching at the school. Frazier said individual faculty members have been doing great work, but Annenberg needs to create greater synergy between faculty members, classes and programs.

“Everything has been really siloed and we need greater centralization and greater efforts across the board,” Frazier said.

One way of bringing those silos together is through events that bring students and faculty from across Annenberg’s 14 academic programs into one room to discuss and debate.

IDEA held various events throughout the year, from a solo performance called “Rodney King,” written and performed by actor Roger Guenveur Smith about the 1992 Los Angeles riots, to a Women’s Hackathon, which addressed how women can make a difference in the media and technology industries.

Previous IDEA events have been fantastic in generating conversation between faculty and staff, Frazier said, but he added that he wants to build off that momentum. The next phase of IDEA will be to build stronger relationships between the Annenberg community and the world beyond USC’s borders. With that in mind, IDEA is in the early phases of cultivating a relationship with Dorsey High School, located west of USC, which is creating its own version of the Annenberg Media Center.

Félix Gutiérrez, professor emeritus in journalism, said IDEA “is for everybody because everyone is communicating in a more diverse world.” Gutiérrez is one of a group of professors, along with Larry Gross, who are often cited as Annenberg’s diversity foremothers and forefathers.

“This is critical because we are the ones who have to find the common ground so the many parts of our society can communicate with themselves and with each other,” Gutiérrez said.

Banet-Weiser agrees.

“I think that it’s crucial at a political moment of Black Lives Matter, of the Orlando shooting, of the Supreme Court hearing abortion rights cases, that we commit ourselves to thinking about inequity, diversity and difference,” Banet-Weiser said. “And this is one place where we feel we can do it.”

Previous page: Noorhan Maamoon (right), Annenberg student and Muslema Purmul (left), Muslim Chaplain at USC, UCLA, and UC-Irvine, at a discussion on the alarming rise in anti-Muslim incidents throughout the United States. © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT This page (top): Kevin Gotkin (left) Ph.D. candidate at University of Pennsylvania Annenberg and Brittany Farr (right) Ph.D. candidate at USC Annenberg, at the IDEA Summer Institute. © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT This page (bottom): USC Annenberg faculty member Taj Frazier at the 2016 Summer Doctoral Institute. © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

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Raising $5 million for student aid Carren Jao

PHOTOS: © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

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The fifth child of poor immigrant parents from Spain and Mexico, Gabriela Fernandez (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’18) knew that if she wanted something she had to work hard for it, especially when it came to her education.

Fernandez had already started undergraduate coursework at El Camino College in Torrance, California, when she applied and received admission as a transfer student to her dream school, the University of Southern California. She then made an important decision: no matter what the personal and financial cost, she would do whatever it took to obtain a degree from the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

A global leader in communication, journalism and media, USC Annenberg was the natural place for Fernandez to pursue her interest in broadcast journalism, but she knew the price would be beyond her means. To her amazement, soon after being accepted she received an email from USC Annenberg’s admissions office offering her the Wells Cisneros Scholarship in recognition of her academic prowess in high school and at El Camino. She was stunned.

“I was thinking I would just keep working and take out more loans because my family situation is such that my parents can’t afford to pay anything for me go to school,” said Fernandez. “I’d always had jobs, and I’d always worked full time.

The scholarship gave me instant relief from all that.”

Established by USC Annenberg alumna Jacki Wells Cisneros and her husband, Gilbert Cisneros, the scholarship supports a first-year or transfer undergraduate student at Annenberg from an underrepresented community in California.

“USC Annenberg gave me such a priceless experience, from the training I received to the Trojan network,” Jacki said. “I want more kids, regardless of financial need, to benefit the same way I did.”

Fernandez’s financial situation, though, isn’t unique among today’s prospective college students. According to a report released by the Campaign for College Opportunity, just 12 percent of Latinos in California earn their bachelor’s degree compared to the non-Latino Californian average of 31 percent.

“Latino students have a lower graduation rate in college, and it’s often because of financial reasons,” said Jacki. “We want to allow them to take finances out of the equation so they can get the education they desire.”

Thanks to Jacki and Gilbert’s generosity, Fernandez is freed from some of the distraction—and pressure—of the cost of tuition, leaving her to concentrate on her academics, her internship with the Los Angeles Business Journal and her future career aspirations.

“I am incredibly thankful to Mr. and Mrs. Cisneros for all they’ve done for me,” Fernandez said.

MAKING AN IMPACT ON STUDENTS’ LIVES USC Annenberg is multiplying the change in students like Fernandez many times over by embarking on an initiative to raise $5 million to support the school’s student aid efforts. The money raised will go toward academic scholarships, student opportunity funds and stipends. The effort is part of the school’s larger $150 million campaign to support scholarship, academic programs, capital improvements and the school’s endowment.

“With the cost of tuition rising nationwide, the USC Annenberg School is focusing on student aid to ensure the best and brightest have the opportunity to study with us, regardless of their personal financial situations,” said Diana Bernal O’Leary, USC Annenberg’s Associate Dean for External Relations.

It’s an effort that’s seeing tangible returns.

“Donations make such a tremendous difference,” said Allyson Hill, USC Annenberg’s Associate Dean of Admissions. “I’m the person that sends

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©USC ANNENBERG/ BRETT VAN ORT

scholarship offer letters, and the level of emotion from everybody who receives these offers is amazing. You get anything from tears to jumping up and down excitement. It’s a humbling response.”

