Spring 2000 Vol 10 No 1 Published Winter, Spring and Fall

The Annenberg School for CommunicationUniversity of Pennsylvania

This special edition of Newslink will be devoted to theAnnenberg School’s 40th Anniversary Celebration.

Leonore and Walter Annenberg at the ASC 40th Anniversary Celebration dinner.

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The Annenberg School Celebrates40 Years of Research and Teaching

It was a celebrationunlike any other — a whirlwind day and

a half of impassioned discussion and rousingfestivities that left guestssearching for superlativesto describe it. “It was not merely multimedia;it was multi-spectacular,”observed one guest.Another, alumnus MichelHuber (MA ’61),described the event as

“socially spectacular andintellectually exciting andstimulating,” while DarrySragow (MA ’68) called it“unique — memorable forall of us who were there.”

“The best anniversarybash in the country,” pronounced AnnenbergFoundation ProgramDirector Gail Levin, “but alsoone with an important andserious theme: that makinga difference demands ongoingsacrifice and genuine focuson the well-being of others.”

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The occasion was theSeptember 29th, 1999 cele-bration of the AnnenbergSchool’s 40th anniversaryand the opening of the newhome of the AnnenbergPublic Policy Center. Over400 alumni and guests joinedfaculty, staff and students forlectures, panel discussions,and salutes to the Schooland to Ambassadors Walterand Leonore Annenberg,who were in attendance.

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Guests arriving for the celebration marveled at thebuilding’s transformation,from the new Walnut Streetcourtyard, lined with atranslucent wall-screen, to thedramatic marble, glass andstainless steel entrance, withits terrazzo floor. Touring thebuilding, guests found theSchool’s library altered fromthree levels to one, with agreatly expanded readingroom, new classrooms, andvideo and computer worksta-tions in the core. Ascendingthe diagonal staircase, theyfound the School’s auditoriumreplaced by three floors of theAnnenberg Public PolicyCenter, complete with two-sto-ry atrium and new, expansivewindows facing Walnut Street.

The dramatic renovationserved as a backdrop for stim-ulating lectures, provocativediscussions, and many amusingmoments. Filmmaker DuncanKenworthy (MA ’73 ) regaledhis Zellerbach audience on thegala’s eve by describing the 72takes required for Hugh Grantto record the opening ofKenworthy’s new film NottingHill and by confiding howGrant’s girlfriend, actressElizabeth Hurley, boosted themovie’s publicity by wearing a

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6:00 pm

T U E S D A Y

ASC Professor Joseph Cappella andalumnus Stuart Sigman.

ASC Professor Oscar Gandy with City

ASC’s Phyllis Kaniss with doctoral studLynne Edwards.

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The Eve of the

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Planning Professor Seymour Mandelbaum.

Alumnae Amy Jordan and NancyMorris.

ent Jessica Davis (center) and alumna

Celebration

The festivities began Tuesday

evening with a cocktail and

dessert reception welcoming

filmmaker and producer Duncan

Kenworthy to deliver the Walter and

Leonore Distinguished Lecture in

Communication. Before the lecture,

ASC alumni, faculty, and other

invited guests had the opportunity to

mingle and reflect on their memories

of their time at Annenberg and what

lies ahead for the School.

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Duncan Kenworthy with ASC Professor Larry Gross.

7:00 pm

T U E S D A Y

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Duncan KenworthyFilmmaker

The Walter and Leonore Annenberg

Distinguished Lecture in Communication

Duncan Kenworthy

Asked by DeanKathleen HallJamieson to kick

off the 40th anniversary cel-ebration, producer DuncanKenworthy (MA ’73) said heracked his brains and wentback to his Annenberg notesbefore calling the Dean totell her his title: “RepetitiveMetacommunication and its Role in CinematicContextualization.”

“There was a silence atthe other end of the lineand Kathleen — who per-haps knows me better than I realized — asked, ‘Couldn’tyou just talk about how you made Notting Hill?’”Kenworthy was referring tohis latest film, starring HughGrant and Julia Roberts.

And talk about the very successful film he did— including, to the delightof many in the audiencewho had seen the film,showing hilarious outtakesthat were left on the editingroom floor. Over the courseof the lecture, Kenworthyoffered a witty list of theelements comprising a suc-cessful movie.

Duncan Kenworthy’s 10 Keys to SuccessfulMovie-making

Enumerate for Success.

“You can even substitute alist for a plot. We’d certainlydone more than half the edi-tor’s job when we decided tocall our first film FourWeddings and a Funeral.”

If you’re making a movie,

try to hire a movie star.

“Big stars do open movies.The opening weekend take of Four Weddings was$140,000. On its openingweekend, Notting Hillgrossed $27 million.”

Get a good script.

“And if you want to make a big audience cry, make acomedy. Few people want to go to a drama that theyknow will wring their emo-tions, but everyone loves tohave a big laugh and then a little weep.”

Invite Elizabeth Hurley

to your premiere. “WhenElizabeth decided to wear‘that dress’, as the Versacesafety-pin number is nowknown in the UK, ourtabloid fortunes were jointlymade — she and the dressstayed on the front page ofone or more of the UKnewspapers every day for a week.”

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Choose the most interest-

ing setting, but think twice

before naming your movie

after it. “Probably the onlyserious criticism that wasleveled at the film in the UKwas the racial makeup ofPortobello Road…when wecut from the film a key scenefeaturing a heavily multi-ethnic crowd, the perceivedbalance shifted. We wereaccused of intentionallywhitening Notting Hill for a worldwide audience —something that hurt me notjust because it was so com-pletely untrue, but alsobecause I should have seen it coming.”

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Use digital effects. “InNotting Hill, we used digitaltechnology to erase a sweatpatch under Hugh’s arm,and to smooth out creases in Julia’s space suit. Butsometimes it was to make a bolder statement, as in the sequence in which sixmonths pass as Hugh’s char-acter walks a hundred yardsalong Portobello Road.”

Keep the audience guessing.

Always have a chase.

Edit well. “Be ruthless…If a scene is fantastic, but itreally messes up the rhythmof the storytelling, it’ll haveto go.”

“Finally number ten.And this is a brief one butan important one — keep

your out-takes. You neverknow when you might needto blackmail your star.”

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9:00 am

W E D N E S D A Y

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The Opening Keynote Address:

Christine Todd WhitmanGovernor

Dean Jamieson greets Governor Whitman.

“Today, perhaps more than ever before,

we need a place where effective

communication is recognized and

studied….”

