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      <copyright>Copyright 2013</copyright>
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      <item>
         <title>Neal Gabler on Barbara Walters&apos; TV Exit</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<img alt="NYTimeslogo125.jpg" src="http://blog.learcenter.org/NYTimeslogo125.jpg" width="125" height="100" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;" />Lear Center Senior Fellow <strong><a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/about/?&cm=gabler">Neal Gabler</a></strong> looks at Barbara Walters' long career in television as it draws to a close in this <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/opinion/entertainment-news.html?hp&_r=0"><strong><em>New York Times</em> Op-Ed</strong></a>. ]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/neal_gabler_on_barbara_walters.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/neal_gabler_on_barbara_walters.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Center</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Wed, 15 May 2013 09:16:30 -0800</pubDate>
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After reading <strong>Angelina Jolie</strong>'s moving and brave <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/14/opinion/my-medical-choice.html"><strong><em>NYT</em> op-ed</strong></a> about her recent prophylactic double mastectomy due to her possessing the BRCA1 gene, watch TV writer <strong>Jessica Queller</strong> tell her own BRCA cancer story at a <strong><a href="http://hollywoodhealthandsociety.org/">Hollywood, Health & Society</a></strong> event.]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/_after_reading_angelina_jolies.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/_after_reading_angelina_jolies.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">News</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 12:18:56 -0800</pubDate>
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         <title>The Day the Earth Stood Stupid</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<big><strong><a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/about/?&cm=kaplan">Marty Kaplan</a></strong></big>

<img alt="EarthStood.jpg" src="http://blog.learcenter.org/EarthStood.jpg" width="125" height="178" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;" />Say goodnight, Earthlings.

That message -- plus the slimmest of shots at an eleventh-hour reprieve -- was announced to the people of the world last week. 

When this happens in science fiction -- 1951's <em><strong>The Day the Earth Stood Still</strong></em> is the classic -- the planet pays attention. The flying saucer lands; an alien, in this case played by Michael Rennie, emerges; a final warning is issued: Stop it. If you don't, you're doomed.

Back then, the "it" was violence -- the Cold War, and the threat of nuclear midnight. Last week, it was climate change -- greenhouse gases, and the promise of ecological extinction.

"Heat-Trapping Gas Passes Milestone, Raising Fears," ran the headline on the front page lead <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/science/earth/carbon-dioxide-level-passes-long-feared-milestone.html?pagewanted=all"><strong>story</strong></a> in Saturday's <em>New York Times</em>, with this sub-head: "CO2 at Level Not Seen in Millions of Years, Portending Major Climate Changes."

A headline like that -- <em>millions</em> of years? <em>really?</em> -- normally turns up in comic books and superhero movies, not in the paper of record. In fiction, what usually comes next is a montage. At breakfast tables and on street corners, in souks and igloos, in the Oval Office and at the U.N., the shocking news galvanizes humanity into action. 

In the real world, it was pretty much a one-day story.

What does it take to grab us by the eyeballs? Chris Christie's waistline is guaranteed wall-to-wall coverage. The next Jodi Arias is waiting in CNN's wings. The Benghazi circus will be in town at least through 2016. Sure, disaster porn is always good for ratings, but though a Superstorm Sandy may momentarily raise the specter of climate change, daily bulletins on the parts per million of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere apparently aren't Nielsen enough.

It's not that people who know our planet's hair is on fire aren't trying to get our attention. The <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vA7tfz3k_9A&feature=player_embedded"><strong>animated graph</strong></a> from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's <a href="http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/carbontracker/"><strong>Earth Science Research Lab</strong></a> showing how atmospheric carbon dioxide has changed over the last 800,000 years should be as horrifying as any computer-generated imagery Hollywood has to offer. Along with the news that we had hit the 400 ppm mark on the CO2 curve for the first time since the Pliocene epoch came scary quotes from <a href="http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20130430/all-eyes-keeling-curve-scientists-anxious-co2-levels-cross-400-ppm"><strong>scientist</strong></a> after <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/science/article/Experts-CO2-record-illustrates-scary-trend-4508335.php#page-1"><strong>scientist</strong></a> calling this our last chance before the point of no return. Unless we act, children born today will see temperatures rise irreversibly and sea levels rise catastrophically. Weather patterns will be disrupted, deserts and <a href="http://truth-out.org/news/item/14655-worse-drought-in-1000-years-could-begin-in-eight-years"><strong>drought</strong></a> will spread and -- in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/may/12/climate-change-expert-stern-displacement"><strong>words of Lord Stern</strong></a>, head of the U.K.'s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment -- "hundreds of millions of people will be forced to leave their homelands because their crops and animals will have died.... [W]hen they try to migrate into new lands... [they will be brought] into armed conflict with people already living there. Nor will it be an occasional occurrence. It could become a permanent feature of life on Earth."