Alumni are increasingly pitching in to create opportunity for high-achieving students who lack the means to attend USC. This year, the USC Annenberg Alumni Advisory Board launched a $100,000 crowdfunding campaign for the Annenberg Alumni

The youngest of six children born to refugees from Albania starting a new life in the U.S., Lita’s childhood was strapped and challenging.

“Education was my ticket out,” said Lita. “But I was concerned by the cost of tuition. We were struggling to pay for the application fees, let alone what college costs.”

At first, he thought to attend a small state school in New Jersey, but his guidance counselor urged him to look further.

“ The process of creating these scholarships sparked the need to align my passion with my purpose, I just felt there’s something more that I have to give.”

Leaders Scholarship, an endowed scholarship fund designed to assist future graduate Trojans with tuition costs for years to come. Housed on USC’s crowdfunding site, ignite.usc.edu, anyone interested in making an impact on students’ lives can give a gift of any amount.

PAYING IT FORWARD Ilir Lita is another student whose life was changed by Trojan philanthropy.

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Armed with vouchers that covered those application fees, Lita applied to a few universities, including Syracuse and USC. An excellent student throughout his childhood, he easily got into both schools, which both delighted and worried him.

“I thought, ‘Great! I got accepted, but there’s no way my family’s going to afford tuition,’” said Lita.

A few weeks later, USC recognized both his merit and need and offered him tuition assistance from the McCarron Scholarship. Knowing a significant part of his education at the

Above: USC Annenberg almunus Ilir Lita (B.A. Communications, ’02) in a video screengrab from videos promoting the Annenberg Leaders Scholarship Fund.

Below: USC Annenberg student Gabriella Fernandez in a video screengrab from videos promoting the Annenberg Leaders Scholarship Fund.

university would be covered, Lita took a chance and boarded a plane to California.

It was during one of the university’s donor-beneficiary luncheons the following year that Lita met Betty McCarron, the generous benefactor of his scholarship. In the years since then, the two formed a life-long friendship that lasted until McCarron passed away in 2012.

Between the McCarron Scholarship and a separate USC grant, Lita was able to earn his degree at USC Annenberg. With McCarron’s support and encouragement, he also got a glimpse of a world beyond the U.S. through the school’s International Communication Studies program (ICS). Over the course of a summer, Lita visited London, Paris, Prague and Geneva, networking and meeting with professionals in the media, communication, and public relations.

“For a kid whose only opportunity to leave New Jersey was to attend college, getting on a plane to visit Europe was a dream come true,” said Lita. “That program was incredible, really life-changing.”

He has since gone on to enjoy success at DreamWorks, Warner Brothers and Google.

Lita is now paying it forward by setting up three scholarships supporting financially-disadvantaged students and travel opportunities. Not only will his gift support future Trojans, Lita said it has also given him an unexpected benefit.

“The process of creating these scholarships sparked the need to align my passion with my purpose,” said Lita.

“I just felt there’s something more that I have to give.”

He recently began working with a new venture, The Artemis Agency, a philanthropic advisory firm which helps individuals, corporations and non-profits create long-term comprehensive plans for giving.

GOING BEYOND THE CLASSROOM As Lita’s experience and generosity have shown, the need to give doesn’t stop at academics. A high-quality education is so much more than what happens inside the classroom.

While tuition aid helps students attend USC, it does not help them take advantage of the unique value-added opportunities that USC Annenberg has been so fortunate to provide, such as internships and short- and long-term student abroad programs that are becoming increasingly relevant to student success. But not all students are financially situated to take full advantage of these opportunities. Instead, they are forced to take part-time jobs that might pay the bills, but won’t advance their careers.

This is just what alumna Farrah Greenberg Kleiner had in mind when she and husband Kenneth helped set up the Student Success Fund at USC Annenberg.

“It’s nice to give a gift that the school can use for student needs that come up through the year,” said Greenberg Kleiner, who is also the proud parent of a student currently enrolled at the USC Marshall School of Business.

The Student Success Fund enables students with financial need to attend career-enhancing experiences and programs such as its Maymester programs in New York City and the Bay Area. The summer programs give USC Annenberg students a chance to explore different careers and experience new cities by immersing them in the professional media fields in a city outside of Los Angeles.

Costing as much as $3,700, it is out of

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USC Annenberg alumni Alex Gold (left) and his father Bob Gold (right) in a video screengrab from a video promoting the Annenberg Leaders Scholarship Fund.

reach for some students, such as Heidi Carreon (B.A. Print and Digital Journalism and Political Science ’17).

A second-generation U.S. citizen and first-generation college attendee, Carreon came to USC Annenberg through the hard laboring of her mother.

“Even though I come from a low socio-economic background, my mother was determined to support me and allow me a chance at following my dreams, which was something she couldn’t do in the Philippines,” Carreon said.

After enrolling, she immersed herself in her journalism studies, organizations and clubs, such as the USC Annenberg Media Center as a social media reporter and the Annenberg Innovation Lab as a communications assistant.

As a Filipino, she also involved herself in as many Asian-American organizations as she could find. She is the student representative of the Los Angeles chapter of the Asian-American Journalists Association, a mentor with Asian Pacific American Student Services, and the public relations chair for the USC Taekwondo Club. Alongside other students sharing her background, she is also currently launching a new club at Annenberg: the Asian Journalists Association. Through her involvements, classes and interactions with faculty and peers, she saw the need for an ethnic news outlet to represent the diverse needs and values of communities facing rapid economic and diversity fluctuations.

Carreon had a lot to accomplish, and she needed her mother’s support. That was soon limited, however, after her mother was involved in a freeway car accident.

“It drove me to a low point,” said Carreon. “But I came to the realization that my mother placed a bet on me, and I owed it to her—and to myself—to take advantage of all that Annenberg has to offer.”