Drawing on her ownexperience pushinga constitutional

amendment to protect openspace, New Jersey GovernorChristine Todd Whitmanemphasized the importanceof communication to publicpolicy. “It wasn’t enough justto go to places and standbehind a microphone anddeliver a message. We need-ed to capture the media’sattention and the public’simagination. So at one farm,I arrived on horseback witha group of kids, all riding onponies. At a state park, Ihiked up to the highest spotin the State of New

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Jersey…I reviewed a contin-gent of Revolutionary Warsoldiers at Fort Lee, andsailed on a schooner in theCamden Waterfront, andshot the rapids at the WaterGap. I even took a pressphotographer with me when

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we went up in a hot air bal-loon.…Now, I know thatsome people might dismissthis approach as ‘gim-micky’…but we were able toget the message out.”

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Whitman called on theAnnenberg School and thenew Institute for PublicService to take the lead instudying how communica-tion can be used for civicgood. “Because we live in apolitical system thatdepends on the consent ofthe governed for its success,we must engage the publicin effective political commu-nication. Failure to do sotruly risks the failure of oursystem.…The great servicethat this school will provideto America’s next generationof political leaders is anunderstanding of the skillsof how to master all the newmethods of communicationthat will be available to us.By combining in one placethe study of communicationand public policy with thereal-world experiences ofprominent public service,you will become the sourceof practical knowledge abouteffective political communi-cation.”

She concluded bydeclaring that “today, per-haps more than ever before,we need a place where effec-tive communication is rec-ognized and studied as animportant part of a healthypolitical culture.”

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a Discussion of

Opening of the Institute for Public Service and the Presidential Archive

Presidential Speechmaking

“What we’ve lost is not the capacity to

write a great speech…what we’ve lost

are great audiences.” — Stephen Hess

David Eisenhower

Before an audience inthe Zellerbach theater, Annenberg

Public Policy Center SeniorFellow David Eisenhower offi-cially assumed the role ofDirector of APPC’s newInstitute for Public Serviceand announced the release ofthe Campaign Archive CD-ROM. “This archive will pre-sent every transcript of everycampaign address, everydebate transcript, every tran-script of a political ad, byevery major party nominee,since 1952,” he said. “It willfill libraries, it will serve ascourse work, it will serve bookwriters and pundits, and willbecome a standard referencefor campaigners.”

Eisenhower welcomed apanel of discussants to exam-ine how campaigning, and inparticular speechwriting, havechanged in the period coveredby the Archive–what he calledthe “television age.” Martin

Medhurst, Professor ofCommunication at TexasA&M University, pointed outthat with the advent of televi-sion “the public relies moreon paid advertising to get itsinformation about the candi-dates than it does on thespeeches and the appearances,and therefore the role of thespeechwriter has changed.”

Stephen Hess, a formerspeechwriter for both Presi-dent Dwight Eisenhower andPresident Richard Nixon,and Senior Fellow at theBrookings Institution, added,“what we’ve lost is not thecapacity to write a greatspeech, to deliver a greatspeech. What we’ve lost aregreat audiences.” He saidthat he thought that withtelevision “you get a very

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inattentive audience. It’s avery different thing than sit-ting there [in person] listen-ing. Television is the timeyou watch while you’re talk-ing on the phone…doingyour homework. Any of uswho’ve been on the newsknow that the next day webump into someone whosays, ‘hey, I saw you on PeterJennings yesterday. Nicenecktie. You need a haircut.’

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No one ever says, ‘hey, thatwas an interesting point you made’.”

Frank Mankiewicz, formerPress Secretary to RobertKennedy and CampaignDirector for GeorgeMcGovern, and currentlyVice Chairman of Hill andKnowlton, responded, “Ithink television has beenresponsible for the personal-izing of our politics, ratherthan [focusing] on issues.And among the personaliz-ing things about our politicsis that everybody knowswho the speechwriters are.Partly that’s because thespeechwriters have done apretty good job of makingthat known.”

Eisenhower askedMichael Waldman, KennedySchool Fellow and formerlyChief Speechwriter at theClinton White House,whether the CampaignArchive of Presidentialspeeches would have beenuseful in his position at theWhite House.

“It would have beentremendously useful,”Waldman answered. We

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Former White House SpeechwriterMichael Waldman

A video transmission of the dedication ceremony was screened in the ZellerbachTheater.

Presidential Speechmaking

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wound up doing it by hand— you know, photocopying.I always found it very help-ful to go back and look atwhat other presidents havesaid. President Clinton didalso.” He described how hehad used past speeches toresearch the 1996 State ofthe Union speech. He notedthat the speech followed thegovernment shutdowns whenthere was a great deal of par-tisan bitterness and whenthe media were focusing onlayoffs and downsizing, eventhough the economy wasactually performing well.

“And so it was a ques-tion of what should [thePresident’s] tone be in thisState of the Union? He’snaturally ebullient and opti-mistic, but a lot of advice he

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was getting was that heshouldn’t show that side. Ihappened to look at theState of the Union addressesdelivered by all thePresidents, this century,running for reelection, andit was very striking.President Carter, in 1980,started, ‘This has been adifficult year for us all.’President Bush openedby…making a joke, apolo-gizing for not beingBarbara, then made a jokeabout what had happenedwith the Prime Minister ofJapan a few weeks earlier.And then he apologized forseeming not to care aboutthe country’s problems.Then I looked at Reagan in1984. A time when peopleweren’t quite sure if theeconomy was really as strongas we now know it was. Itwas ebullient; ‘America isback, standing tall.’

“It’s a little simplistic,”Waldman concluded, “butbasically, you could tell whowas going to win and whowas going to lose by readingthe speeches.”

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Dedication CeremonyThe

As an audience of600 watched on ascreen in the

Zellerbach theater, DeanKathleen Hall Jamieson,Ambassadors Walter andLeonore Annenberg,University President JudithRodin and Provost RobertBarchi assembled with otherinvited guests on the sidewalkoutside the School’s newWalnut Street entrance for adedication ceremony. TheDean read out AmbassadorAnnenberg’s words, fromforty years before, when hefounded the school.

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“Every humanadvancement or reversalcan be understood throughcommunication. The rightof free communicationcarries with it responsibilityto respect the dignity ofothers and this must berecognized as irreversible.Educating students tocommunicate this messageeffectively and to be of service to all people is theenduring mission of thisschool.”

Dean Jamieson added:“Ambassador, in the 40 yearsthat this school has been inexistence, we’ve tried to liveup to that ideal. On behalfof the more than one thou-

11:00 amW E D N E S D A Y

Lee Annenberg Walter Annenberg acknowledges one of many tributes to him.

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sand graduates of thisschool, I would like to saythat we pledge that in thenext 40 years, and in the yearsafter that, we will continueto aspire to your high ideal.”

