Annenberg Chair

Geoffrey Cowan

University Professor; Professor of Journalism; Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership; Joint Appointment, Professor of Law, USC Law School;
Dean Emeritus, Annenberg School for Communication

gcowan@usc.edu

USC Annenberg School for Communication
3502 Watt Way, Suite 301B
Los Angeles, CA  90089-0281
(213) 740-4466

Geoffrey Cowan is a University Professor and holder of the Annenberg Family Chair in Communication Leadership at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication, where he also directs the Center on Communication Leadership. He served as dean of the USC Annenberg School from 1996 – 2007 and recently completed service as a Fellow of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.  In 2007, he was elected to be the Walter Lippman Fellow of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Before coming to USC, Cowan served under President Clinton as director of the Voice of America and director of the International Broadcasting Bureau. In other public service roles, Cowan served on the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, chaired the Los Angeles commission that drafted the city’s ethics and campaign finance law, and chaired the California Bipartisan Commission on Internet Political Practices. He is an award-winning and best-selling author whose books include See No Evil: The Backstage Battle Over Sex and Violence on Television and The People v. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America’s Greatest Lawyer. With Leroy Aarons, he co-wrote Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, a play about the tension between a free press and government secrecy that will be featured in a national tour during the 2007-08 season. He won a primetime Emmy in 1992 for his work as an executive producer of the Disney Channel movie Mark Twain & Me.

He is a graduate of Harvard College and Yale Law School and is married to Aileen Adams. They have two children, Gabriel and Mandy.

Books

• The People v. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America's Greatest Lawyer (Times Books, 1993).

• See No Evil: The Backstage Battle Over Sex and Violence on Television (Simon and Schuster, 1979).

• The Democratic Choice: Report of the Commission on the Democratic Selection of Presidential Nominees, co-author (1968).

Contribution to Book

• Introduction to Forgive Us Our Press Passes (speeches by Daniel Schorr) (O'Brien Center for Scholarly Publications, 1998).

Articles

• “Leading the Way to Better News: The Role of Leadership in a World Where Most of the ‘Powers That Be’ Became the ‘Powers That Were.” Discussion Paper Series, Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy, Harvard University (February 2008).

• “Moving from Monologue to Dialogue to Collaboration: The Three Layers of Public Diplomacy.”  The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 616, No.1 (March 2008).

• ‘Surge’ Meet ‘Escalation’ the fight for clarity in language: a case study. Columbia Journalism Review (November/December 2007).

• “Whatever Happened to Local News?: The ‘Vast Wasteland’ Reconsidered.” 55 Federal Communications Law Journal 493 (May 2003).

• "The Other Coast Weighs In" (with others). 39 Columbia Journalism Review 46 (March/April 2001).

• "Another Voice." 38 Columbia Journalism Review 6 (1999).

• "The Legal and Ethical Limitations of Factual Misrepresentation." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 155 (November 1998).

• "Criminal Enforcement of California's Occupational Health Laws: A Preliminary Analysis of Occupational Carcinogens Control Act Violations." 8 American Journal of Criminal Law 43 (1980).

Book Reviews

• Big Trouble: A Murder in a Small Western Town Sets Off a Struggle for the Soul of America, by J. Anthony Lukas. Los Angeles Times, October 12, 1997, at 6.

• The Man Who Brought the Water; Rivers in the Desert: William Mulholland and the Inventing of Los Angeles, by Margaret L. Davis. Los Angeles Times, July 25, 1993, at 1.

• Banned Films - Movies, Censors and the First Amendment, by E.D. Grazia and R.K. Newman. 88 New York Times Book Review 16 (February 6, 1983).

• Presidential Television, by N.N. Minnow, J.B. Martin, and L.M. Mitchell. 21 UCLA Law Review 1690 (1974).

• The Super-Lawyers: The Small and Powerful World of the Great Washington Law Firms, by Joseph E. Goulden. New York Times, May 28, 1972, at VII, p. 1.

• Discretionary Justice: A Preliminary Inquiry, by Kenneth Culp Davis. New York Times, 1969.