One such opportunity was the Maymester program.

Through the Student Success Fund and the generosity of USC Annenberg parents Steven and Anna Chong, donors to the fund, Carreon was able to attend the inaugural Bay Area Maymester program with 15 other Annenberg students, where she found validation for her passion for an ethnic news outlet.

“The greatest part of the program was when we visited an ethnic newspaper called El Tecolote, which is based in the Mission District,” said Carreon. “Talking to its editor-in-chief and publisher about gentrification in San Francisco and how they use the paper to empower the Latino community reinforced my belief that ethnic media, although smaller and less lucrative than working for mainstream outlets, is important for communities of color.”

The experience prompted her to reflect further on the scholarship awarded to her, allowing her to gain these vital perspectives.

“The challenge from here on out is to continue to be worthy of the support I received from the Student Success Fund and Mr. and Mrs. Chong, and to use what I’ve learned and gained from the Maymester program to be a journalist whose work can do good for communities,” said Carreon. “It’s a challenge I’m more than happy to take on.”

These are the valuable life-changing experiences that go beyond the classroom. They give students, some of whom have rarely left home, a chance to widen their perspective and an opportunity to become more marketable when they graduate. It’s what Dean Ernest J. Wilson III often refers to as the Annenberg Advantage: the added value that makes a USC Annenberg degree so meaningful.

The Student Success Fund has also supported student internships requiring travel. This summer alone, seven dynamic students are studying or interning across the U.S. and the globe as they enrich their studies and perspectives.

Alyssa Garcia (B.A. Public Relations and International Relations ’17) is interning in Istanbul, Turkey, with The Hollings Center for International Dialogue, a group dedicated to creating productive dialogue between the U.S. and Muslim communities in the Middle East and northern Africa. With the help of student aid, Garcia was able to offset the cost of living and working abroad while gaining valuable experiences in communication, public relations and international affairs.

Emma Daniels (M.A. Strategic Public Relations ’17) is spending the summer with public relations giant Edelman in their Rio de Janeiro office, where she’ll help coordinate public relations and coverage of the 2016 Summer Olympics in August.

Support from the Annenberg donors is helping cover the expenses of tuition and housing while in Brazil.

Interning in Cape Town, South Africa, Yesenia Vargas (M.A. Public Diplomacy ’17) is working at the Cape Town Refugee Centre, a non-profit NGO providing a supportive network of services and creating a conductive environment for

26 usc annenberg agenda

refugees in South Africa. As the daughter of immigrants, this experience, made possible through private support from the Student Success Fund, has helped Vargas realize her passion for assisting marginalized communities.

“More and more, corporations are telling us that internships help students stand out above the rest,” said O’Leary. “Still, not all students can afford to take advantage of internships—that’s where the Student Success Fund comes in.”

“ USC Annenberg gave me such a priceless experience, from the training I received to the Trojan network, I want more kids, regardless of financial need, to benefit the same way I did.”

These experiences help steer the course of a student’s future.

“It’s the kind of thing that really makes a difference,” said Greenberg Kleiner. “It’s what makes the USC experience truly complete.”

Gifts supporting the student aid initiative helps to advance USC’s $6 billion Campaign for the University of Southern California, one of the most ambitious fundraising campaigns in the history of higher education. The campaign has raised more than $5 billion to advance USC’s academic priorities, support student scholarships, and expand its positive impact on the community and the world.

Join us and ensure that no student’s academic dreams are surpassed by their personal resources. Make a gift of any size today by visiting annenberg.usc. edu/giving or contacting Adam Miller, development associate, at adamm@asc.usc.edu or (213) 740-2844. No gift is too small to have a big impact.

Main photo: USC Annenberg Media Center © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT Insert: (L to R) School of Communication Director Sarah BanetWeiser, Jacki Cisneros, School of Journalism Director Willow Bay, Gilbert Cisneros, and Dean Ernest J. Wilson III. ©USC ANNENBERG/ BRETT VAN ORT

summer 2016 27

TRACKING SHOT:

By Gretchen Parker McCartney

It’s no secret that Hollywood has a problem with diversity—just watch any film or television show and see characters on screen that aren’t quite representative of the people you see in real life. Even behind the scenes, it turns out, things aren’t any better. A new study demonstrates just how exclusive film and television can be when it comes to women, people of color and the LGBT community.

The Comprehensive Annenberg Report on Diversity (CARD) is the first of its kind—an exhaustive analysis and ranking of film, television and digital streaming services that catalogues speaking characters, people behind the camera, CEOs and executives.

Authored by professor Stacy L. Smith and released by the Media, Diversity & Social Change (MDSC) Initiative at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the analysis found that only 28.3% of all speaking characters across 414 films, television and digital episodes in 2014-15 were from underrepresented racial/ ethnic groups. This is 9.6% below the U.S. population norm of 37.9%.

One-third (33.5%) of speaking characters were female. Behind the camera, a mere 15.2% of all directors and 28.9% of writers across film and every episode of television and digital series were female.

28 usc annenberg agenda

Less than one-quarter (22.6%) of series creators were women across broadcast, cable and streaming content.

“This is no mere diversity problem. This is an inclusion crisis,” said Smith, Founding Director of the MDSC Initiative. “Over half of the content we examined features no Asian or Asian-American characters, and over 20% featured no African-American characters.

It is clear that the ecosystem of entertainment is exclusionary.”