Before unveiling theSchool’s new entrance, LeeAnnenberg rose to the podi-um to deliver a greeting.“When Walter dedicated theAnnenberg School — whatwas then — of Communica-tions — in honor of his latefather, Moses Annenberg, inthe presence of the latePresident of the Universityof Pennsylvania GaylordHarnwell, and his belovedmother, no one could haveforeseen the accomplish-ments or the stature the

School would attain. TheSchool has been led andinspired by remarkabledeans. The first dean wasnoted critic Gilbert Seldes,

who presided over its earlyyears and was succeeded in1964 by George Gerbner, adistinguished and prolificscholar. During his 25 yearsas dean, George Gerbnerdefined the emerging field ofcommunication studies andwas the pioneer in establish-ing a broad program leadingto Master of Arts and Ph.D.degrees in communication.Under his direction theschool became well knownand widely respected for astrong curriculum and excel-lent research. Through themedia he was influential in

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making the public aware ofcommunication’s importantrole in contemporarythought and life.

“Now we are trulyindebted to our present dean,Kathleen Hall Jamieson, forher outstanding scholarlywork, her talented leadershipof the School, the WashingtonProgram, and the foundingof the Annenberg PublicPolicy Center. She has builtbrilliantly on the foundationlaid by her predecessors inthe first three decades. Herrepresentation in the mediahas brought recognitionnationally and international-ly to the study and under-standing of communicationand public affairs.

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“Walter and I have beenextremely fortunate to haveoutstanding deans, out-standing faculty, who haveturned out outstandinggraduates and who havereflected honor and pride onour outstanding school.Kathleen, we are so proud ofyou, your faculty membersand staff, and we are confi-dent that you will continueto carry our vision to newheights in the 21st century.”

After her remarks, Mrs. Annenberg joinedDean Jamieson, PresidentRodin and Provost Barchi,in unveiling the newentrance, with the words“The Annenberg School forCommunication” clearly visible from Walnut Street.

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W E D N E S D A Y

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Tom BrokawRestoring the Concept of a Common Ground

Journalist

Tom Brokaw

At a luncheon in a tenton the AnnenbergSchool plaza, NBC

Nightly News Anchor TomBrokaw delivered a speech on Communication in the21st century.

Brokaw lauded theAnnenberg School as a“national treasure, because ofthe intersection of communi-cation and public policy. It isa place where we can findcommon ground for discussionof these issues, and that willhelp us to find our future.”

Brokaw’s remarks focusedprimarily on the profession ofjournalism: how it haschanged in the forty yearssince the founding of theAnnenberg School, and whatchallenges it faces in thefuture, particularly coveringgovernment and politics.

He cautioned that nostal-gia for the “good old days”masks the fact that 40 yearsago the media were dominatedby “a small circle of whitemiddle-aged males who camefrom common backgroundsand cultures.” While they cov-ered important issues, such asthe Vietnam War and theCivil Rights movement, theyalso “missed or under-reportedso much of what was going onin the rest of the real world:

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the rise of women…the riseof a drug and violence cul-ture in our midst, the deteri-oration of public education.”

As he looked to thefuture, the newsman praisedthe emergence of new tech-nologies that are “empower-ing and accessible” but notedconcerns about the integrityof information and ques-tioned whether the Internetwill help create commongrounds for discussion. “Ibelieve that one of the great-est challenges that we have asa society, but especially in myprofession, is to attempt torestore in America the con-cept of a common ground.”

Brokaw noted his con-cern with what he called a“distancing going on fromour national political insti-tutions. Those people whoserve in Washington aremuch too inclined to paytoo much attention to nar-row personal agendas,financed by special interest.”He called on politicians,journalists, academics, andbusiness and communityleaders to point the way tocampaign reform.

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“I know of only a fewpoliticians of either partythese days who enjoy thedemeaning process by whichcampaigns are financed andconducted. We have allowedour greatest political process,the election campaign, to betaken hostage by hit menwho fill the airwaves withthe dense smoke of attackads. Ads that are designed todestroy the personal charac-ter of the opponent, not toelevate the understanding ofthe citizens from whom theywant their vote. Those of usin the American press, espe-cially at the national level,have learned some painfullessons in recent campaigns.I believe that, by-and-large,we have righted ourselvesand we now provide more

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thoughtful, broad and bal-anced coverage of the candi-dates and the issues. Butalas, politics, driven in partby public indifference to it,has fallen off the screen inthe most powerful instru-ment of contemporary newsmedia in communities, andthat is the local news. At thesame time, those of us in myprofession must resist theeasy temptation of pro-nouncing every prospectivepublic figure guilty withouttrial or review, of exaggerat-ing minor flaws absent inthe larger context of intelli-gence and imagination.”

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Edward G. RendellA Tribute to the Annenbergs

Philadelphia Mayor

Also at lunch,Philadelphia MayorEdward G. Rendell

took to the podium to paytribute to the Annenbergs.“It is not simply how muchthey give, but the way thatthey do it: to challenge us.Not just to challenge us toraise matching funds —that’s important — but theway they challenge us withtheir gifts to look at impor-tant issues. When theCatholic school system wasin deep trouble five or six

Philadelphia Mayor Edward G. Rendell

years ago, and the Cardinalwas going to close somegreat, great Catholic highschools, the Cardinal calledme and asked if I wouldhelp try to raise some mon-ey to avoid having to closethose schools. And I saidyes, but I didn’t know wherewe were going. And then,Walter and Lee gave a grant,and challenged the rest ofthe private sector to meetthat goal. And not only didwe meet the goal, but it gotthe private sector into thebusiness of understandinghow important our parochialschool system was…Whatthe Annenbergs have doneis not only to give money,but also to give money in away that provokes thoughtand provokes people intothinking about how impor-tant our institutions are.”

N E W SN E W S

Annenberg alumniGeorge Custen(MA’76, PhD ’80),

Professor of Communications,Theater, and AmericanStudies at the City Universityof New York (far right),Nancy Morris (MA’88, PhD’92), Assistant Professor of Broadcasting, Telecom-munications, and Mass Media

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1:00 pmW E D N E S D A Y

at Temple University (farleft), Stuart Sigman (MA’79, PhD ’82), Dean of theSchool of Communication,Management, and PublicPolicy at Emerson College(second from left), andNikhil Sinha (MA’89, PhD’91), President and ChiefExecutive Officer of IDLXTechnology Program, gath-ered after lunch to discuss“How Did I Get There FromHere?” a consideration ofASC Grads in the AcademicWorld. The panel was mod-erated by ASC’s Larry Gross,Sol Worth Professor ofCommunication.

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Television & Popular Culture

P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N :

Barbie Zelizer with Kenneth Kaufman and Sari Thomas.

After lunch, Barbie

Zelizer (PhD ’90),Raymond Williams

Term Chair and AssociateProfessor of Communicationat ASC, introduced a paneldiscussion on the topic ofTelevision and PopularCulture. She noted, “Popularculture provides a defaultsetting, or at least a back-ground, for consideringmuch of what we do as com-munication scholars. That’snot to say that we have beenconsistent in how we thinkabout popular culture or thedegree to which we admireit. Back in the late fifties, tosay you studied television as an academic was to securea raised eyebrow and a dis-approving look. To say thatyou were looking at primetime, fictional programmingwas enough to get you boot-ed out of an academicforum. And yet, the academ-ic study of popular culturehas persisted, and vigorouslyso. In fact, its resilience isproof-positive, to paraphraseand re-articulate GertrudeStein, that they’re worthlooking at.”

