Entertainment Goes Global
The United States exports approximately $8 billion in entertainment products each year. But America is far from being the only player in global entertainment. Three of the top five music companies in the world are not U.S.-owned.  The Indian film industry is the largest in the world, churning out 800 films a year watched by 3.5 million people a day. Is American pop culture declining in importance? How will the shift from passive to interactive entertainment change things? These are some of the topics being researched at the Lear Center’s Entertainment Goes Global project, whose partners have included the Tribeca Film Festival, the Writers Guild of America West and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hollywood, Health & Society
The Lear Center also studies the portrayal of health topics in entertainment media, and the positive impact that accurate health information can have on the public.  This program hosts an annual awards ceremony recognizing shows that inform, educate and motivate viewers to lead healthier lives. Selected by a 100-person jury comprised of national health experts, the 2006 Sentinel for Health Awards honored Numb3rs (Best Prime-Time Drama) for its story line on organ transplantation, George Lopez (Best Prime-Time Comedy) for its half-hour show on kidney disease, and As The World Turns (Best Daytime Drama) for its extensive breast cancer story line.

Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture
How do depictions of news professionals – from the mild-mannered Clark Kent to the grouchy Lou Grant – impact the American public’s
perception of journalism and newsgatherers? Directed by USC Annenberg journalism professor Joe Saltzman, this project maintains a multimedia library and a database containing 41,000 items on journalists in films, TV, radio, cartoons, comics, commercials, documentaries, games, art and song.

Local News Archive
In addition to tracking the content of local news broadcasts, this Lear Center project – and its subsidiary program, Reliable Resources – supplies materials to broadcasters to help improve the quality of political coverage. Every other year, it presents the Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Television Political Journalism in recognition of “coverage that helps viewers understand who the candidates are; what the issues and ballot propositions are; how electoral choices will affect their lives; how to assess campaign information, including advertising; and how to register, vote and make their own voices heard.”

Grand Avenue Intervention
Partnering with the Los Angeles Times, the Lear Center branched into the field of architecture in 2005, soliciting ideas from the public on the proposed 16-acre park that’s the centerpiece of the greening of downtown. The developers agreed to incorporate these suggestions into their planning. By Webcasting planning meetings and making digitally available all materials concerning the effort, the Lear Center keeps the public intimately in the conversation. “What used to be called public space or civic space has now become commercial space,” says Kaplan. “The places people go to hang out tend to be retail-oriented, whether it's a mall or a theme park. Our involvement in this park is an attempt for us to study every aspect of how that gets to be, and also to affect how it plays out.”

Declare Yourself
In 2000, Norman and Lyn Lear purchased a newly discovered Dunlap broadside – one of only 25 existing first-editions of the Declaration of Independence. They sent the historic document on a three-year road trip around the country in a non-partisan campaign to get Americans to register and vote, and enlisted the Lear Center’s help in producing educational materials to accompany it. The broadside made stops at the Reagan, Bush and Carter presidential libraries, the 2001 Super Bowl, and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, as well as numerous towns and cities across the country. In 2005, the broadside was on display at museums in Philadelphia and Sacramento.

Popular Music Project
The Lear Center's newest project, directed by USC Annenberg communication professor Josh Kun, is a one-stop home for the interdisciplinary study of popular music. Seeking to be that rare bridge between the academy and the social world at large, the Popular Music Project provides a point of open contact between scholars, musicians, students, producers, musicians, engineers, critics, label chiefs, and of course, fans. The project launched in March with a Bovard Auditorium concert by the band Ozomatli and a symposium about the relationship between music, community and social change.