If graphs and quotes aren't sexy enough to warrant a permanent place in the news, there are other ways to hang on to the spotlight. <a href="http://climaterealityproject.org/video/"><strong>The Climate Reality Project</strong></a>'s website features 18 disturbing but entertaining videos about the price of carbon and our addiction to fossil fuels. "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsIfokifwSo"><strong>Do the Math</strong></a>," the film that journalist Bill McKibben is using to spark his <a href="http://350.org/"><strong>350.org</strong></a> <a href="http://400.350.org/#1"><strong>movement</strong></a>, has a dramatic narrative that's compelling but not preachy. <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/showtime-orders-climate-change-series-396815"><em><strong>The Years of Living Dangerously</strong></em></a>, Showtime's climate change documentary series now being shot, has producers who know a little something about how to capture audiences: James Cameron, Jerry Weintraub and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Those efforts use media to engage an informed, activist public. Could such a citizenry make change? There's plenty we can do in our personal lives to reduce our carbon footprint. Local and state policies in conservation, transportation, building design and urban planning can also curb greenhouse gas emissions. But without federal leadership like killing the Keystone XL pipeline and putting a tax on carbon, and without global commitments with teeth to enforce them, it's hard to imagine a path back from the brink. 

In the U.S., the same dysfunctions preventing anything else useful from happening -- the Senate filibuster, the gerrymandered House, the corrupt campaign finance system -- also hold climate change mitigation hostage. So does denial. And though some denial can be attributed to hoax propaganda funded by the fossil fuel industry, some comes from an infantile strain in the American psyche that should not be mistaken for religious freedom. 

Last week, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D -- R.I.) gave a floor <a href="http://www.whitehouse.senate.gov/news/speeches/time-to-wake-up-magical-thinking-on-climate-change"><strong>speech</strong></a> urging his colleagues to 

<blockquote>"awaken to what carbon pollution is doing to our planet, to our oceans, to our seasons, to our storms. And I wonder, 'Why is it that we are so comfortable asleep, when the warnings are so many and so real?' What could beguile us away from wakefulness and duty? I was recently at a Senate meeting where I heard a member of our Senate community say, 'God won't allow us to ruin our planet.'... [That] statement... is less an expression of religious thinking than it is of magical thinking."</blockquote>
 
I admit that my fantasy that last week's CO2 headlines might rally our planet like an alien invasion may make me as guilty of magical thinking as Senator God-Won't-Allow-Us. On the other hand, <a href="http://hnn.us/articles/58928.html"><strong>Ronald Reagan was a big fan</strong></a> of <em>The Day the Earth Stood Still</em>, and as president he often referred to it. When he first met Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985, he speculated that the threat of an alien invasion might get the Americans and the Soviets to cooperate. If Michael Rennie's "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaatu_barada_nikto"><strong>Klaatu barada nikto</strong></a>" line is the father of "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall," maybe blowing past the 400 ppm barrier can be the progenitor of "Mr. Obama, cancel that pipeline." 

Learn more about the Lear Center's <a href="http://hollywoodhealthandsociety.org/for-writers/climate-change-storytelling-initiative"><strong>Climate Change Initiative</strong></a>.
<a href="http://hollywoodhealthandsociety.org/for-writers/climate-change-storytelling-initiative"><img alt="climate_change_graphic_webpage.jpg" src="http://blog.learcenter.org/climate_change_graphic_webpage.jpg" width="288" height="189" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" /></a>