The panel discussionthat followed involved aconversation among aca-demics who study the medi-

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um of television, and writersand producers who work inthe industry. An excerptfrom their conversation:

Lisa Henderson (MA ’83,PhD ’90) Associate Professorof Communication at theUniversity of Massachusetts,Amherst: “I’m struck by theways in which certain thingsget lodged…in the mindsand lives of viewers, andaren’t forgotten. And theycan potentially be quite for-mative things that wouldn’tnecessarily have been attend-ed to by producers.…A pro-gram that I really admiredwas the Golden Girls, becausehere was a bunch of womenliving together in middle-age and some even had realsexual personae, which wasuncommon for middle-agedwomen in television. Andthey did a well-receivedepisode in which a friend ofDorothy’s…came to visit,who was a Lesbian, and whowas much like the othercharacters in the program.But three episodes later theGolden Girls were lookingfor a housekeeper, and theopening sequence was vari-ous people who weren’tgoing to work, being inter-viewed. And this incredibly

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thoughtful, intelligent andoftentimes very creative pro-gram invoked one stereotypeafter the other for the kindsof people you don’t want inyour house. For a programthat had just sought this ges-ture of inclusion threeepisodes earlier — that juststruck me so profoundly.”

John Masius, televisionwriter and creator ofProvidence and Touched byan Angel: “Television is stillthe medium by which youcan reach the most people inthe shortest period of timeand have the greatest influ-ence.…Television is anincredibly personal mediumfor people. When you seethe mail that you get, yourealize how seriously peopletake television, what owner-ship they have over televi-sion.…In New York City,you can go into a restaurant

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for dinner with RobertRedford, and people willpoint to him from afar. Ifyou go into that samerestaurant with a Tim Allen,people will come up to him,and they’ll interrupt him,because they feel they’ve hadownership, because this issomeone they’ve had in theirhome, every Wednesdaynight, for x number of years.”

Matthew Blank, Chair-man and Chief ExecutiveOfficer of ShowtimeNetworks Inc.: “We have an interesting equation atShowtime because premiumnetworks are unlike all therest of the popular media,which for all practical pur-poses are highly dependenton eyeballs. Unlike othertelevision, we’re not in theeyeballs business. We are a

2:00 pm

W E D N E S D A Y

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subscription service, and wehave the advantage of say-ing, as I frequently do, thatwe’re in the hearts andminds business.…We prideourselves on serving under-served audiences, whetherthat’s an African Americanaudience, whether it’s a Gayand Lesbian audience, any-body not well served by themass media. We also viewourselves as somewhat of asafe haven for product thatmight not have commercialviability elsewhere.”

Sari Thomas, (MA ’73,PhD ’77) Professor of MassMedia and Communicationat Temple University: “Therunning gag on Seinfeld wasthat it was a show aboutnothing, when we all knowit wasn’t. We could identifyepisodes and say what eachwas about, and none ofthem was about nothing.But what it lacked, and whatthe new comedies that I findso much more appealing ontelevision share — MadAbout You, Seinfeld, proba-bly from Cheers on — is thenon-didacticism of them. Inother words, you cannotidentify a show as [the one]where the writers are goingto give you some morallessons about this issue. And

this is very common for talkshows, for situation come-dies, for dramas, and cer-tainly for movies of theweek. Since when did wegive over moral philosophyto the writers and producersof television?”

Kenneth Kaufman (MA’73), President and ChiefOperating Officer of PatchettKaufman Entertainment: “I do think we have respon-sibility to raise issues inthese shows. And I think, ina way, we’re fighting thebusiness experts, who areconstantly telling us to dosomething that’s not goingto offend anybody. And Ithink all of our instincts areto offend somebody. All ourinstincts are to challengepeople, and to try to dosomething a little bit differ-ent. And when you’re con-stantly told, ‘nah, that’s out-side the box, don’t do it’,then you are put in a posi-tion where you think, ‘I’mgoing to be a champion, I’mgoing to be a hero, and I’mgoing to do it’.”

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Polling & Public Opinion

P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N :

Political Polls…Causing Great Harm or Great Good?

ASC AssociateProfessor and PublicOpinion Quarterly

Editor Vincent Price led analumni exchange that exam-ined whether public opinionpolls have been helpful orhurtful to the democraticprocess. “What are some ofthe best uses of public opin-ion polls?” Price asked thepanel. “And conversely, whatdo you think are some of themost worrisome uses of pub-lic opinion polling? Finally,what issues related to pollingdo you think are of thegreatest import for ordinarycitizens in our country?”

Bob Gardner (BA ’64)president of his own adver-tising agency, Gardner, Gary,Coll, and Young, responded,“Most of the people who arerunning for office, and par-ticularly high office —Senator, Governor, President— have huge egos, enor-mous egos. I’ve seen a num-ber of them say, ‘I don’t givea damn what the polls say,this is the way we’re going todo it.’ Polling, for peoplelike me who have to actuallycraft the ads, is, okay, he’snot going to say this, so howdo we craft a message onwhat he wants to say thatmakes it the most appealing?

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“I think the danger is in the phony polling…theso-called fundraising polling,where you get these outra-geous questions, like, ‘youwouldn’t want the SovietUnion to unleash its nuclearmissiles on the U. S., wouldyou?’ And if you answer no,then you send money. Andboth parties do this a lot.Push-polling, I think, is areal danger. That’s phonypolling where, instead ofhaving a sample of, say, fivehundred, a good nationalsample, the campaign callsthousands of people and saysthings like ‘if you knew [aspecific candidate] was adrug addict, would you bemore or less likely to vote forhim?’ They’re not interestedin your answer at all, whatthey’re interested in is raisinga doubt about the candidate.”

Ken Winneg (MA ’85),director at the corporate andpolitical strategic researchfirm Penn, Schoen andBerland, pointed out otherconcerns. “The most worri-some things that I’ve seen inpolling are polls that don’tuse the appropriate oracceptable methodology,i.e., either through sampling,or wording of questions, orlousy interviewing, or

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Polling & Public Opinion

“Public opinion polls are very important

to ground campaigns, in a big state,

because they’re the only source of real

information.” — Darry Sragow

Darry Sragow

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improper ratings. So it’s notgoing to reflect both the truepopulation and the survey.There are lots of polls outthere that ask people to callin on a particular issue,usually used by local newsorganizations and radio sta-tions. Again, they sufferfrom self-selection whereanybody who’s interested inthe program can call. They’renot really representative ofthe total population, onlyparticularly representative ofwhoever’s watching thatshow. Similarly, with someweb site polls that ask you tovote on a particular issue, [thesamples] are self-selectable.”