The report examined 109 films released by major studios and their art-house divisions in 2014. Additionally, 305 television and digital series across 31 networks and streaming services were analyzed. Smith and her team evaluated over 11,000 speaking characters for gender, racial and ethnic representation, and LGBT status. Additionally, in excess of 10,000 directors, writers, and show

Inclusivity in Hollywood creators, along with more than 1,500 executives at the different media companies studied were evaluated based on gender.

“This is a landmark study,” Smith said. “No one has looked from CEO to every speaking character across film, television, and digital content. The results speak to the landscape of media and the erasure of different groups on screen and behind the camera.”

Ten companies responsible for media content were graded based on their on-screen and behind-the-camera representation of women and people of color.

None of the six film distributors examined received a passing grade on the Inclusion Index. Of the 30 tests conducted, 24 or 80% yielded a Not Inclusive ranking. On a standard academic

scale where 100% equals a perfect score, no film distributor earned a final inclusion grade above 25% across all tests.

The Inclusion Index for television and digital content revealed places for improvement and a few bright spots. Of the 50 tests conducted, seven Fully Inclusive and nine Largely Inclusive scores were awarded across the 10 companies evaluated on TV/ digital content. The Walt Disney Company and The CW Network were the strongest performers in television, while for streaming content, Hulu and Amazon tied.

The report also assessed the executive ranks of the 10 companies. Roughly one-fifth of all chief executives, corporate boards and executive management teams were comprised

DIRECTOR GENDER BY MEDIA PLATFORM 100%

TOTAL

96.6

80

88.2

84.9

82.9

15.2%

60

40

17.1

20

15.1

3.4 0 RATIO

FILM 28.5 to 1

BROADCAST 4.8 to 1

CABLE 5.6 to 1

% of male directors

11.8 STREAMING 7.5 to 1 % of female directors

Total ratio of male to female directors:

5.6 : 1 total number of directors:

4,284

summer 2016 29

of women. Near gender parity was reached in television at the Executive Vice President level. Across film, television and digital divisions, women held 46.7% of all Senior Vice President-level positions.

“A finding from our other studies regarding women in film is true of executive ranks as well. When power or influence

said Marc Choueiti, one of the study authors. “Our hope is that companies begin to implement these solutions and that the numbers will improve.”

The Inclusion Index rates organizations on five indicators regarding their media content and behind-the-scenes hiring practices. Those metrics are the percentage of females and

“ This important work is possible because USC Annenberg fosters great diversity and empowerment of women and people of color in everything we do, from hiring to programming to curriculum.” increases, the percentage of females decreases,” said Katherine Pieper, USC Annenberg research scientist and one of the study’s authors.

The authors provide concrete solutions for the big challenges of increasing diversity on screen and behind the camera. “Organizations can take steps to solve inequality,”

underrepresented racial/ethnic groups on screen, and the percentage of women working as directors and writers. Film companies were also scored on their representation of LGBT characters, while television and digital companies were graded on the percentage of female series creators working behind the camera.

GENDER OF SPEAKING CHARACTERS BY MEDIA PLATFORM

Total percentage of gender balanced casts:

40%

36.4

37.3

38.1 33.5

30

18%

28.7 20

10

Total ratio of males to females: 0 RATIO

FILM 2.5:1

BROADCAST 1.7 : 1

CABLE

STREAMING

TOTAL

1.7 : 1

1.6 : 1

2:1

% of female speaking characters

30 usc annenberg agenda

2:1 Total number of speaking characters:

11,306

USC ANNENBERG’S COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY The report is the latest from the Media, Diversity, & Social Change Initiative, located at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. This is the first signature study from its Institute for Diversity and Empowerment at Annenberg (IDEA), a research center examining inclusivity across media industries. IDEA’s goal is to make positive, longlasting change and facilitate civic engagement.

“This important work is possible because USC Annenberg fosters great diversity and empowerment of women and people of color in everything we do, from hiring to programming to curriculum,” said Dean Ernest J. Wilson III. “Lifting up the voices of the underrepresented is central to the mission of our school.”

The school has a broad and lasting commitment to diversity. USC Annenberg is the recipient of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC)’s Equity and Diversity Award in 2012. The same year, the school

won a Federal Communications Commission competition to examine media ownership rules and their effect on localism and diversity, organizing a national consortium of 30 social scientists, legal scholars, journalists and communication experts. And last year, the Women’s Leadership Society at Annenberg M{2e} (Media, Economics and Entrepreneurship) formed with the aim of disrupting the male-dominated media and entertainment industries and building new opportunities for a future generation of thought leaders.

For the past two years, USC Annenberg has hosted a Summer Institute on Diversity in Media and Culture, which brings together students and faculty members from across the disciplines of Communication and Media Studies, from around the United States, to focus workshops and seminars on issues of race, gender and media.

In 2015, the school announced a $5 million gift from the Annenberg Foundation to boost diversity in newsrooms by offering scholarships to students and fellowships to earlycareer journalists from diverse backgrounds.

PREVALENCE AND PORTRAYAL OF LGBT CHARACTERS

OF

11,194

SPEAKING CHARACTERS ONLY...

158 17

OF THE 229 LGBT SPEAKING CHARACTERS...

GAY

BISEXUAL

49

LESBIAN

UNDERREPRESENTED

21.1% MALE

72.1%

27.9%

7

TRANSGENDER

FEMALE

78.9% WHITE summer 2016 31

FACULTY PUBLICATIONS 1

2

3

4

5

1

Let the People Rule: Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of the Presidential Primary By Geoffrey Cowan

2

Virgil Thomson: The State of Music & Other Writings By Tim Page

6

Geoffrey Cowan, University Professor of Communication and Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership, offers a timely take on our current political climate, in the form of a deeply researched look at ex-president Theodore Roosevelt’s attempt to form a new political party after being blocked from the 1912 GOP nomination. Roosevelt bested William Howard Taft during the primary battle, but was denied the nomination at the convention. The title of the book comes from Roosevelt, who said: “Let the people rule.”