This column is cross-posted from <a href="http://jewishjournal.com/"><strong><em>The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles</em></strong></a>.]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/the_day_the_earth_stood_stupid.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/the_day_the_earth_stood_stupid.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Blog</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 11:54:33 -0800</pubDate>
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         <title></title>
         <description><![CDATA[<img alt="Keiffer100.jpg" src="http://blog.learcenter.org/Keiffer100.jpg" width="100" height="100" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;" />Remember <em><strong>24</strong></em>, the show that graphically convinced viewers,  military recruits and interrogators for eight seasons that <strong>torture works</strong>? It's <em>baaaack</em>, next summer on Fox, and Americans will have another chance to gauge the impact of a fictional TV show on real political choices and military behavior in the field. <strong><a href="http://www.salon.com/2013/05/14/24_returns_is_dick_cheney_programming_fox/">more>></a></strong>


]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/remember_24_the_show_that.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/remember_24_the_show_that.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">News</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 11:22:46 -0800</pubDate>
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         <title>Johanna Blakley at Fractal&apos;13: What Would Happen If . . .? </title>
         <description><![CDATA[<img alt="fractal13_120.jpg" src="http://blog.learcenter.org/fractal13_120.jpg" width="120" height="120" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;" />The Lear Center's <strong><a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/about/?&cm=blakley">Johanna Blakley</a></strong> will be making her second appearance at <a href="http://www.encuentrofractal.com/"><strong>Fractal</strong></a>, the annual event in Medellín, Colombia, that brings citizens into direct contact with designers, architects, filmmakers, scholars, sci-fi authors working together to design a wide array of near-future scenarios. Fractal asks "What if there were a collective space to create stories about the future?" A series of events and workshops geared toward children, businesses and citizens will explore narrative simulations and problem solving through fiction.

This year, the event includes <strong><a href="http://www.keiichimatsuda.com/">Keiichi Matsuda</a></strong>, architect and filmmaker whose hyper-real environments have been featured at places the Museum of Modern Art; <strong><a href="http://www.paulgrahamraven.com/">Paul Graham Raven</a></strong>, foresight consultant, science fiction writer and researcher at the University of Sheffield; and <strong><a href="http://ginkgobioworks.com/">Reshma Shetty</a></strong>, DNA hacker and organism engineer at Ginkgo BioWorks in Boston.

<strong>May 16-18, 2013 :: Public Event: May 18
Orquideorama
Medellín Botanical Garden
Medellín, Colombia</strong>]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/johanna_blakley_at_fractal13_w.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/johanna_blakley_at_fractal13_w.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Center</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 09:15:04 -0800</pubDate>
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         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/follow_us_on_twitter.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/follow_us_on_twitter.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Center</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 10:05:09 -0800</pubDate>
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         <title>Blakley Keynote Speaker at Swiss Media Forum</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<img alt="SMFlogo125.gif" src="http://blog.learcenter.org/SMFlogo125.gif" width="125" height="111" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;" /><a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/about/?&cm=blakley"><strong>Johanna Blakley</strong></a>, the Lear Center's Managing Director and Director of Research, is the keynote speaker at this year's <a href="http://www.swissmediaforum.ch/"><strong>Swiss Media Forum</strong></a> in Lucerne on May 24th. The Swiss Media Forum is an independent event committed to bringing together opinion leaders from media, business, politics and society. At this annual conference, discussions revolve around significant media and communications issues in an era where a digital revolution is fundamentally changing industries, and interfaces between media, organizations, politics and the public are being redefined. The Swiss Media Forum is politically and commercially independent. Find more information about this year's conference<a href="http://www.swissmediaforum.ch/agenda/"><strong> here</strong></a>.
]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/blakley_keynote_speaker_at_swi.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/blakley_keynote_speaker_at_swi.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Center</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 12:42:05 -0800</pubDate>
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         <title>Sonic Overdrive @ The Getty Center</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<img alt="Gettylogo125.gif" src="http://blog.learcenter.org/Gettylogo125.gif" width="125" height="125" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;" /><big><strong>Sonic Overdrive: Songs and Stories through the Streets of Los Angeles</strong></big>

Explore L.A.'s eclectic sonic environment from punk to gospel, cumbia to hip hop, rock, Norteño, and country. Hosted by music critic, historian, curator and Director of the Lear Center's <strong><a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/projects/?cm=pmp">Popular Music Project</a></strong> <strong><a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/projects/?&cm=pmp/kun">Josh Kun</a></strong>, the evening's lineup offers a journey through L.A.'s musical geographies, from East L.A. to Malibu.

