Dean Ernest J. Wilson III described the USC Annenberg School’s recent additions, impending growth, and plans for the future in an in-depth PBS MediaShift Q-and-A on Jan. 18 with Mark Glaser. “What I feel really good about is building on this inherited combinations of different disciplines and professions and looking very hard for synergies and places where journalism and communication and public relations and strategic communication can work together,” Dean Wilson said. “That’s what gives me the greatest sense of satisfaction — that we’re well on the way to doing that. I’ll give you a couple examples: We’ve created the Innovation Lab, and we’re going to create what I call the Experimental School.”
Dean Wilson on NPR’s New Chief Gary Knell
October 4, 2011 by
Knell received a strong vote of support from Ernest Wilson, a past chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the not-for-profit organization through which federal dollars flow to NPR and public radio and television stations. Wilson said Knell showed an entrepreneurial bent in his current post as head of Sesame Workshop — the parent company of Sesame Street. The children’s show has gone global, and survived a burst of new producers of children’s TV who are its competitors.
“Gary Knell brings to this post a proven ability to work effectively and efficiently — and to raise money — which is critically important,” Wilson said Monday. “In other words, he’s figured out a business model.” Read More »
The next Silicon Valley, USC’s Annenberg?
April 15, 2011 by
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 »
What’s The Point Of Journalism School, Anyway?
October 18, 2010 by
Indeed, Neon Tommy has broken enough charged stories that Ernest Wilson, the dean of USC’s Annenberg School, says he is both weary of taking complaining calls and proud the stories are having such an impact.
Wilson argues that good citizenship and a vibrant press are inextricably linked.
“If you look around the world, whether it’s a developed country or a developing country … if that country has a free and independent press it’s much more likely they’re going to be a democracy,” he says. “And I think those of us in [the] journalism education field have an obligation to help train people to provide information in the public interest.” Read More »
Hollywood stars? I prefer a media summit any day
March 13, 2010 by
Ernest Wilson, the dean of the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California and the chairman of the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, flew in from New York. “It helped me understand the needs of the region, and what I can do in partnerships that I have here to contribute to the region,” he told my colleague Keach Hagey on the summit’s final day. Read More »
What “They” (and We) Are Saying about “Us” on the World Wide Web
December 1, 2009 by
Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, 2009
To finish up with another indictment, however, may I suggest “Where are JSchools in Great Debate over Journalism’s Future?” (on the Poynter Institute site) by
University of Southern California Annenberg School Dean Ernest Wilson? He argues, “the performance of journalism schools has something to do with the current sub-par performance of the profession,” because “those of us who lead journalism schools are responsible for training a goodly percentage of the people who made questionable decisions over the past decade….Medical school faculty regularly point to failures—and opportunities—to improve their training of physicians for the 21st century. Where is the visible counterpoint in journalism education?….To survive, journalism schools have to become much more intellectually and professionally ambitious.” Specifically, Wilson points out, “shocking economic illiteracy… marks too much of journalism education today, which makes it harder to get high quality economic reporting, while reinforcing the fire wall between the business and content sides of the profession….The popular claim that ‘we are all journalists now’ must be refuted….We ought to lead the charge for greater media literacy for all citizens.” Read More »
Remarks to Fudan Journalism School
November 10, 2009 by
Fudan University
Journalism and communications schools around the world are at an important crossroads in their existence. Some, like the Fudan School of Journalism, have existed for many decades; others are very new. Some combine journalism and communications, others have only one or the other. Some offer only graduate or undergraduate degrees, and they may be large research oriented institutions or small teaching schools. Read More »