The students on set at Meet the Press from Manchester, Sunday 1/21/24

Scott Talan was interviewed by Forbes about the episode of a video about a Royal Navy submarine from 2018 that recently went viral. "This seems like a legitimate post of something cool and the person forgot to put the date," explained Talan. "It is a helpful reminder that when we post something from the past we need to clarify that fact. It is also a reminder to be careful of the content we consume."

SOC Adjunct professor Michael Cascio’s PBS American Masters documentary on the artist Edward Hopper received terrific reaction and reviews, breaking new ground on a familiar American artist. It's now streaming on PBS. Michael also hopes to screen it on campus later this semester with Larry Engel's students and others. 

Derek McGinty (SOC BA ‘81) is back, this time in-studio, for a part 2 episode on Media in the Mix! As an award-winning journalist, interviewer and commentator, Derek sits down with your host, Grace Ibrahim, to discuss his journalism career, radio, his time at American University and his newest project, host of “You Don’t Hear That Everyday Podcast”. LISTEN HERE and let us know what you think of Media in the Mix's New Year episodes! 

The Graduate Recruitment and Enrollment team (Stephanie Rucker, Hallie Tingstad, and Brendan Manley) have been involved in user acceptance testing for the transition to Salesforce CRM and the new marketing communications platform. We expect both these systems to be live by mid-February. This has been a time-consuming process! A special thanks to Stephanie for leading this effort on behalf of SOC. 

Registrations have opened for CMSI's flagship convening  Story Movements. We hope you will join us for this biennial convening focused on the intersection of narrative, creativity, media, and social change! This year, over the course of two days, we'll focus on themes related to AI and social media for social good (and ill), democracy and the stories we tell for the future, creativity and entertainment in the climate crisis (and why it's important!), documentary empowerment for building a just world, and more. Story Movements is hosted by comedian emcee Gabe González and features speakers such as Maori Karmael Holmes-  BlackStar Projects, SOC's Kurt Braddock, Natalie Bullock Brown- Documentary Accountability Working Group, Jasiri X- 1Hood Media, Ali Petrosova- Good Energy, Ravi Iyer- USC Marshall School's Neely Center and many more. Seats are limited so reserve your place soon.

John C. Watson was quoted in The Boston Herald as he criticized a Boston Globe editor who published a column written by a journalist who unethically made a newsworthy event occur. The journalist signed a document that legally allowed a woman to engage in physician-assisted suicide. The editor confirmed that the signing violated journalism ethics, but she published the article anyway because she was transparent about what the journalist had done wrong and the article about the suicide was a powerful narrative.

Aram Sinnreich spoke to KCBS Radio live about the contractual dispute between Universal Music Group and TikTok.

Special Feature: 2024 Anthem Awards

A big year for SOC and CMSI at the 2024 Anthem Awards!

Anya Karavanov’s collaboration with the National Association of Chronic Disease Directors on the CDC’s Bring Your Brave campaign was awarded a Gold Medal in the Anthem Awards. This award recognizes Bring Your Brave as a best-in-class public service effort to engage a community of people and provoke action related to health awareness. The campaign harnesses the power of storytelling to inspire life-saving conversations about hereditary cancer. This year’s competition received over 2,000 entries from more than 30 countries worldwide. 

CMSI is honored and excited to announce that we have won  three Anthem Awards this year. Brought to you by The Webby Awards, this recognition honors the socially impactful and mission-driven work of people, companies and organizations worldwide. Here are our award-winning entries: 

Gold Award for our Climate Comedy Cohort: Inspiring Action through Comedy project co-created with our partner Generation180 in the Sustainability, Environment & Climate Special Projects section under the Awareness & Media Category. The Climate Comedy Cohort team comprises of Wendy Philleo, Kay Campbell, Jessica Lass, Esteban Gast and Jamie Wertz from Generation180 and CMSI's Caty Borum, Bethany Hall, Jordana Jason, Isabella Green and Varsha Ramani. 

Bronze Award for our Yes, And...Laughter Lab project co-created with our partner Moore & Associates in the Education, Art & Culture Networking or Community Organizations section under the Community Engagement Category. The Yes, And..Laughter Lab team comprises of Mik Moore and Clare Kenny from Moore & Associates and CMSI's Caty Borum, Bethany Hall and Varsha Ramani. 

Bronze Award for our research report  The Lens Reflected: Race, Gender & Topics in Documentary’s Streaming Age in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Research Projects or Publications in the Awareness & Media Category. The research team was led by SOC's Caty Borum (Principal Investigator) and Paula Weissman (Lead Investigator) along with SOC faculty David Conrad-Pérez and Aras Coskuntuncel. The research team was comprised of Natacha Yazbeck and SOC alumni Kimberly Reason and L Cedeño-Miller. 

We are beyond thrilled to receive these awards across three different categories. This is CMSI's second consecutive recognition from the Anthem Awards. A huge thank you to everyone at SOC and AU and to all those who worked with us to make these projects a reality.