USC Media and Public Relations

The New York Times featured research by Stacy Smith of the USC Annenberg School, finding that female directors composed a quarter of those at the Sundance Film Festival between 2002 and 2012. The Washington Post, in an Associated Press story, reported that the study found little improvement in the number of female filmmakers during that time. “There has been no sustained or meaningful change across the last 11 years in the percentage of directors or producers at the Sundance Film Festival,” Smith said. The study was also covered by Los Angeles Times, BBC News (U.K.), RadioTimes (U.K.) and Variety.

The New York Times ran an op-ed by USC Libraries Discovery Fellow Margaret Wertheim about a fractal model displayed at USC’s Doheny Memorial Library. A tangible representation of the Mosley Snowflake Sponge, the fractal was made out of folded business cards by hundreds of students, faculty, librarians and local artists. “Fractals possess the strange property of ‘self-similarity,’” Wertheim wrote. “Zoom in on any part of a fractal, and each small section will have the same richly complicated structure as the whole.”

The Chronicle of Higher Education covered a recent conference hosted by the USC Center for Enrollment Research, Policy and Practice. The Chronicle of Higher Education mentioned the conference in a second story.

Indo-Asian News Service (India) featured research by Scott Wiltermuth of the USC Marshall School and a colleague, finding that people with power tend to become more severe when they decide to punish someone, and more likely to see things in black and white. “We noticed in our MBA classes that the students who seemed to feel most powerful had these absolute answers about what’s right and what’s wrong,” Wiltermuth said.

The New York Times quoted Stanley Rosen of the USC Dornsife College about the relationship between Hollywood and China.

The Wall Street Journal quoted Dan Schnur of the USC Dornsife College about the political career of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

La Opinion quoted Sherry Bebitch Jeffe of the USC Price School about President Barack Obama’s second inaugural address.

Ventura County Star quoted Clayton Dube of the USC U.S.-China Institute about the Falun Gong religious movement.

Sacramento Business Journal quoted David Carter of the USC Marshall School about the Sacramento Kings.

Slate cited research by USC’s Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration, finding that voting rates for newly naturalized immigrants surge during periods when immigration is a hot political topic.

The Huffington Post ran a column by Martin Kaplan of the USC Annenberg School about President Barack Obama’s second inaugural speech.

Business Insider ran a column by Ira Kalb of the USC Marshall School about Time Warner’s new ad campaign touting its customer service.

The Huffington Post covered new security measures at USC. The story was covered by another article in The Huffington Post and L.A. Weekly.