But Winneg said hebelieved there were manygood uses of polling, partic-ularly when it is not used“to change policy, to followthe prevailing winds.Instead, they are tools todetermine how to persuadepeople about an idea. And

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to me, that seems to be theideal, the best use of pollingby a campaign.”

Darry Sragow (MA ’68),Political Consultant andFounder of Sragow andMaravich, said, “Polls are like

nuclear energy. They can dogreat harm, and they can dogreat good, and it depends onhow you use them. I wouldargue that in California pri-vate polling, internal pollingis very important, because inCalifornia, which had thirty-three, or thirty-four, or thirty-five million people,depending on how youcount, you cannot go take atour of bars on a motorcycleand find out what’s going on in the minds ofCalifornians.…You needpublic opinion polling toget a grasp of what’s going

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on in the electorate whenyou are running in any kindof a big race.”

Sragow stressed theimportance of candidatesstaying in touch with whatthe electorate is feeling.

“We’ve created a campaignfinancing scheme in theUnited States, particularlywith federal races, thatrequires candidates in a placelike California to raise sumslike thirty million dollars torun for statewide office. Andthey are not legally able toraise more than a thousanddollars a person in the gen-eral, and a thousand in theprimary. If you do the math,you discover that what thatdoes is send perfectly fineopen-minded candidatesinto the drawing rooms of

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Bel Air and Beverly Hillsand Brentwood, in search ofpeople who are able andwilling to give thousand dol-lar contributions in enoughnumbers to get the thirtymillion dollars. The result isthat, after a while, your can-didate comes to you andsays, ‘you know, the mostimportant issue in the cam-paign is the capital gains tax.’And you need something tosay to the candidate, ‘nothat’s not true, it’s reallyschools’ — because that can-didate probably hasn’t metanybody whose kid goes to apublic school in the lastmonth. Public opinion pollsare very important to groundcampaigns, in a big state,because they’re the onlysource of real information.”

But Sragow emphasizedthat there were many prob-lems with polls taken forexternal use by the media toindicate the chances of acandidate. “Public polls cre-ate a self-fulfilling prophe-cy,” he said. “Underdogscannot become viable ifthey’re not viewed as beingclose in the polls. It’s verysimple: people vote for winners, people contributeto winners.…If you are notahead on a poll, it’s very dif-ficult to win an election.”

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Information and Society

P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N :

Challenges of the New Media Environment

Joe Turow, Martin Nisenholtz, and Ed Keller.

ASC’s Joseph Turow

(MA ’73, PhD ’76),Robert Lewis

Shayon Professor ofCommunication, introduceda panel discussion on Infor-mation and Society, featuringEdward Keller (MA ’79),President of Roper StarchWorldwide, and MartinNisenholtz (MA ’79)President of the New YorkTimes Electronic MediaCompany. “While their pro-fessions look quite different,they are both involved instorytelling,” Turow said.“Martin’s organization helpstell news stories over a newmedium, the Internet. Ed’sorganization tells storiesabout what Americans andothers value and believeabout the world. Both com-panies are at the center of agamut of key issues aboutthe way stories will be toldin the new media environ-ment, and the implicationsof that form of storytellingfor their companies, indus-tries and society at large.”

Martin Nisenholtz

addressed the challenges fac-ing newspaper companies.“The newspaper industry isat a crossroads,” he said.“Will we get to scale in the

digital world and play ameaningful role? Or will ourInternet efforts be mereadjuncts to the print side ofthe business. I think wemust get to scale, and to do

that, we need to compete ina new industry with newrules. To the extent that wedo that, it’s ours to lose. But to the extent that weplay by the old rules, or playthe defensive game, we will lose. It will be interest-ing to look back five yearsfrom now and see whichcompanies have successfullycrossed this divide.”

Edward Keller spoke ofthe challenges that newtechnology brought toAmerican society. While he

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noted that Americans “havea love affair with technolo-gy” and that new technolo-gies “are moving quicklyfrom luxury items to neces-sities,” he also cautioned his

audience that “not everyoneis as wired as you and I.”

“Whereas nearly threequarters of affluent Ameri-cans have home personalcomputers, for the totalpopulation personal com-puter penetration stands atabout 40 percent,” he said.

Keller emphasized thatthere exist sharply differentattitudes towards new tech-nologies among different

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population segments.“When it comes to the 50percent who haven’t yetbrought a range of newtechnologies into theirhomes, the group we call

“tech nots,” we see an attitude that says new tech-nologies are a bit beyondthem, or they outright scarethem.” Keller said that thekey to capturing this groupwas to change their attitudesby making technology aseasy to use as possible.“Whereas the early adopterslike mastering new tech-nologies, those who are notyet on the technology super-highway don’t want to workas hard.”

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Health Communication The State of

P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N :

“The hallmark of the current evolution

in the field of health communication

is the struggle between message quality

and getting exposure.” — Robert Hornik

Led by ASC’s RobertHornik, WilburSchramm Professor of

Communication, this panelexamined some of the issuesfacing public health com-munication and public edu-cation efforts. Marissa Ghez

(MA ’92), Associate Directorof the Family ViolencePrevention Fund, spoke ofthe challenges she faces.“Since 1994 we’ve been luckyenough to receive 100 mil-lion dollars worth of donat-ed [media] support. Now,on the surface, that’s atremendous accomplish-ment, and something to beproud of. But if you lookcloser, 70 million dollars ofthe total comes within thetwo-year period where O.J.Simpson was in the news,’94 and ’95. Then there’s adrop-off in coverage. And ifyou look even deeper yousee that only one percent —one percent — of the $100million total was duringprimetime hours.

“So our problembecomes, how do we, in thepost-O.J. context, bringback the focus of publicattention to the issue ofdomestic violence — on alimited budget? If we knowthat exposure matters, and

we do, how do we pay for it?How do we get this issue,and our other issues, whichare so important and com-pelling, into the front andcenter of journalists’ eyes?”

Christopher Koepke (MA’89, PhD ’95), Director ofthe Office for Children’sHealth Policy Research in

the Albert Einstein MedicalCenter, spoke of otherissues. “I’m concerned at the moment about applyingthe knowledge that we’veacquired over the last twentyyears to what’s going on cur-rently. Much of the writingabout health communicationhas pretty much a commonmodel. It says, you start

40A N N E N

formative research to devel-op messages and identifytarget audiences…and youapply attitudinal and social psychological and culturaltheories in this development.You test an array of messagesto see how they resonatewith the target audience andyou use media research to

choose channels…and monitoring and evaluationto fine tune and to assess.…What I’m arguing here is aneed to promote this type ofmodel in health agencies.Too often I see that agenciesare relying on advertisingfirms for creativity with littleattention to the literatureabout what really motivatespeople and little attention toformative research.”

