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ProjectsInstitute for Photographic Empowerment
The institute already is vital in developing a field that was unimaginable a few short decades ago but which may soon change the nature of media communication by enabling researchers and other audiences to learn about communities directly from photography and video created by the community members themselves. IPE supports a virtual center on the web, conferences, and academic learning and research related to participant-produced photography and video. It also provides new opportunities for the traditionally disenfranchised to use their own images to communicate directly with policymakers about the social issues that profoundly affect their lives, including HIV/AIDS, poverty and environmental degradation. Ceasefire! Bridging the Political Divide
Speakers included California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Arizona Governor and chair of the National Governors Association Janet Napolitano, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, former Congressman Harold Ford, Jr., former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta, former California Governor Gray Davis, former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, philanthropists Lauren Bon and Sherry Lansing, producer Kevin Wall, political strategist Matthew Dowd, Gov. Schwarzenegger’s chief of staff Susan Kennedy, and journalists Margaret Carlson, Jay Carney, Michael Kinsley, Lawrence O’Donnell, Juan Williams and Judy Woodruff. New Business Models for NewsAs changes in technology and economics continue to affect news organizations' profitability and stability, the Center on Communication Leadership – in collaboration with the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard – is exploring new models that will sustain quality journalism from the international to the local level while leveraging new partnerships and the opportunity to reach broader audiences through technological advances. Some of those models are discussed in Geoffrey Cowan’s paper called: "Leading the Way to Better News: How The 'Powers that Be' Became The 'Powers that Were'." One of several approaches that the initiative deems important is foundation-funded journalism, and, in April, the two centers co-hosted a roundtable discussion in New York on that subject, which drew a cadre of leaders from major news organizations, foundations, nonprofits, publishers and universities. The roundtable addressed such issues as the evolution of nonprofit journalism, attracting additional foundation interest in funding journalism, the related ethical, regulatory and legal issues, educating news organizations on the subject, the creation of news services on specific topics, as well as other pressing issues on the future of news organizations, reporting and distribution. The Center will soon issue a report on that meeting and will examine other areas of importance later in the year. Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers
The epic legal battle between the government and the press went to the nation’s highest court and is perhaps the most important Supreme Court case ever on freedom of the press. The play won the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Gold Medal for Excellence in Best Live Entertainment. The national tour was accompanied by seminars and discussions with many with first-hand knowledge of the controversy – including Daniel Ellsberg, the American military analyst who released the papers, and John Dean, then White House counsel to President Richard M. Nixon and later a key witness for the Watergate prosecution. The play is scheduled for another six week run in New York City in Spring 2009. |
A unique university-community partnership between the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Venice Arts, the Institute for Photographic Empowerment (IPE) supports the study and practice of participant-produced documentary projects in photography, film and digital media. The first institute of its kind, IPE serves as a growing resource for people around the world – from journalists, politicians and academics to photographers, filmmakers and project participants – to share ideas and learn from one another.
The Center on Communication Leadership’s inaugural conference, Ceasefire! brought together leaders from both political parties who have successfully built consensus around some of the nation’s most challenging problems. Held June 18-19, 2007, the conference was described as potentially “the most important gathering of the year,” by Matthew Dowd, political strategist and former adviser to President George W. Bush.
The play, Top Secret: The Battle for the Pentagon Papers, concluded its successful national run in March 2008 at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Co-written by Geoffrey Cowan and late journalism professor Leroy Aarons, the play is an inside look at the Washington Post’s decision to publish a top-secret study documenting the United States’ involvement in Vietnam. The subsequent trial tested the parameters of the First Amendment, pitting the public’s right to know against the government’s claim of secrecy.