Sonic Overdrive will include performances by <strong>Chris Hillman</strong> (The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers), <strong>Exene Cervenka</strong> (X, The Blasters), underground hip-hop veteran <strong>Busdriver</strong>, Latin fusion band <strong>La Santa Cecilia</strong>, soul-and-gospel legend <strong>Merry Clayton</strong> (whose background vocals helped define songs by Neil Young, Carole King, and the Rolling Stones), alternative-rock favorites <strong>Silversun Pickups</strong> and will feature a guest appearance by students from the <strong>Silverlake Conservatory of Music</strong>. Additional performers to be announced. <em>Please check back for updates!</em> 

<strong>Friday, May 31, 2013 :: 7:00 p.m.
Harold M. Williams Auditorium, The Getty Center
Tickets are $20. Call (310) 440-7300 or <a href="http://www.getty.edu/museum/programs/performances/sonic_overdrive.html">click here for tickets</a>.
Parking is $10 after 5:00 p.m.</strong>]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/sonic_overdrive.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/sonic_overdrive.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Center</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Wed, 08 May 2013 10:34:50 -0800</pubDate>
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         <title>Journeys in Film: New Perspective</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<img alt="JiF285.jpg" src="http://blog.learcenter.org/JiF285.jpg" width="285" height="183" class="mt-image-center" style="text-align: center; display: block; margin: 0 auto 20px;" />
<a href="http://www.journeysinfilm.org/"><strong>Journeys in Film</strong></a>, the Lear Center's middle school project designed to engage and educate students via standards-based curricula built around high-quality, age-appropriate international movies, now offers <a href="http://www.journeysinfilm.org/for-educators/the-store/"><strong>all of its lesson plans as free downloads</strong></a> on its website. Journeys in Film provides lesson plans in visual arts, social studies, science, language arts and mathematics.

This unprecedented opportunity comes at a time in our media-saturated age when many students lack the ability or training to recognize and understand biases in content they watch. One solution to this is teaching perspective through media literacy. 

JiF's use of compelling films from other cultures challenges students to view their world in a new light. They observe similarities they share with children of other cultures, as well as discover differences. Understanding these differences (living in other climates, living in poverty, practicing other religions) enhances students grasp of the world they're growing up in.]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/journeys_in_film_new_perspecti_1.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/journeys_in_film_new_perspecti_1.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Center</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 15:52:27 -0800</pubDate>
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         <title>Hollywood, Health &amp; Society Launches Global Centers in India and Nigeria</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<big><strong>Using the Power of Entertainment to Improve Lives in the Developing World</strong></big>

<img alt="HHSNew100.jpg" src="http://blog.learcenter.org/HHSNew100.jpg" width="100" height="78" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;" />The Lear Center's <a href="http://hollywoodhealthandsociety.org/"><strong>Hollywood, Health & Society</strong></a> program is now global with its launch of a joint project in India. HH&S is teaming up with the Asian Center for Entertainment Education to create <strong>The Third Eye</strong>, which will serve as a free resource for accurate health information for Indian TV shows and films.

The Bollywood venture, the first global center of the HH&S program, is already helping with inquiries on health-related topics for three major films and one TV show, said HH&S Director <a href="http://hollywoodhealthandsociety.org/about-us/sandra-de-castro-buffington"><strong>Sandra de Castro Buffington</strong></a>. A second center based in the booming Nigerian filmmaking industry known as Nollywood is scheduled to be up and running in the coming months. 

Like HH&S, these regionally branded centers will conduct sustained and systematic  outreach to the entertainment industry to increase the accuracy and frequency of health topics in all media as well as measuring behavior change and tracking audience engagement with programming.]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/hollywood_health_society_launc.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/hollywood_health_society_launc.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Center</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Fri, 03 May 2013 10:37:34 -0800</pubDate>
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         <description><![CDATA[When you're one of the biggest computer companies on the planet, what's the cool way to announce your breakthrough discovery? Watch IBM's movie assembled out of mere atoms, the tiniest movie ever, to find out.
<iframe width="285" height="160" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/oSCX78-8-q0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/when_youre_one_of_the.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/05/when_youre_one_of_the.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">News</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Wed, 01 May 2013 10:43:28 -0800</pubDate>
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         <title>Launching the Media Impact Project</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/about/?&cm=blakley"><big><strong>Johanna Blakley</strong></big></a>

