School of Communication

This year the School of Communication at American University has hired leading junior faculty in the areas of science journalism and risk communication. The two new faculty, scheduled to move to Washington, DC in August, will contribute significantly to SOC's research capacity, professional initiatives, and teaching portfolio. Below with their permission, I have posted brief bios. DECLAN FAHY Declan Fahy joins the journalism faculty as a tenure-track assistant professor. He has reported extensively on science, health, and environmental issues, as well as many other topics, for the Irish…
American Today, the weekly newspaper for American University, ran this feature on last week's AU Forum and public radio broadcast of "The Climate Change Generation: Youth, Media, and Politics in an Unsustainable World." My graduate assistant Brandee Reed has also produced a transcript of the panel which I have pasted below the fold. I was joined on the panel by AU journalism professor Jane Hall who served as moderator, and fellow panelists Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post and Kate Sheppard of Mother Jones magazine. The transcript is not quite professional quality, but it does provide…
Chris Palmer, director of the Center for Environmental Filmmaking at American University, argues in an op-ed at CNN.com that the tragic accident at SeaWorld Orlando should draw renewed attention to the ethics and safety of keeping Orcas as captive performing animals for spectators. As Palmer, a veteran of more than 25 years of wildlife filmmaking, writes: Orcas and other large predators should not be held in captivity unless those doing so can make an overpoweringly persuasive case for it -- mainly that the animal's release into the wild, perhaps after an injury, will mean certain,…
That's the question raised in an American Observer article about this week's AU Forum held on the "Climate Change Generation? Youth, Media, and Politics in an Unsustainable World." The Observer is the digital news site run by graduate students in journalism at American University. Here's how reporter Kristen Becker described the issue with reactions from students, Forum moderator Jane Hall, and panelists Juliet Eilperin and Kate Sheppard: Although a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found the number of Americans who believe climate change is occurring has dropped from 80 percent to 72…
Americans under the age of 35 have grown up during an era of ever more certain climate science, increasing news attention, alarming entertainment portrayals, and growing environmental activism, yet on a number of key indicators, this demographic group remains less engaged on the issue than older Americans. A survey report released today challenges conventional wisdom that younger Americans as a group are more concerned and active on the issue of climate change than their older counterparts. The analysis of nationally representative data collected in January of this year is timed for release…
At last night's AU Forum on The Climate Change Generation, one of the students asked what can be done to break public indifference on the issue. In the YouTube clip above, I answered that Obama as president needs to make climate change a leading communication priority, marshaling the power of the bully pulpit for a long term president-led engagement campaign on the issue. When and if this happens, I suggested one of the first things Obama should do is to personally host a series of Rose Garden summits with religious leaders, business leaders, public health experts, and national security…
More than 200 students turned out tonight for the AU Forum on climate change and youth and approximately 700,000 audience members in the DC area listened in via the live public radio broadcast by WAMU. There will be much more tomorrow including blog reaction, news coverage, a transcript, a podcast of the WAMU program, and the release of a new survey report on young people and climate change. But for now, you can watch archived video feed of the panel above and you can discuss the panel at the student built social media site for the event. Also check out the twitter feed and discussion.…
What does climate change mean to you? from Andrea Posner on Vimeo. Students in AU Professor David Johnson's class on interactive media have created a social media and discussion site for tonight's American Forum on "The Climate Change Generation: Youth, Media, and Politics in an Unsustainable World." Features at the site include video interviews with AU students on the topic (see above), a Twitter feed that student attendees and public radio listeners will be posting to, a Facebook group, a news aggregator on climate change, and various topic driven discussion boards with topics ranging…
The School of Communication at American University in partnership with the School of Public Affairs has established a new 2 year MA degree program in Political Communication. The program is currently accepting applications for Fall 2010. Follow this link and see details posted below. The joint SOC/SPA degree is one of several new programs moving forward at AU, as the university and School of Communication pursue an ambitious new strategic plan. The Master of Arts in Political Communication is a 36 credit hour degree program combining education in political sciences and communication,…