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William Novelli (MA ’64),President of the NationalCenter for Tobacco-FreeKids, described changes thathe sees in the future ofhealth communication. Henoted the emergence of larg-er and better-funded socialand health communicationprograms with opportunities to study whether, and how,change occurs.

As an example, hepointed to the tobacco settlement money. “This ispouring hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars into health behaviorchange — at the state leveland at the national level. TheAmerican Legacy Foundationhas 250 million dollars tospend on public educationthis year and then $300 mil-lion a year thereafter. That’sfor public education. It has$25 million, in addition, tospend on research. Notbiomedical research, butbehavioral research — thekind of research that thisinstitution is interested in,”Novelli noted.

Bill and Fran Novelli peruse the historical photograph display in the ASC Library.

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He added, however, thatthere were still concerns.“Even with the changes thatare occurring, some thingsstay the same. The dispari-ties in health status amongpopulation segments arelikely to remain stubbornlyresistant.…It’s going to be achallenge for health commu-nications and health promo-tion professionals to closethis gap.

“I’ve heard it said thatpeople from Osaka, Japan,where business is revered,often greet each other byasking, ‘Are you makingmoney?’ Well I think thatAnnenberg graduates shouldgreet each other by saying,‘are you making change?’”

Hornik summarized thediscussion by pointing topressing issues he sees in thefuture. “What has been val-ued in the field for a numberof years has been effectivemessage creation. The sensehas been: we really have toattend to our audiences, wehave to be responsive to ourclients, we have to under-stand why it is people aredoing things now, and whythey’re not doing it. Andthen design our messageswith great care and test them

with great care, and makesure they’re really good. AndI’m the last one to say that’sa bad idea, but it’s a badidea. Bad because it’s takenour attention away fromanother problem that Mimidescribed so clearly, and Billdescribed so clearly, which isgetting exposure, actuallygetting to our audiences. Ithas turned out we’ve becomequite good in developingmessages with high skill. Wedon’t always do it, as Chrisdescribed. Lots of agencies

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don’t do it the way we knowhow to do it.…But evenwhen we do that, we oftenturn out not to be able toget enough exposure to matter. You have to get toaudiences, not just once but multiple times to try toinfluence behavior.

“This recognition aboutthe difficulty of making surepeople were exposed to mes-sages,” continued Hornik,“has led to several possiblesolutions. One solution, andthe nicest of them, is Bill’ssolution. That is — findmoney to buy time. Clearly,there are some ‘haves’ out

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here, who have access toresources,” he said, such asthe anti-tobacco or anti-drugcampaigns. “But there arelots of ‘not-haves’…legiti-mate causes which simplydon’t have the call on thesame resources, and it’s notclear right now how they’regoing to get them.” He concluded, “And that’s thehallmark of the current evo-lution in the field of healthcommunication: the strug-gle between message qualityand getting exposure.”

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Children & Television

P A N E L D I S C U S S I O N :

What’s Available to Kids Over the Nation’s Airwaves?

Amy Jordan moderates a panel discussion on children and television, with Linda Simensky, Richard Goldsmith, Lisa Judson,and Peggy Charren.

A my Jordan (MA’86, PhD ’90),Senior Research

Investigator for theAnnenberg Public PolicyCenter, led a panel discus-sion on Children’s Televisionfocusing on “what’s availableto kids over the nation’s air-waves.” She asked the fourparticipants, who were allintimately involved in thefield of children’s television,to reflect on the issues theyhave encountered. The following are excerpts fromtheir remarks.

Lisa Judson (MA ’82)Senior Vice President andSenior Creative Director ofNickelodeon: “When I wasa student here, there werereally two kinds of program-ming for kids. On the onehand, there was this kind ofviolent, toy-based, boy-ori-ented programming on thebroadcast networks. Andthen there was what wecalled “green vegetable pro-gramming;” programmingthat was really good for kids but kids didn’t like it.When we first launchedNickelodeon in ’79, we weredefinitely in that green veg-etable camp. And then, inabout 1984, we decided todo something that had been

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revolutionary at the time.We went out and we talkedto kids. And we talked tothem, not about television,but about their lives —about friends and familyand school — and we talkedto thousands of kids acrossthe country. And by doingthat, we were able to devel-op programming, and whatwe call packaging and on-airpromotion — the environ-ment in which the showslive — that really reflectedkids’ lives.”

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Linda Simensky (BA ’85)Vice President of OriginalAnimation at the CartoonNetwork: “My goal — andone that has been the entireCartoon Network’s goal —has been to elevate cartoons,which are much maligned in the industry, to the pointwhere they’re actuallyrespected. What I’m tryingto do more than anything isunderstand the audience,respect the audience, andattempt to make cartoonsthat we’re proud of, notembarrassed by. And we havea couple of interesting challenges. One is that theCartoon Network is not justfor kids. One third of ouraudience is adults. We have

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to acknowledge that kids, alot of times, don’t watchalone, they watch with theirparents. Adults don’t watchalone, they watch with theirkids. And we’re trying tocome up with things that aresmart and funny. I thinkwhat we have in store for thefuture is just to keep push-ing animation, to keepunderstanding our audiencebetter, to keep trying to makeanimation that people willreally enjoy. Not necessarilywhat they want, because Ithink people don’t knowwhat they want. We want togive them things they didn’tknow they wanted.”

Books authored by Annenberg School faculty, alumni, researchers and scholars, were prominently displayed at the new Penn Bookstore at 36th andWalnut Streets.

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Richard Goldsmith (BA’85) President of HollywoodVentures: “I think that thegood news [from digitalmedia] is that, for the inde-pendent, you can start yourown network. You can gointo the Internet tomorrowand start your own network,and be, automatically,tomorrow, in forty millionhomes. The good news isthat it’s going to givetremendous competition tothe networks. And the badnews is, for the networks,and for us, it’s going to frag-ment the market so muchthat there’s not going to beconcentrated advertising.So, you’re going to have todo things like not relying onadvertising to sell your prod-ucts. Think of other ways— sell services to parents,for instance. It’s unbeliev-able how fast it’s changing.”

Peggy Charren, founderof Action for Children’sTelevision and member ofthe APPC Advisory Boardon Media and theDeveloping Mind: “I thinkwhat the V-Chip’s going todo is that parents who don’treally want their kids tospend a lot of time at homewill find that kids willmigrate to somebody else’shouse that doesn’t use the V-Chip.…[What parentshave to do] is turn off theTV set more often and takethe TV sets out of kids’ bed-rooms. Fifty-one percent ofAmerican families let kidshave a TV set in their bed-room, which is the perfectway to make sure you haveno idea what they’re doingwith television.…And wehave to set policies thatencourage more voices, thatencourage new technology,which may bring more stuffthat’s inappropriate for chil-dren, but along the way, itbrings the kind of stuff thata democracy needs, andmost important, it can sup-port the healthy growth ofpublic telecommunications.”