Composer and critic Virgil Thomson was notorious for witty and provocative writings that challenged and exposed the artistic pretensions of America’s musical establishment. “Virgil Thomson: The State of Music & Other Writings” is edited by Tim Page, professor of journalism, professor at the Thornton School of Music, and a Pulitzer Prize-winning music critic. It’s the second volume from the Library of Congress collecting the works of Thomson. The book follows “Music Chronicles 1940-1954” (2014), also edited by Page. This volume collects Thomson’s full-length works, including his first notable book, “The State of Music” (1939), his autobiography (1966), “Music with Words” (1989), plus previously uncollected essays, speeches and reviews.

3

Heroes and Scoundrels: The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture By Matthew C. Ehrlich and Joe Saltzman With Matthew C. Ehrlich, Joe Saltzman, director of USC Annenberg’s Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture (IJPC), examines the representations of journalists across mediums including film, radio, comics, plays and television. Saltzman, professor in journalism and communication, looks at how these depictions of fictional journalists have shaped the real-life press and its role in society, and issues of race, gender and sexual orientation on the job.

4

The Future of Diplomacy By Philip Seib In the 21st century, where social media tools like YouTube and Facebook dominate our political conversations, how has diplomacy evolved?

Professor Philip Seib looks at how new media tools are moving diplomacy away from its traditional closed door milieu to highly visible social spaces requiring instant response. Seib peppers the book with examples drawn from real world situations to argue for the critical importance of this new type of diplomatic process.

5

Border Cantos Photographs by Richard Misrach; Instruments and graphic scores by Guillermo Galindo; Introduction and texts by Josh Kun The 2,000 mile border between the U.S. and Mexico is often seen as threatening and unforgiving—a wall of corrugated steel that, as described in “Border Cantos” by Josh Kun, professor of Communication, stands as “a statue of un-liberty that funnels the tired into desert bottlenecks.”

The book and accompanying gallery exhibition highlight the work of photographer Richard Misrach and composer and performer Guillermo Galindo, who aim to bring a more human perspective to the circumstances of the thousands of undocumented immigrants that attempt to cross the border each year.

6

By Any Media Necessary: The New Youth Activism By Henry Jenkins, Sangita Shresthova, Liana Gamber-Thompson, Neta Kligler-Vilenchik and Arely Zimmerman “By Any Means Necessary” dispels the notion that American youth are disinterested in politics by looking at how the next generation is utilizing new forms of communication from social media to memes. Written by a team that features Henry Jenkins, USC Annenberg’s Provost Professor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education, and Sangita Shresthova, director of Jenkins’ Media, Activism & Participatory Politics project, the book is anchored by numerous case studies analyzing a variety of organizations and movements involving youth.

32 usc annenberg agenda

uscannenberg The official account of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. #ASCJ instagram.com/uscannenberg/

summer 2016 33

USC ANNENBERG ALUMNI IN ACTION If you are interested in becoming more involved with USC Annenberg, want to update your contact information, or have any questions, please visit us at annenberg.usc.edu/alumni or email ascalums@usc.edu.

Dean Ernest J. Wilson III, (right) of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism speaks with Mary Lou Loper (left), prior to the James L. Loper Lecture.

Parents and alumni flash a “Fight On!” salute at Homecoming. © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

© USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

Alumni gather for a tailgate at Wallis Annenberg Hall prior to the 2015 Homecoming game. © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

(L to R) Lisette Ramirez, Daisy Ramirez, and Alaine Lai are prepped and ready for some USC Football. © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

Newly minted alumi pose for a photo at the New Alumni Welcome on April 28, 2016 at Wallis Annenberg Hall. © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

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(L to R) Epix CEO and USC Annenberg Board of Councilors Chair, Mark Greenberg, USC Annenberg students Brittany Hope, Kate Greenberg, and parent Tami Morachnick at a Maymester event. © USC ANNENBERG/DANA MAXSON

(L to R) Casandra Buser, Brooke Buser, and Laura Buser pose for a photo at Homecoming. © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

Annenberg alumni Milentina Permintina(left) and Bilal Kaiser(right), pose during the Kenneth Owler Smith Symposium reception. ©USC ANNENBERG/BENJAMIN DUNN

Students and alumni take part in a Internship and Job Fair at the Ronald Tutor Campus Ballroom on Tuesday, March 22, 2016. © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

Shawn Powers (left), presenter of the 12th Annual Walt Fisher Lecture, poses for a photo with USC Annenberg Professor Tom Hollihan (right) after Powers’ talk. © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

USC Alumni Rachael Scott (left) and Emily Shapiro (right) pose with Dean Ernest J. Wilson III, (center) at the 2016 Maymester event in New York City. © USC ANNENBERG/DANA MAXSON

Students and alumni at an Internship and Job Fair.

Pictured (right) Southern California Public Radio producer and Annenberg alumnus Brian Frank. © USC ANNENBERG/BRETT VAN ORT

summer 2016 35

alumni notes

Julie Lindeen

Shabnam Moghrabi

Desa Philadelphia

Robert Rahal

Brandon Mercer (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’97) now manages SFGATE, the San Francisco Chronicle’s free breaking news website. The Gate is the fifth largest newspaper website in the nation with 30 million unique users each month.