<img alt="BlakleyNew125.jpg" src="http://blog.learcenter.org/BlakleyNew125.jpg" width="125" height="125" class="mt-image-right" style="float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;" />Yesterday, the Lear Center launched the <strong><a href="http://www.MediaImpactProject.org">Media Impact Project</a></strong>, which aspires to be a global hub for the best research on measuring the impact of media. Supported by $3.25 million in initial funding from the <a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/"><strong>Gates </strong></a>and <a href="http://www.knightfoundation.org/"><strong>Knight</strong></a> Foundations, I'm optimistic that this project can help make media more accountable to audiences and contribute to a better understanding of the role that media plays in people's lives.
 
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/business/media/center-to-offer-tools-for-gauging-impact-of-media.html"><em><strong>The New York Times</strong></em></a> picked up the story and I was thrilled to see reporter Michael Cieply focus on this aspect of the program:

<blockquote>to provide tools on an "open-source" basis, putting socially minded nonprofit groups on a more equal footing with corporate advertisers, who use sophisticated, but expensive, measurements.</blockquote>
 
As Bill Gates pointed out recently in the <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323539804578261780648285770.html"><em><strong>Wall Street Journal</strong></em></a>, accurate measurement is the key to innovation. Without benchmarks, we don't know where we're going. Because media is such a pervasive presence in human life, we need reliable systems for measuring its impact. It's difficult work, <a href="http://www.impatientoptimists.org/Posts/2013/04/Gates-and-Knight-Foundations-Fund-New-Project-to-Improve-Measuring-Media-Impact"><strong>as our funders have pointed out</strong></a>, but with the rise of social media networks and the prospects of big data analysis the academy has an unprecedented opportunity to step up and to provide mechanisms for measurement untainted by profit motives.

The entertainment industry is notorious for adjusting its numbers to service an often inscrutable bottom line. And all of us - including everyone who variously produces or consumes media content - have been ill-served by cookie-cutter audience segmentation techniques and panel-based research methods that cannot account for what's happening in the "long tail" of our global cultural economy. The insidious audience segmentation techniques that valorize age, race, gender and income over every other facet of human identity have contributed to a media system rife with stereotypes about how humans tick. (You can find out more about my thoughts on this in this <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_social_media_and_the_end_of_gender.html"><strong>TED talk</strong></a>.) The awe-inspiring data sets emerging from social media networks offer us the opportunity to understand ourselves, and our engagement with media, in a far more nuanced way.

My vision here? Ultimately, I want media makers to have the resources to make data-driven decisions. Rather than depending on their "gut" and random comments from their kids and colleagues, I want them to grapple with meaningful feedback information that demonstrates how real people have engaged with their work and what effects that interaction has produced.

I also want media makers to have a far more sophisticated and detailed understanding of their audience's needs, values and taste. For me, it's an issue of <strong>respect</strong>. I want our media environment to be respectful and responsive to the needs of global audiences, not just a few prized, but deeply misunderstood, demographic groups.
 
Interested in media impact? Follow the <a href="http://mediaimpactproject.org/"><strong>Media Impact Project</strong></a> on Twitter at <a href="https://twitter.com/MediaMetrics"><strong>@mediametrics</strong></a> and find us on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/MediaImpactProject"><strong>Facebook</strong></a>.
 
Looking for a job? The Media Impact Project is hiring! <a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/projects/?cm=mediaimpact/join"><strong>Find out more</strong></a>.]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/04/launching_the_media_impact_pro.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/04/launching_the_media_impact_pro.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Blog</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 14:00:20 -0800</pubDate>
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         <title>Johanna Blakley: Treat Your Film Like a Drug</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<object width="285" height="160"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/d3IHqyBTqSE?version=3&amp;hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/d3IHqyBTqSE?version=3&amp;hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="285" height="160" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object>