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The Evening Keynote Speaker:

David HalberstamJournalist & Author

A Sober Look at the Profession of Journalism

David Halberstam

“In the new norms of television jour-

nalism…the greatest sin is not to be

wrong but to be boring, because bor-

ing means low ratings.”

6:00 pmW E D N E S D A Y

The final speech ofthe celebration was delivered by

David Halberstam, Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and author of 16 books,including The Best and theBrightest, The Fifties, ThePowers That Be, and Playingfor Keeps: Michael Jordanand the World He Made. Inhis speech, Halberstam took a sober look at wherethe profession of journalismis heading in the new centu-ry, as well as a look back in time.

“The 60s and 70s [were]an uncommon time. More,better newspapers werebecoming more serious andmore affluent than everbefore. The technology oftelevision did not yet domi-nate print, and television hadyet to cut into the economicbase of our best newspapersin every major city. If any-thing, it had made themstronger and more affluentby killing off some of theircompetitors. The valueswhich came to the fore inthat era reflected the besttradition of journalistic seri-ousness — of reporters taking on difficult, demand-ing subjects, with fairness,toughness of mind, and

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a true sense of obligation tothe country. Equally impor-tant, those values wereshared by that generation’stelevision reporters, and wethought of them as peers.

“But because of itsgrowing power and influ-ence, and because of theever-greater competition —

not just network againstnetwork, but networkagainst cable shows — thetelevision executive produc-ers have redefined what con-stitutes news, often goingfor stories that televisionlikes to cover — storieswhich are telegenic becausethey have action, or are sexy,or are tabloid, or are scan-dal-driven. We have mor-

40A N N E N

phed, in the larger culture,from a somewhat Calvinistsociety to an entertainmentsociety, and that is reflectedin the new norms of televi-sion journalism — wherethe greatest sin is not to bewrong but to be boring,because boring means low ratings.

“The older generation,whatever its flaws — andthey were not inconsiderable— felt a sense of obligation

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and responsibility — notjust to the people whoworked in their newsroomsbut also…to the people whobought their newspapersand listened to and watchedtheir networks and theirnews programs. And thatsense of personal responsibil-ity for what they put out is,I think, largely gone. Thatproprietarial generation hasbeen replaced by a manage-rial generation for whom theonly index which matters is the price of the stock anda belief, never openlyexpressed of course, that thereal customers are not thepeople who buy the paper orwho listen at night, but thepeople who buy the stock.”

Halberstam warned theaudience about the conse-quences of such trends. “Ibelieve, in some way, therewill be a terrible payback forthe kind of abuse to ourfreedom that is taking placenow. …I think we are risking hard-won freedomsfor the most trivial kinds of results.”

7:00 pm

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Toasts to the Annenbergs and the School from Around the Nation and World

Tribute Dinner under the Tent:

Martin Nisenholtz giving the toast.

As close to six hundred people

gathered for a lobster and

champagne dinner under

the tent on the School’s plaza, more

toasts and tributes were offered to the

Annenbergs and to the School. Martin

Nisenholtz rose from his table to offer

a toast on behalf of the alumni.

“Forty years ago, ittook great vision to foreseethe profound impact of therelatively new field of com-munication. And to under-stand how quickly this newindustry would evolve, andto create a new academicinstitution that would take amore thoughtful and schol-arly look at the many differ-ent ways that communica-tion would affect our lives.But perhaps more important-ly, what the Annenbergs alsounderstood is that the cal-iber of any University islargely determined by thequality of the students thatit is able to attract. Becauseof their breathtaking gen-erosity, thousands of people,including many sitting inthis room tonight, have had

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an opportunity to come tothis outstanding School.Speaking personally, as wellas for many of my fellowalums, we simply would nothave been able to achieveour potential, and to makeour mark, without theextraordinary opportunitiesprovided by these twoexceptional people. Yet, theynever ask for our gratitude. Isuspect, however, that theytake a lot of pleasure inknowing that there are thou-sands of Annenberg gradu-ates who all share a commonbond — a genuine desire touse our extraordinary train-ing to make a difference. Ileft Annenberg twenty yearsago, and tonight, I’ve comeback to say thank you, onbehalf of my family and on

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behalf of my fellowAnnenberg alumni.”

After Nisenholtz’s toast,Dean Jamieson read a letter ofcongratulations fromPresident Bill Clinton, laudingthe Annenberg School for itscontributions to scholarshipand policy in communication.

Many others offered theirpraise and congratulations onvideotape. Dinner guestswatched the taped tributes onlarge screens mounted at thefront of the tent.

Among the video tributeswas one from First LadyHillary Clinton. Mrs. Clintoncongratulated the School, par-ticularly for its research onchildren and television andfor producing graduates dedi-cated to the public good.

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Video Tributes From Around the Nation and the World…

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Pennsylvania GovernorTom Ridge: “TheAnnenberg School forCommunication [is] recog-nized as one of the nation’s foremost com-munications institutions.Annenberg graduates workat commercial and publictelevision networks, at someof the nation’s largest adver-tising and public relationsfirms, they even advise someof the top elected andappointed officials inWashington, DC. But theAnnenberg School doesmore than produce successful graduates. It alsoexamines the way communi-cation tools and techniquesaffect our everyday lives.Whether it’s parents’ fearsabout the influence of theInternet on their children,the impact of political adson the population, or thequality of children’s televi-sion programming, TheAnnenberg School studiesthe issues and provides valu-able perspective.”

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Lady Margaret Thatcher:“Walter pursues the art ofcommunications because hehas messages worth commu-nicating. He believes thatenterprise, integrity and gen-erosity are worth pursuingnot only for their own virtuebut because they build great-ness in a nation. As I waswondering how to put it, Icame across some versesfrom Longfellow, which putthe whole position so per-fectly, as he usually did. MayI share them with you: ‘Notenjoyment, and not sorrow/is our destined end or way/but to act that each tomor-row/ find us further thantoday… Lives of great menall remind us/ we can makeour lives sublime’ and we,too, may leave behind us‘footprints on the sands oftime.’ That’s exactly whatWalter and Lee have done.”

40A N N E N

President George Bush: “Barbara and I are here tocongratulate Lee and Walter.I can think of no two peoplewho have done more forothers than the Annenbergs.And here we are celebrating,not only their 48th weddinganniversary, but the 40thanniversary of the foundingof the Annenberg School forCommunication. Walter andLee, we congratulate younewlyweds on your anniver-sary; we wish we were thereto look you in the eye to tellyou we love you, and onceagain, to thank you for allyou do for so many.”

Barbara Bush: “I just wantto add to what George said that no two Americans haveever given more to theircountry or more to theirfriends and we love our pre-cious friends, the Annenbergs.God Bless you.”

