wfn.org | Jeffrey Cole of USC Annenberg to be RCCongress 2010 Speaker

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@igc.org>]

> Jeffrey Cole

Director of the Center for the Digital Future, USC Annenberg School for Communication

> RCCongress 2010:

Plenary Speaker on Surveying the Digital Future

Jeffrey Cole has been at the forefront of media and communication technology policy issues in both the United States and internationally for the past 25 years.  In July 2004 Dr. Cole joined the University of Southern California (USC) Annenberg School for Communication as Director of the newly formed Center for the Digital Future and as a Research Professor. Founded on the belief that the best policy arises from the best information, the Center is a research and policy institute committed to work that has a real and beneficial effect on people?s lives, while seeking to maximize the positive potential of the mass media and our rapidly evolving communication technologies.

Prior to joining USC, Dr. Cole was a longtime member of the UCLA faculty and served as Director of the UCLA Center for Communication Policy, based in the Anderson Graduate School of Management. At UCLA and now at USC Annenberg, Cole founded and directs the World Internet Project, a long-term longitudinal look at the effects of computer and Internet technology on all aspects of society, which is conducted in over 20 countries. At the announcement of the project in June 1999, Vice President Al Gore praised Cole as a ?true visionary providing the public with information on how to understand the impact of media.?

Cole has lectured extensively in Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, Australia and throughout the U.S. He regularly consults with top government officials and leaders of the telecommunications industries throughout the world on communications issues. He currently is a member of the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) Forum Programme Committee. He was a member of the Executive Committee of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS) from 1997 to 2001 and was the founding governor of the ATAS Interactive Media Peer Group.

? [The] Internet has become an essential part of everyday life and moved power (real and perceived) into the hands of individuals. ?

~ Jeffrey Cole - in The Impact of the Internet?Year Six Report, 2007; Surveying the Digital Future?The World Internet Project (PDF)

Religion Communication Congress | Voice: 212-870-2985 | Fax: 212-870-2171 | info@rccongress2010.org