Dean Ernest J. Wilson III delivered a keynote address to the U.S. Department of State on June 7 titled Diversity and Cultural Competence. He outlined several “next steps,” including making diversity a strategic priority as well as an HR priority, and hiring and empowering change agents. Read More »
Ernest J. Wilson presents to Department of State on Diversity and Cultural Competence
June 7, 2012 by
Futures of Entertainment 5
September 15, 2011 by
Cities and the Future of Entertainment. Today, new entertainment production cultures are arising around key cities like Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro. What do these changes mean for the international flow of media content? And how does the nature of these cities help shape the entertainment industries they are fostering? At the same time, new means of media production and circulation allow people to produce content from suburban or rural areas. How do these trends co-exist? And what does it mean for the futures of entertainment?
Moderator: Maurício Mota (The Alchemists)
Panelists: Parmesh Shahani (Godrej Industries, India), Ernie Wilson (University of Southern California), and Sérgio Sá Leitão (Rio Filmes) Read More »
New Voices on the Net? The Digital Journalism Divide and the Costs of Network Exclusion
May 16, 2011 by
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 »
Eric Newton: Shame on us if we don’t take the steps needed to feed knowledge to our democracy
January 6, 2010 by
In October, the Knight Commission on the Information Needs of Communities in a Democracy issued its report on how our media need to evolve to serve the public interest in the digital age. The effort included some big names: Google’s Marissa Mayer, former solicitor general Ted Olson, ex-L.A. Times editor John Carroll, former FCC chairman Reed Hundt, and new media researcher danah boyd among them. Here our friend Eric Newton of the Knight Foundation explains how the report fits in a tradition of media self-examination and issues a call to action.
Ernie Wilson, dean of USC’s Annenberg School and chair of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, announced he is boosting innovation in public media. CPB backed NPR’s Project Argo in a partnership with Knight Foundation. Read More »
Eight Public Media 2.0 Projects That Are Doing it Right
October 6, 2009 by
PBS’ MediaShift, 2009
It’s official: “Public Media 2.0” has graduated from theory into practice.
“We believe that a successful broadband policy and implementation requires Public Media 2.0,” said Ernest Wilson, the new chair of the board of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, at Friday’s unveiling of the Knight Commission’s new report, Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age. Echoing the report’s opening salvo, he stressed that, “The time has come for new thinking and aggressive action.” Or, as Ben Scott of Free Press put it in a later panel: the commission has provided a menu, and now it’s time for us to get in the kitchen and start cooking. Read More »
Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age, Part 1
October 2, 2009 by
The Knight Commission held a forum on recommendations in their report “Informing Communities: Sustaining Democracy in the Digital Age.” The report focused on availability of information, skills needed to use broadband, and universal service. Following opening remarks and presentations, a panel talked about the use of broadband technology to improve access to and availability of information through on-line sources. Read More »
Digital Media, Modern Democracy, and Our Truncated National Debate
January 31, 2009 by
–And Communications for All, 2009
Dean Wilson presents on philanthropy’s role in preserving democratic media
May 7, 2008 by
Dean Ernest J. Wilson III presented alongside FCC commissioner Michael J. Copps on May 6 at the Council on Foundations Conference in Washington, D.C., and outlined the pros and cons of a changing media landscape.