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Annenberg School for Communication
Engaging Minds showcases best part of Penn in New York
Penn Alumni’s Dec. 14 event featured a trio of impressive faculty: Michael Weisberg, Sarah J. Jackson, and Duncan Watts.
Understanding how information flows into and out of Gitmo
Annenberg doctoral student Muira McCammon studies the intersection of technology, law, and military policy. She’s on the quest to understand how people and data move through the Guantánamo Bay detention center.
How rituals shape our world
An Annenberg class about ritual communication encourages students to employ ethnography and textual analysis to think about the unique language of rituals and their endurance.
Justified and unjustified movie violence evoke different brain responses
In a new study, researchers at Penn find that scenes of unjustified and justified violence in movies activate different parts of the adolescent brain.
Side Gigs for Good
After putting in a full, impactful day at work at Penn, some faculty and staff fill their spare hours with endeavors that make a difference.
Talking the Deadspin debacle, the future of digital news, and more
Victor Pickard, an associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication, chats with Penn Today about how the recent happenings at the sports blog are reminiscent of a worsening journalism crisis in the U.S.
Syrian journalist details dangers, challenges covering her country
During four public discussions last week as part of a “Writer at Risk” residency, Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim described in detail the dangers she faced covering armed conflicts while in her country.
Syrian journalist to speak in Penn’s ‘Writer at Risk’ weeklong visiting fellow program
Syrian journalist Zaina Erhaim will visit Penn to discuss the armed conflict in Syria, the importance of an independent press, and the challenges of working in war-torn areas for female journalists.
Digging deep with Parker Jones
The junior on the volleyball team chats about her responsibilities as an outside hitter, her interest in Penn, the joy of beach volleyball, and coaching the freshman team while she was in high school.
The 2016 election did not increase political polarization
A new study by Annenber’s Yphtach Lelkes indicates that America is politically polarized, but the findings show no statistical difference between the levels of partisanship in 2014 and 2017.
In the News
After four years with COVID-19, the U.S. is settling into a new approach to respiratory virus season
Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center says that the sense of urgency around vaccination has faded as attention on respiratory viruses wanes.
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Americans’ confidence in science remains high, finds new review
A survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center suggests that most Americans continue to have confidence in science and scientists.
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Media companies cut thousands of jobs so far this year. They're not coming back
Victor Pickard of the Annenberg School for Communication says that the ad-revenue business model for journalism has collapsed and can’t be replaced with paywalls.
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Meet Sora: AI-created videos test public trust
Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center says that AI video-creation can manipulate images in ways that make them seem more real than the original artifacts.
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Meta, Google and other social-media companies brace for heightened deepfake perils ahead of 2024 elections
Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center says that the capacity exists in 2024 for individuals and nation-states to generate more misleading content that is microtargeted and harder to detect.
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