Director, USC's Norman Lear Center
Director of the Norman Lear Center and Associate Dean at the Annenberg School for Communication at University of Southern California; former speechwriter, during the Carter Administration; former executive at Disney; television writer and producer on The Distinguished Gentleman
The Architecture of Protest In the past couple of decades dystopian urban critics and sci-fi writers have been painting a picture of a society in which public space was becoming privatized—especially in LA—while the computer was drawing people into isolated virtual worlds.
Local Television News Isn't Local, Isn't News Federal Communications Commissioner Michael J. Copps says he's " flat out alarmed " by a study of local television news by the Norman Lear Center at USC's Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism. It's titled, "Local TV News in the Los Angeles Media Market: Are Stations Serving the Public Interest."
Pop Culture's Affect on Politics The TV show 24 portrays a hero who saves the country by violating the law. His use of torture is part of a hit program. An Inconvenient Truth is Al Gore's power-point lecture on global warming.
It's Obama versus Clinton in the Hollywood Primary Bill and Hillary Clinton were Hollywood's favorite politicians, but a young new politician with a matinee-idol smile is pushing Hillary aside. Not only did Barack Obama make a big entrance at a fundraiser here this week, but one of his key supporters gave a taste of the battle to come by delivering some harsh words about the Clintons .
Do it for the kids, Gavin Gavin Newsom’s early policy proposals offer a glimmer of hope for California’s youngest residents.
Who are the political players in the LA teachers strike? Thousands of LA public school teachers are going to be back out on the picket lines for a second day. They walked off the job Monday after failing to reach a contract agreement with the LA Unified School District, despite months of negotiations.
What are charter schools? LAUSD teachers were picket lines for a second day Tuesday. And this morning the teachers union organized a march to the California Charter Schools Association office downtown, to draw attention to their criticisms of local charter schools. But what are charter schools anyway?