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General Colin Powell: “Today, the AnnenbergSchool for Communicationof the University ofPennsylvania inauguratedthe Policy Center’s Institutefor Public Service. UnderDavid Eisenhower’s leader-ship, I know that the Institutewill instill in a new genera-tion of students and scholarsa heightened sense of thevalued importance of serviceto others and to the nation. Iam pleased to add my voiceto those congratulating theAnnenberg School, its facul-ty, students and graduates on40 years of dedication to thenoble ideals of the School’sfounder, my dear friend,Walter Annenberg.”

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President Gerald Ford: “Today, the AnnenbergSchool for Communicationat the University ofPennsylvania opened thePew/Annenberg CampaignArchive. I am pleased andhonored that my campaignmaterials and speeches areamong those in the Archive.I applaud the School and itsfaculty for focusing scholarsand reporters on electioncampaigns rather than soundbites. Congratulations to theAnnenberg School. Happy40th Birthday.”

Commentator Bill Moyers: “I’m just one of many jour-nalists whose work owes a great deal to the AnnenbergSchool for Communication.As we say in my shop, youcan’t go wrong singing Dean Jamieson’s song. Thescholarship is strong, andthe passion for democracy iscontagious. So thank you,Walter Annenberg, for thevision and HappyAnniversary to you, Lee, and the Annenberg School.”

Pew Charitable TrustsPresident Rebecca W.Rimel: “Quality, credibility,creativity and commitment.These are words that quicklycome to mind when I thinkof the Annenberg Schooland the extraordinary leadership of Kathleen HallJamieson. The PewCharitable Trusts are hon-ored and delighted with ourpartnership with theAnnenberg School. We’vebeen working on sometough issues: renewing elec-tions as meaningful eventsin public life, campaign con-duct, campaign financereform. Through Kathleen’shard work and that of hercolleagues, they have earnedthe respect of politicians,policy-makers, the press,and the public at large.”

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Justice Sandra DayO’Conner: “This is a veryspecial occasion as we cele-brate the 40th anniversaryof the Annenberg School forCommunication at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.Walter Annenberg has beena great communicatorindeed, all his life, as a pub-lisher, as a broadcaster, bothin the private and the publicsector, as Ambassador of ourcountry to the Court of St.James. Walter has spoken forall of us through the years,and congratulations on thefounding of this very impor-tant school.”

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Entertainer Dick Clark: “In 1959, Walter Annenbergsaw the need for a schoolthat would teach students toput the power of communi-cation in the service ofdemocracy. For 40 years,leaders in government andindustry have paid attentionto the scholarship of theAnnenberg School forCommunication at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.Congratulations to the faculty and graduates of theschool for 40 years of distin-guished service and scholar-ship. Happy Anniversary,Happy 40th.”

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David and Julie Eisenhower, with David Halberstam and Peggy Charren.

40A N N E N B E R G

ASC Professors Martin Fishbein and Robert Hornik with Deborah Fishbein. Wallis Annenberg joins her father at the gala celebration.

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Gala caterer Maryann Blum (far left) joins ASC staff members Leslie Atik,Deborah Porter, Debra Williams, and Donna Burdumy, in a toast.

ASC alumna Mary Ellen Mark with David Halberstam.

Lee Annenberg, Judith Rodin, David Halberstam, Wallis Annenberg, andKathleen Hall Jamieson surround Walter Annenberg at the tribute dinner.

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The Annenberg School for CommunicationUniversity of Pennsylvania3620 Walnut StreetPhiladelphia, PA 19104-6220 215-898-7041www.asc.upenn.edu

The Annenberg School Faculty:Joseph CappellaMartin Fishbein Oscar Gandy, Jr.Larry GrossRobert HornikJohn Jemmott IIIElihu KatzKlaus KrippendorffCarolyn MarvinPaul MessarisW. Russell NeumanVincent PriceJoseph TurowCharles R. WrightBarbie Zelizer

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Dean

Phyllis Kaniss, PhD, Newslink Editor

Newslink Design: Dyad Communications

Photography by Candace diCarlo

The Annenberg SchoolCelebrates 40 Years 9:00 pm

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revealing dress to the premiere.But there were many seriousmoments as well, as when NewJersey Governor ChristineTodd Whitman made a pleafor the importance of commu-nication in strengtheninggovernance or when authorDavid Halberstam turned acritical eye on the professionof journalism at the dawn of a new millennium.

Panel discussions with fac-ulty and alumni examined cutting-edge issues in healthcommunication, political discourse, polling and publicopinion, new informationtechnologies, and children’smedia. Academics who studytelevision came together withindustry writers and producersto debate the medium’s influ-ence on popular culture.

Throughout the day, amultitude of tributes wereoffered to the School, particu-larly from the many ASCalumni in attendance — representing 33 graduatingclasses — who expressed theirappreciation for their educa-tion. Martin Nisenholtz (MA’79), President of the New YorkTimes Electronic MediaCompany, summarized alumnisentiments when he toastedthe Annenbergs. “Because oftheir breathtaking generosity,thousands of people, including

{cont inued f rom page 1 }

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many sitting in this roomtonight, have had an opportu-nity to come to this outstand-ing School,” he said. “Wesimply would not have beenable to achieve our potential,and to make our mark, with-out the extraordinary oppor-tunities provided by thesetwo exceptional people.”

Nisenholtz’s toast tookplace at a champagne dinnerheld under a tent on theplaza outside of the School.As guests finished theirdesserts, they were treated tomore tributes from digni-taries from around the worldwho were unable to attendthe celebration, includingPresident Bill Clinton andFirst Lady Hillary RodhamClinton, Lady MargaretThatcher and General ColinPowell. Guests broke intolaughter and applause at thetribute from entertainer DickClark. Clark’s AmericanBandstand was produced atthe studios of WFIL-TV,then owned by WalterAnnenberg. The evening wascapped by an emotionalmoment when a replica ofthe Annenbergs’ weddingcake was wheeled to theirtable. Walter and LeonoreAnnenberg celebrated their48th wedding anniversary onthe day of the celebration.

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Dean Jamieson con-cluded the eveningby presenting

anniversary presents to theAnnenbergs on behalf of theSchool’s alumni, faculty, andstaff: a digital camera, acomputer to play the pic-tures on, and a printer. As aphoto taken at the weddingof Walter and LeonoreAnnenberg 48 years agoflashed on the large videoscreen, a replica of theAnnenbergs’ wedding cakewas wheeled into the aislesand Mrs. Annenberg cut thefirst piece.

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“I would like to proposea toast to Walter andLeonore Annenberg,” DeanJamieson said, lifting herglass, “whose marriage,whose lives, whose philan-thropy are an inspiration toeveryone in the school, aswell as in the nation andaround the world. We areincredibly grateful for allthat you’ve done to createopportunities for thosewho’ve reached theAmerican dream throughyour example and throughyour philanthropy.”