<strong><a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/about/?&cm=blakley">Johanna Blakley</a></strong>, managing director and director of research at the Lear Center, spoke in February at the Center for Social Media at American University about the important role statistical research played in the Lear Center's <strong><a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/projects/?cm=foodinc">recent study</a></strong> that measured audience impact of the film <em><strong>Food, Inc</strong></em>. Blakley also discussed taking the mathematical models that pharmaceutical companies use in clinical trials and applying them for audience analysis on media projects.]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/04/johanna_blakley_treat_your_fil.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/04/johanna_blakley_treat_your_fil.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Center</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 12:38:04 -0800</pubDate>
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         <title>Norman Lear Center Launches Media Impact Project</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/projects/?cm=mediaimpact"><img alt="MediaImpactProject200.jpg" src="http://blog.learcenter.org/MediaImpactProject200.jpg" width="200" height="196" class="mt-image-left" style="float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;" /></a><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/29/business/media/center-to-offer-tools-for-gauging-impact-of-media.html?_r=0"><big><strong><em>The New York Times</em>: Center Will Offer New Tools for Measuring the Impact of Media Beyond Numbers</strong></big></a>

<a href="http://www.knightfoundation.org/blogs/knightblog/2013/4/29/gates-knight-fund-new-project-improve-measuring-media-impact/"><big><strong>Knight Blog: Gates and Knight Fund New Project to Improve Measuring Media Impact</strong></big></a>  


<font size="2">The Lear Center is launching a new, multidisciplinary research enterprise, the <a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/projects/?cm=mediaimpact"><strong>Media Impact Project</strong></a>, which is geared to developing and curating new tools and best practices in media metrics, and acting as a global hub to foster innovation and thought leadership in this field. 

Grants from the <a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/"><strong>Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation</strong></a> and the <a href="http://www.knightfoundation.org/"><strong>John S. and James L. Knight Foundation</strong></a> totaling $3.25 million will establish and support <a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/projects/?cm=mediaimpact"><strong>The Lear Center Media Impact Project</strong></a> over the next two-and-a-half years.

This new project emerges from the Center's ongoing mission of studying and shaping the impact of entertainment and media on society. The Media Impact Project will pursue a deeper understanding of media's influence on social trends and individual behavior. A team of social and behavioral scientists, journalists, analytics experts and other research specialists will work together to create new ways to measure the impact of media. These new techniques and tools will target content creators, distributors and media funders and allow them to enhance their work and connect more deeply with their audiences.

This ambitious new project builds on work the Lear Center has performed over the last few years creating new survey tools to calibrate audience engagement for films produced by Participant Media, including 2010 Oscar® nominee <a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/projects/?cm=foodinc"><em><strong>Food, Inc.</strong></em></a>

The Lear Center is currently recruiting project leaders, technical experts and members of a distinguished advisory board from across disciplines.  For more information, please visit <a href="http://www.learcenter.org/html/projects/?cm=mediaimpact"><strong>www.MediaImpactProject.org</strong></a>.</font>]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/04/norman_lear_center_launches_me.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/04/norman_lear_center_launches_me.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">FeatureStory</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Mon, 29 Apr 2013 01:10:58 -0800</pubDate>
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         <title>Audiences as Consumers, Audiences as Citizens: New Tools for Measuring Media Engagement &amp; Social Impact</title>
         <description><![CDATA[<iframe width="285" height="160" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/afL11eOBTZE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

For decades, audience exposure to media was how media performance was measured in the commercial marketplace. Recently, the concept of audience engagement has eclipsed exposure. What does engagement mean, and how is it measured? For media initiatives with social, civic and cultural missions - which conceive of audiences as citizens, not just consumers - how might measures of engagement be adapted to measure impact? The talk launches the Lear Center's new <strong>Measuring Media: Impact and Engagement </strong>series.

<strong><a href="http://fordham.academia.edu/PhilipNapoli">Philip M. Napoli</a></strong>, who has testified before Congress and the FCC on media policy issues, is a professor of communication and media management in the Graduate School of Business at Fordham University. His books include <em>Audience Evolution: New Technologies and the Transformation of Media Audiences</em>. 

<strong>Tuesday, March 12, 2013
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Geoffrey Cowan Forum, Room 207</strong>]]></description>
         <link>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/04/audiences_as_consumers_audienc.html</link>
         <guid>http://blog.learcenter.org/2013/04/audiences_as_consumers_audienc.html</guid>
        
          <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Center</category>
        
        
         <pubDate>Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:49:31 -0800</pubDate>
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