5/25
Louisa Shepard
Senior News Officer
lshepard@upenn.edu
Cinema & Media Studies
Ben Franklin: A voice from the past that speaks to our time
Ben Franklin: A voice from the past that speaks to our time
At the 2022 Silfen Forum, Penn Interim President Wendell Pritchett chatted with filmmaker Ken Burns about his new two-part documentary on Benjamin Franklin.
Oscars 2022, predicted
Oscars 2022, predicted
Penn Cinema and Media Studies and Theatre Arts faculty make their predictions about this year’s Oscar winners—organized by category.
Public media can improve our ‘flawed’ democracy
Public media can improve our ‘flawed’ democracy
A new study finds that countries with well-funded public media have healthier democracies, and explains why investment in U.S. public media is an investment in the future of journalism and democracy alike.
Journalism is outdated: Barbie Zelizer discusses a new ‘manifesto’
Journalism is outdated: Barbie Zelizer discusses a new ‘manifesto’
In ‘The Journalism Manifesto’, Annenberg School of Communications’ Barbie Zelizer and her co-authors argue that journalism needs a major transformation in order to survive as an essential pillar of our democracy.
Believability in the wake of #MeToo
Believability in the wake of #MeToo
Sarah Banet-Weiser analyzes representations of sexual violence survivorship in recent TV shows to explore how and why believing women remains a contentious cultural battle.
9/11, 20 years later
9/11, 20 years later
Experts across the University share their thoughts on how 9/11 transformed their field, their research, and the world.
Ilyse Reisman summer in the writers’ room
Ilyse Reisman summer in the writers’ room
An aspiring comedy writer, senior Ilyse Reisman got a chance to be on set and in meetings to pitch production ideas during her RealArts@Penn summer internship at the film studio Indigenous Media in Los Angeles.
Rising sophomore Paola Camacho’s Hollywood summer
Rising sophomore Paola Camacho’s Hollywood summer
Rising sophomore Paola Camacho is conducting research for Hollywood writers and Penn alums David Stern and Stuart Gibbs through a Real Arts@Penn internship in Los Angeles.
‘Dreaming of Jerusalem’
‘Dreaming of Jerusalem’
Penn’s Peter Decherney and Sosena Solomon make a documentary film about a Jewish community in Ethiopia waiting to emigrate to Israel.
Filmmaker Claire Sliney heads to Paris with a Nat Geo Storytelling Fulbright
Filmmaker Claire Sliney heads to Paris with a Nat Geo Storytelling Fulbright
May graduate Claire Sliney is the first Penn undergrad to receive an Academy Award, and to receive a Fulbright-National Geographic Storytelling Fellowship. She heads to Paris to shoot a documentary about how female immigrants in France are portrayed in film.
Media Contact
In the News
The Hill
White House points finger at the press
Victor Pickard of the Annenberg School for Communication weighed in on the relationship between the media and the Biden administration. “They don’t want to have the same relationship that the Trump administration had, and I don’t think they do,” said Pickard.
FULL STORY →
The Conversation
Hollywood’s love of guns increases the risk of shootings—both on and off the set
Dan Romer of the Annenberg Public Policy Center and a colleague from Ohio State University co-authored an article about the prevalence of guns in movies. “The more guns there are in movies, the more likely it is that a shooting will occur—both in the ‘reel’ world and in the ‘real’ world,” they wrote.
FULL STORY →
Reuters
How AT&T helped build far-right One America News
Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center spoke about the origins of Fox News and OAN. “If somebody recognizes there’s a market for something and there’s a lot of money attached to that market, you get a news outlet,” she said.
FULL STORY →
Slate.com
The radio hosts taking COVID denial to its grimmest endpoint
Brian Rosenwald of the School of Arts & Sciences was interviewed about how the right-wing media ecosystem has framed COVID-19 and the vaccines. “As much as many see conservative media as hosts who are puppeteers dragging their audience around, it’s kind of the other way around—hosts are afraid to lose the audience,” he said.
FULL STORY →
The Atlantic
The Tucker Carlson fans who got vaxxed
Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center said shows like “Tucker Carlson Tonight” foster distrust in the COVID-19 vaccine by perpetuating viewers’ assumptions. “If you hear the word lie tied to Anthony Fauci, and Anthony Fauci now comes on in a completely different venue, the assumption is, you can’t trust Anthony Fauci,” she said.
FULL STORY →
Washington Monthly
Our divisions are worse than you think
Jonathan Zimmerman of the Graduate School of Education reflects on conservatives and progressives who are locked into their own media bubbles, while each presents America as under existential threat for vastly different reasons.
FULL STORY →