A rather interesting idea
The retirement of CBS new anchor Dan Rather is an opportunity for the
network to attract younger viewers, said Phil Kipper, chair of broadcast
and electronic communication arts, in the Nov. 24 San Francisco Chronicle. "If
you look at the network newscasts and you look at the kinds of commercials
that are run on those newscasts, that's a pretty good tip-off to what
they know the audience to be," Kipper said. "There are a
lot of commercials for geriatric medications -- basically they're serving
an older audience. Perhaps by bringing in (a younger anchor), they
might have an opportunity to grab a younger audience in the long run."
Judgment day for governor
On CNN International's "Insight" program on Nov. 17, speech
and communication studies Professor Joseph Tuman said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
has earned a B or B-plus grade in his first year in office. Tuman noted
his success in delivering a balanced budget, dealing with the Legislature
in a bipartisan manner, and efforts to promote California. "But
beneath all of that, we have some serious problems … with our economy
here that have to be dealt with." Tuman also said the fact that
the governor is a movie star has helped him. "People in our Legislature,
I think, respect his celebrity status, but not because he's a movie star,
but because he can translate that celebrity status sometimes into power
in the ballot box," he said.
A moving performance
The Nov. 16 San Francisco Chronicle featured a profile of Albirda Rose,
professor of dance. In addition to her classes on campus, the past
few years Rose and her students have been teaching dance to disadvantaged
children from San Francisco's Visitacion Valley neighborhood. "One
day it dawned on me that the children I was reaching didn't need it," she
said. "I wanted my students to have a real real-world experience
and a more diverse group of fellow dance students." The students
performed on campus Nov. 21.
Greens gain ground
The Green Party's focus on local elections helped them recover somewhat
from the damage the party took after Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential
election run on the party ticket, reported the San Francisco Chronicle
in its Nov. 15 edition. "The Greens didn't cause the result of
the (presidential) election and they could position themselves as an
alternative for people who think the Democratic Party is headed too
far to the right," said Corey Cook, assistant professor of political
science.
Kinsey still controversial
The release of a film on pioneer sex researcher Alfred Kinsey has focused
the spotlight again on the climate for doing sex research in the United
States, reports the New York Times in a Nov. 9 article that appeared
in other papers around the world. "I have been in this field for
30 years, and the level of fear and intimidation is higher now than I
can ever remember," said Gilbert Herdt, director of human sexuality
studies. "With the recent election there's concern that there will
be even more intrusion of ideology into science."
California: mad for municipal initiatives
An Oct. 31 Associated Press report on the popularity of municipal initiatives
in California featured comments by Richard DeLeon,
professor of political science. "They allow citizens to legislate
directly when unresponsive and unrepresentative elected officials,
like boulders
in the stream,
block progress and thwart popular will," he said. The story ran
in several California newspapers.
A bewitching performance
Pianists Victoria Neve, professor of music, and Inara
Morgenstern, lecturer
of music, were featured in an Oct. 29 Chronicle of Higher Education
article on academics who celebrate Halloween by wearing costumes on
the job. For the past 20 years Morgenstern and Neve have performed
a Halloween concert of "spooky" classical works such as "Funeral
March of a Marionette" while dressed up in witches' costumes. "One
time we decided to dress like angels," said Neve, "but we
didn't think it worked very well. We thought: We're teachers. We're
witches. So we went right back to the witches the next year."
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