USC launches new center for communication technology

Black Issues in Higher Education, Sept 9, 2004

LOS ANGELES

The University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication has announced that Dr. Jeffrey Cole and his staff at the Center for Communication Policy, formerly based at UCLA, will lead the newly established Center for the Digital Future, a policy and research center devoted to the study of new communication technology and its impact on individuals, communities and societies around the world.

The USC Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future will resume the research projects that had been undertaken at UCLA, including the next phase of an Interact research project, titled "Surveying the Digital Future," reportedly the most comprehensive longitudinal study of the impact of the Internet on the United States.

The Center will release the newest report, "10 Years, 10 Trends" on Sept. 13.

In addition to the Interact project, Cole created and organizes the World Interact Project, which has been tracking the use of the Internet around the globe since 1999.

"Dr. Cole is a visionary scholar whose work has informed policy-makers worldwide about the power of media and the ways in which the Internet is transforming society. The USC Center for the Digital Future will continue to produce groundbreaking research that will explore the social, political and economic impact of the Internet and other media," says Dr. Geoffrey Cowan, dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication.