Third, we are in an era of global convergence, an interwoven world where economies, cultures and lives are linked by movies, pop stars, and the Internet, by student exchange programs and international flight. While the PLA is notoriously opaque and Beijing has mastered the art of poker-face diplomacy, a recent study by one of this article’s authors and Dean Ernest J. Wilson III of the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism shows that China’s behavior in the global arena was found to be moving closer in line with accepted international norms on economic, aid, and energy issues. That is, while divergence continues in areas of democratic reform and human rights, the most effective way long-term to limit erratic behavior on China’s part is to continue developing the economic, political, and cultural ties that are inevitably bringing our two countries together. Read More »
Welcome Remarks at Cooney Center 2011 Leadership Forum
The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop’s 2011 Leadership Forum, “Learning from Hollywood”
Dean Ernest J. Wilson III delivered remarks to 200 thought leaders in entertainment media, education, research, philanthropy and policy at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Worshop’s 2011 Leadership Forum, “Learning from Hollywood.” The forum was held on the USC campus from May 16-17, 2011. Agenda & Speakers
The goals of this conference are extremely important for the future of our youth, and hence for the future of the country. Games, TV shows and virtual reality are not just playthings. They are instruments for educating—or miseducating—the next generation of Americans. The question is, will we find the imagination and the ethical commitment to raise a generation of kids literate in the new and old ways of learning….? Read More »
The Flip Side of Metcalfe’s Law: Multiple and Growing Costs of Network Exclusion
International Journal of Communication, 2011
The study of networks has grown recently, but most existing models fail to capture the costs or loss of value of exclusion from the network. Intuitively, as a network grows in size and value, those outside the network face growing disparities. We present a new framework for modeling network exclusion, and show that costs of exclusion can be absolute, and might, at the extreme, eventually grow ~exponentially, regardless of underlying network structure. We find costs of exclusion can also be spread to the “included,” through several mechanisms including parallel networks, and also highlight how future research needs to capture the interaction of alternate or parallel networks to the network at hand. Backed by empirical evidence, this will have wide-reaching policy and design implications, including the role of subsidies or direct intervention for network access and inclusion. Read More »
New Voices on the Net? The Digital Journalism Divide and the Costs of Network Exclusion
Ernest J. Wilson III & Sasha Costanza-Chock, 2011
In the information society, diverse communities’ capacity to tell their own stories is especially critical. The transformation of the Internet into the key platform for communication and journalism has created the illusion that barriers long faced by people of color in print and broadcast media will melt away. At same time, the election of Obama has created, for some, the illusion that the United States of America has entered a new, ‘post-racial’ era. However, having a Black man in the White House, however important a sign of progress, cannot alone erase the fact that race, class, and gender all continue to unjustly structure Americans’ opportunities in every sphere of life. Race-based exclusion from full access to and participation in both old and new information and communications technologies (ICTs) remains entrenched. Read More »
USC Dean Ernest Wilson on West Coast Foreign Policy and the Future of Public Diplomacy
On the sidelines of the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Ernest Wilson, dean of the innovative Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at USC, speaks to ForeignPolicy.com about the West Coast view of foreign policy, putting civil society at the center of public diplomacy, and how to properly teach and practice the art of communications internationally. Read More »
The 19th Annual Walter and Leonore Annenberg Distinguished Lecture in Communication
“Bringing Communication to the Center: Reconciling Rigor and Relevance in the Communication Field”
presented by Ernest J. Wilson, III, Ph.D., Dean and Walter H. Annenberg Chair in Communication of the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California Los Angeles, CA.
The next Silicon Valley: USC’s Annenberg?
MarketWatch , 2011
Ernest Wilson smiles when he assesses his job as the dean of the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California.
Wilson, for his part, can take pride in knowing he is making progress with his journalism, communications and public relations agenda. He supervises one of the nation’s most complex and ambitious media-education programs.
Annenberg works in conjunction with such USC divisions as business, engineering and public diplomacy. Labeling USC Annenberg’s School for Communication and Journalism as a simply “journalism” school, in the traditional sense, diminishes what Wilson and his colleagues are trying to accomplish.
Wilson believes that journalism plus innovation equals entrepreneurship, and that word sums up what Annenberg is trying hard to preach to its roughly 2,200 students.
“Five years from now, if we do this right,” Wilson said, “we can establish a new set of competencies for the digital age. Our graduates can go to work for Cisco or the government of China or the World Bank or a school in South Central LA. All of them would understand that communications is at the center. The biggest export in the U.S. economy is content.” Read More »
The next Silicon Valley, USC’s Annenberg?
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) — Ernest Wilson smiles when he assesses his job as the dean of the Annenberg School at the University of Southern California.
Wilson, for his part, can take pride in knowing he is making progress with his journalism, communications and public relations agenda. He supervises one of the nation’s most complex and ambitious media-education programs. Read More »
Dean Wilson & Professor Wilson
ReelUrbanNews.com recently spoke exclusively with Dr. Ernest Wilson, Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism and his wife, Professor Francille Wilson, College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, both of the University of Southern California. “I think it’s a privilege to be here at USC, we’ve both been scholars for a long time and I think it’s something that we both embrace, being in the academy.” Professor Francille Wilson, Ph.D. College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California.
During our exclusive interview with Dean and Professor Wilson we discussed the recent events in the Middle East. “It’s very easy to say that Twitter and blogging caused the revolution in the Middle East, that is the popular discourse and popular narrative. If it weren’t for the Twitter accounts none of this would be happening! I think that is a profoundly ethnocentric and biased view. Technology enables, technology doesn’t cause.” Dr. Ernest Wilson, Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California. Read More »
Hu’s Coming to Dinner: A Year After the Google-China Dust-Up, Has Anything Changed?
Huffington Post, 2011
On Jan. 19, China’s President Hu Jintao will attend a state dinner at the White House. This comes about a year since his government and Google Corporation duked it out over Google’s refusal to abide by the PRC’s laws to control internet content. There were punches thrown and punches pulled. The heavyweight fight was sort of a draw, with no clear winner or loser. Now is a good time to revisit what the dust-up meant then, what it means today, and what it might mean for the future of U.S.-China relations. Read More »