Previously, he ran all five websites for CBS Local in San Francisco and was news director at Tribune-owned KTXL in Sacramento.

Claire Spera (M.A. Specialized Journalism ’10) is the publicity coordinator for the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin and covers the arts for publications such as the Austin American-Statesman, Arts+Culture Texas and Dance Source Houston. She is also a dancer for the award-winning A’lante Flamenco Dance Ensemble. A breast cancer survivor since 2014, Spera volunteers for Austin’s Breast Cancer Resource Center and is a member of the Public Relations & Writing Committee for the annual fundraiser Art Bra Austin.

Ellana Ellis (M.A. Communication Management ’08) is thrilled to announce the launch of her company Eat Fit Foods, which provides tailored nutritional counseling to individuals and families. Programs include grocery store tours, cooking lessons, recipes, nutrition education and support from a certified health coach. Ellis was also married last June to attorney Jeffrey Wittenberg, and they are expecting their first child this September.

Ellen Kaster (B.A. Public Relations ’14) recently left the consulting world to become a Director at Infusion Express, a startup opening IV therapy centers across the country. Infusion Express offers patients with chronic illness a safe, convenient and comfortable experience with private infusion rooms, highspeed WiFi, cable TV and healthy snacks. Treatments cover a wide variety of auto-immune disorders such as rheumatoid

36 usc annenberg agenda

Claire Spera

Jacob Ullman

arthritis, Crohn’s Disease, ulcerative colitis, allergic asthma, plaque psoriasis and lupus. The company currently operates clinics in Kansas and Missouri, with new locations opening in 2016 in Orange County, the Bay Area and Chicago.

Gregg McVicar (M.A. Communication Management ’86) hosts and produces the daily public radio music program “UnderCurrents,” now celebrating its 10th year on the air.

It’s heard on 168 stations nationwide and in New Zealand, and receives major support from The Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Jacob Ullman (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’97) was promoted to Senior Vice President, Production and Talent Development, at FOX Sports in January. Ullman has been at FOX Sports since the summer between his junior and senior years at USC in 1994.

Janie Spataro (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’82), who writes under the pen name of Janie Dempsey Watts, has published her second novel, “Return to Taylor’s Crossing.” The book has won several awards, and Watts has been nominated for Georgia Author of the Year.

Jeff Kaufman (B.A. Journalism ’82) produced and anchored “Hi-Definition News,” awarded the Golden Mike for Best Newscast of 2015 by the Radio & Television News Association of Southern California. Kaufman also won the Golden Mike for Best Individual Writing for Radio. His show airs daily on KBEACH-FM, a student- and community-staffed radio station at California State University, Long Beach. Kaufman advises KBEACH’s student news department.

PULITZER PRIZE FOR ALUMNI AT THE LOS ANGELES TIMES

By Olivia Niland At 11:58 a.m. on the morning of April 18, staff at the Los Angeles Times received an email directing them to the newsroom. This was no ordinary Monday morning meeting.

It was Pulitzer Prize day, and within moments, clapping and cheers erupted as the news was announced via a livestream of the awards: the paper had won a Pulitzer.

“It was a totally euphoric moment,” said Laura Nelson (B.A. ’12,) a USC Annenberg alumni and Times reporter. “It’s the best time ever to be in a newsroom.”

Nelson was among the five USC Annenberg alumni whose bylines were included in the reporting that won the team a breaking news Pulitzer Prize for “exceptional reporting, including both local and global perspectives, on the shooting in San Bernardino and the terror investigation that followed” last November.

The reporting of USC Annenberg alumni Sarah Parvini (M.A. ’14), Matt Hamilton (M.A. ’14), Kate Mather (B.A. ’11), and Esmeralda Bermudez (B.A. ’03) was also included.

Parvini was among the first Times reporters on the scene in San Bernardino, reporting from the Inland Regional Center, where the shooting occurred, and used her iPhone to live tweet and send information back to the newsroom.

“The result of our stream of feeds across platforms was a thorough story that had been updated more than 20 times throughout the day,” Parvini said. “It made us a destination for the latest on the attack and demonstrated the importance of digital-first news.”

Jessica Duboff (M.A. Strategic Public Relations ’07) became Vice President of Public Policy at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce, the largest business organization in Los Angeles.

Julie Lindeen (B.A. Communication ’08) transferred from Deloitte Los Angeles to Deloitte London in April of 2015. Since then, she has been appointed the Chief of Staff for Deloitte’s Global Leadership practice.

In addition to the reporters, Nelson acknowledged the integral roles of editors and staff who contributed graphics, photography and ran the Times website, several of whom are also Annenberg alumni or faculty.

Writers Jerome Campbell (B.A. ’14), Jack Leonard (M.A. ’98), Shashank Bengali (B.A. ’01), as well as Digital team editor John Adams (M.A. ’10), digital editor Dan Watson (M.A. ’12), deputy Metro editor Mary Ann Meek (B.A.) and Metro staff senior editor Steve Clow (B.A. ’78) all contributed to the award-winning team’s work. USC Annenberg adjunct faculty who also contributed to the coverage were city editor Matt Lait and writer Ben Poston.

“The editors don’t get the bylines but they deserve so much credit for being the guiding forces and steady hands in our coverage,” Hamilton said.

Parvini, who had no journalism experience prior to attending graduate school at USC Annenberg, where she was the deputy editor for Neon Tommy, also credited her Annenberg education with preparing her for covering such a monumental story.