Other Works

• Top Secret (play about the Pentagon Papers). Produced by Los Angeles Theatre Works, National Tour 2007-2008 and broadcast by KPCC Public Radio, June 28, 2008.

• "A Man for Some Seasons." American Lawyer 56 (December 1999).

• Letter, "Voice of America: A Significant English Teacher" (with Nancy R. Hensel). The Christian Science Monitor, September 11, 1996, at 19.

• "Yes, We're Still in Business: Does the Post-Cold War World Still Need Voice of America? Absolutely." 32 Across the Board 51 (May 2, 1995).

• "Journalism Under the Gun; Radio: Voice of America Has Enemies Everywhere." Los Angeles Times, February 24, 1995, at B7.

• "The Voice of America." Vital Speeches of the Day, August 15, 1994, at 649.

• "The People vs. Clarence Darrow: The Bribery Trial of America's Greatest Lawyer" (excerpt). Los Angeles Daily Journal, April 13, 1994, at S10.

• "Surprise! Spending Limits Work; Campaign Finance: Now, Let's Fine-Tune the System When There Are Candidates With Unlimited Personal Wealth" (with Robert M. Stern). Los Angeles Times, July 2, 1993, at B7.

• "The Trial of Clarence Darrow; Charged With Bribing Jurors, the Lawyer Who Had Saved So Many Faced His Biggest Challenge: Saving Himself." Los Angeles Times, May 16, 1993, at 26.

• "Law Was a Model Until the Council Chewed It to Bits; Ethics: It Was Sometimes Hard to Tell Whether Damage Was Intentional. Now Things Can Be Made Right." Los Angeles Times, November 5, 1991, at B7.

• Top Secret (play about the Pentagon Papers). Produced by Los Angeles Theatre Works, broadcast by National Public Radio, March 7, 1991.

• Columnist, Oakland Tribune, 1984.

• "Letters from Mississippi: The Young Men Went South Not for Fame or Fortune but for Freedom" (with Paul Cowan). 99 Esquire 237 (1983).

• "What Do 'Ecstasy' and 'Poltergeist' Have in Common?" New York Times, February 6, 1983, at 16.

• "Substance or Style? California's New Brooms." Nation, May 10, 1975, at 551.

• Columnist, The Village Voice, 1969-72.

• "And Three Letters Home from Mississippi." 62 Esquire 105 (1964).

• "Letter from Mississippi" (with Paul Cowan) 11 Dissent 372 (1964).

Teaching

• Journalism 190 - Introduction to Journalism. Survey of all media and outlets including print, broadcasting, public relations and online journalism, plus analysis of what it means to be a professional journalist.

• Communication 371 - Censorship and the Law: The Role and Responsibility of Leaders, Artists, Activists and Reporters in the Digital Age. The study of current and historical battles over the limits of free expression from leaders and the press to public parks, television, movies, music and cyberspace

• Communication 599 - Leadership and the Future of Reporting in the Digital Age. The study of the relationship between the press and American democracy, the rapid changes in news reporting brought about by the digital revolution and the options available to media leaders.

Professional Activities and Boards

• Bipartisan California Commission on Internet Political Practices - Chair

• Californai Healthcare Foundation - Board Member

• Center Theatre Group - Board Member

• Children Now - Board Member

• Common Sense Media - Board Member

• Council on Foreign Relations - Member

• Democracy 21 - Board Member

• International Women's Media Foundation - Board Member

• Los Angeles Election Panel

• Pacific Council - Member

• Vera Institute for Justice's Police Assessment Resource Center Board - Founding Member

• White House Fellows - Regional Chair

Principle Investigator or Co-P.I. on the following grants:

• Western Knight Center, funded by the Knight Foundation

• Institute for Justice and Journalism, funded by the Ford Foundation

• Improving the Campaign Finance System/Campaign Finance Disclosure Project, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts

• Mental Health Media Partnership, funded by the Sunnyland Trusts and University of Pennsylvania

• Middle East Media Project, funded by the Schumann Center for Media and Democracy

• Program on the Future of Public Broadcasting, funded by the Connell Foundation

Testimony

• State Senate Committee on Banking. Commerce and International Trade on Ownership of Broadcast Media, March 19, 2003.