Skip to Content Skip to Content

Cinema & Media Studies

Oscars 2022, predicted
Red carpet with people mingling in front of a gold statue

The 94th Academy Awards will be held inside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on Sunday, March 27. (Image: Lionel Hahn/Abaca/Sipa via AP Images)

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
Radio microphone and a soundboard with an ON AIR sign.

Image: Fringer Cat via Unsplash

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.

Alina Ladyzhensky

Journalism is outdated: Barbie Zelizer discusses a new ‘manifesto’
newspapers stacked

Journalism is outdated: Barbie Zelizer discusses a new ‘manifesto’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.

From Annenberg School for Communication

White House points finger at the press

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.

Believability in the wake of #MeToo
Masked people marching in protest holding signs that read I BELIEVE YOU and PROTECT ALL WORKERS.

Image: Mélodie Descoubes via Unsplash

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.

From Annenberg School for Communication

Hollywood’s love of guns increases the risk of shootings—both on and off the set

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.

How AT&T helped build far-right One America News

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.

The radio hosts taking COVID denial to its grimmest endpoint

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.

9/11, 20 years later
ground zero from liberty state park

Tribute in Light, an annual display near the site of Ground Zero, commemorates the Sept. 11 attacks. (Homepage image: Scott Spitzer)

9/11, 20 years later

Experts across the University share their thoughts on how 9/11 transformed their field, their research, and the world.

Kristen de Groot , Louisa Shepard

Ilyse Reisman summer in the writers’ room
student standing outside with hill in the background

Senior Ilyse Reisman, an English and cinema studies major in the College of Arts and Sciences, was a summer intern at the film studio Indigenous Media in Los Angeles.

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.

Louisa Shepard