“I saw my time at Annenberg as a microcosm for the journalism world at large,” Parvini said. “At USC, you could come to class, do what you were asked, write up your assignment and do just fine. But to do really well, to really make the most of it, you had to apply yourself and work hard. That’s true outside of Annenberg too. And it’s that kind of hard work and dedication from all the people on our San Bernardino team that helped the Times win the Pulitzer.”

Julie Watts (B.A. Broadcast Journalism ’02 / M.A. Online Journalism ’03) was recently honored with the National Press Club award for her year-long investigative series “UN-Covered California.” The reports exposed numerous flaws in California’s health insurance exchange, prompted changes by insurers and forced state regulators to take action.

Mehaik Dammanwalla (B.A. Public Relations ’12) recently moved onto the streaming business at Hulu as a content marketing manager after working for three years in digital and brand marketing at Sony Pictures. She is involved in Hulu’s

summer 2016 37

alumni notes

latest project for Virtual Reality on Oculus that brings together entertainment and technology. Dammanwalla also finished a month traveling the world from Dubai to Maldives to Istanbul. She is a part of an organization called the Aga Khan Foundation, which provides homes and education in third world countries.

Rachel Saffitz (M.A. Strategic Public Relations ’10) was recently named one of PR News’ Rising PR Stars 30 & Under.

She is currently a Vice President in the healthcare practice at Makovsky in NYC.

Robert Rahal (Master of Communication Management ’15) was elected as president of the South Texas Chapter of the American College of Healthcare Executives. This chapter provides education, networking, mentoring and philanthropic opportunities for a wide area of South Texas healthcare professionals.

Robin Reck (B.A. Communication ’15) was promoted to Managing Director at The Incite Agency, a boutique strategic communications firm in Washington, D.C., founded by former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs and former national campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt. She oversees all operations and personnel in the D.C. office and serves as principal on clients, primarily in the corporate and nonprofit space.

Sarah Welty (B.A. Communication ’12) fell in love with Australia while studying abroad through Annenberg at the University of New South Wales in Sydney in 2011—so much that she had to move back. She is now the digital marketing manager for Benefit Cosmetics Australia.

Shabnam Mogharabi (B.A. Print Journalism ’02) was named to the 2016 class of Henry Crown Fellows by The Aspen Institute. Mogharabi was one of 20 individuals selected from more than 500 nominated candidates to this prestigious program. Her company, SoulPancake, where she serves as CEO, was named to the INC500 list of fastestgrowing small business last fall.

38 usc annenberg agenda

Thérèse Davis (B.A. Public Relations ’90) co-wrote and was featured in “Bass Clef Bliss: Terrence’s Path,” a documentary film about her son’s journey with autism, hope and music. Her son is now pursuing a certificate in music theory at Mesa Community College in San Diego. Davis also submitted a chapter for a book entitled “The Power of My Faith,” which will be published by Athena Publishing.

Tracy Oppenheimer (B.A. Broadcast and Digital Journalism ’11) joined a company in Singapore, Buy1GIVE1, as Content Director. She produces video and print stories about a network of international nonprofits to show problems they are facing in their local communities and work they are doing to help. She has covered education innovation in India and earthquake relief and recovery in Nepal. Next, she is heading to Vietnam to cover an organization helping blind and disabled youth. Buy1Give1 enables companies to integrate philanthropy into everyday business activities. Oppenheimer’s role is to raise awareness about the issues they are giving to.

Desa Philadelphia (M.P.D. Public Diplomacy ’09) is the head writer and editor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. Last summer, Philadelphia published “111 Shops in Los Angeles that You Must Not Miss,” which explored the history and culture of L.A. through one-of-a-kind shops and their wares. This summer, she will launch Multilateral magazine, an online quarterly focused on global culture. Philadelphia spent her USC Day of SCervice volunteering with United Friends of the Children, which serves youth in L.A.’s foster care system. She plans to continue volunteering there.

board of councilors

MARK GREENBERG TO LEAD BOARD OF COUNCILORS; LISA GERSH AND MANUEL ABUD JOIN BOARD

By Gretchen Parker McCartney This spring, USC Annenberg’s Board of Councilors announced the appointment of a new chairman and the addition of two new board members—three dynamic leaders who embody success in the rapidly transforming industries of entertainment and media.

Current Board of Councilors member Mark Greenberg will lead the board. He is President and Chief Executive Officer of EPIX, a joint Left to right: Mark Greenberg, Lisa Gersh, Manuel Abud venture of Viacom’s Paramount Pictures, “USC Annenberg is honored to have these three visionaries Lionsgate and MGM. Lisa Gersh is CEO of goop, a digital on our Board of Councilors,” said Dean Ernest J. Wilson III. “All lifestyle brand founded by Gwyneth Paltrow. Manuel Abud is three Chief Executive Officers bring truly remarkable experience President and CEO of Azteca America, which is owned by TV in leading at the intersections of content production, distribution Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V., and is one of the two largest producers and corporate strategy. All three have built careers pushing of Spanish language content in the world. new media forward—at private, independent startups and at dynamic, mature companies.”

MARK GREENBERG—CEO, EPIX “USC Annenberg is a powerful force because it is constantly seeking new ideas and approaches to educating students and creating a new generation of leaders. I am proud to be the Chairman of the Board of Councilors, partnering with Dean Wilson and leading such a distinguished group of individuals from the media and entertainment industry. This Board of Councilors is committed to providing the resources, support and guidance that is critical to delivering a dynamic education for our young people and ensuring that USC Annenberg extends and grows its leadership and influence.”

—MARK GREENBERG

Mark Greenberg was an early architect in the transformation of television networks across new platforms and technologies.

He created the strategic blueprint for EPIX, the first network designed for linear TV, on-demand and online viewing. Under his direction, the network’s rapid growth quickly set records, becoming profitable within a year of its launch.

Greenberg adapted the distribution model for film, and he has been an industry leader in bringing television to streaming and on-demand services. He has overseen a rapid expansion

of EPIX across hundreds of new consumer devices, including Xbox, PlayStation, Roku, Android phones and tablets and Apple iPhones and iPads.

He has more than three decades of cable-industry experience, including tenures at Showtime and HBO. While at Showtime Networks for 17 years, Greenberg was an Executive Vice President for Strategic Planning and Development, Digital Media, and he headed sales and marketing. He began his career at HBO, where he worked in sales and marketing.

He was also formerly Managing Director of MSGCI, a management and consulting company whose clients included Comcast, Participant Media and Lionsgate.

Greenberg holds a bachelor’s degree from Providence College and an M.B.A. from Columbia University. His wife, Tami Morachnick, is an entertainment lawyer, and they have two sons and a daughter. Son Matthew graduated from USC Annenberg in May 2015 with a bachelor’s degree from the School of Communication and daughter Kate enrolled in the School of Journalism in Fall 2015.

summer 2016 39

board of councilors

LISA GERSH—CEO, goop “I am truly honored to join this esteemed group of prescient leaders who, working alongside of Dean Wilson, are exploring the most exciting innovations in entertainment, communications and technology today.” —LISA GERSH Gwyneth Paltrow called Gersh a “visionary leader with unparalleled creativity and savvy,” when she hired her as CEO of goop in 2014. Gersh had previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Inc., where she also had worked as President and Chief Operating Officer (from 2011 to 2012).

Gersh was a co-founder, President and COO of Oxygen Media from 1998 to 2007. She helped create initial strategic partnerships with Harpo, Paul Allen and Carsey Werner—as well as affiliate deals—and she was responsible for the company’s day-to-day

operations. In 2007, she oversaw NBCUniversal’s acquisition of Oxygen for $925 million.

At NBCUniversal, she was President, Strategic Initiatives at NBC News from 2007 to 2011. She was responsible for the company’s partnership with The Weather Channel and served as General Managing Director of the Weather Channel companies from 2007 to 2009.

Gersh has served on the board of directors for Hasbro, Inc. since 2010.

Gersh holds a J.D. from Rutgers University School of Law, and a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Economics from the State University of New York at Binghamton. Her daughter Maddy attends USC Annenberg.

MANUEL ABUD—President and CEO, Azteca America “Innovation in education is integral to cultivating a new generation of entertainment, media and technology entrepreneurs and leaders. USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism is at the forefront of this charge and I am honored to be appointed to the Board of Councilors of this renowned institution.” —MANUEL ABUD Manuel Abud is President and Chief Executive Officer of Azteca America, the U.S. network wholly owned by Mexican broadcaster TV Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V., and one of the two largest producers of Spanish language content in the world. In his role, he oversees all aspects of the network and the more than 25 TV stations currently operated by Azteca in the United States.

At Azteca, Abud has made philanthropy a network priority.

Through its foundation, Fundación Azteca America, the network supports Esperanza Azteca, the first U.S.-based Hispanic youth orchestra, which helps students develop musical skills, leadership,

discipline and teamwork. Azteca has also partnered with Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

Throughout his 20-plus years of working in media, Abud has held a wide range of executive positions and has played a pivotal role in the evolution of the news and entertainment landscape in Spanishlanguage television.

Prior to joining Azteca America, Abud worked at NBC-Universal for more than 14 years. As President of the Telemundo Station Group, he revitalized the local stations’ strategic direction in United States and Puerto Rico, increasing their profitability and adding 1,500 yearly hours of news and programming. He was the original architect of Mun2, the first bilingual cable network for young Hispanics in the United States. Also under his leadership, CBS Telenoticias was re-launched and transformed into Telemundo Internacional, a news and entertainment provider with 6 million subscribers.

He is an Annenberg parent. He received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México and an MBA from Houston Baptist University.

USC ANNENBERG ADMINISTRATION Ernest J. Wilson III, Dean Sarah Banet-Weiser, Director, School of Communication Willow Bay, Director, School of Journalism

BOARD OF COUNCILORS Mark Greenberg, Chair Wallis Annenberg, ex officio Manuel Abud Bonnie Arnold Lauren Bon Anthony Borquez Paul Bricault

Louise Henry Bryson Frank H. Cruz, ex officio William Elkus Lisa Gersh Toni Erickson Knight Markos Kounalakis Debra Lee

Norman Lear Janice Marinelli Jarl Mohn Michael Nyman Bruce M. Ramer Frederick J. Ryan, Jr. Rockwell A. Schnabel

USC ANNENBERG AGENDA IS A PUBLICATION OF THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND SPECIAL EVENTS

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George Schweitzer Wellen Sham William Simon Jeffrey Smulyan Charles Annenberg Weingarten Gregory Annenberg Weingarten John Zhao

DESIGN BY ETCH CREATIVE

Day of SCervice 2016

On Saturday, March 12, the whole USC Annenberg family came together for a Day of SCervice. Students, faculty, staff and alumni banded together as SCandwich Builders, making more than 1,500 sandwiches to support the The Midnight Mission and the homeless men, women, and children of Los Angeles.

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Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage Paid University of Southern California

University of Southern California 3502 Watt Way Los Angeles, California, 90089-0281 Address Service Requested

Thank you to our alumni, parents and host companies for helping make this year’s Maymester programs such a success.

Please visit annenberg.usc.edu/giving to learn more about how you can help support Annenberg students.