30 Erin Auerbach , a second-year print journalism graduate student, has been selected as the $5,000 Art Buchwald Scholarship winner. Her winning essay is titled "Speed dating and other unnatural disasters." The scholarship, sponsored by humorist Art Buchwald, is awarded annually to a journalism major who demonstrates "solid writing skills and a flair for lampooning the fools and foolishment of our day." Read the winning essay»

Felix Gutierrez , a visiting professor in the School of Journalism, was quoted in a March 24 Los Angeles Times article about the purchase of the Los Angeles Sentinel by Danny J. Bakewell, real estate developer and leader of the Los Angeles Brotherhood Crusade. The success of the oldest and largest black-owned weekly newspaper in the West under Bakewell will depend on how well the paper serves its readership, Gutierrez said. "If it becomes only his views, some people who don't agree with him will turn away. And now, they have other sources they can turn to in the black media." L.A. Times story»

Professor Ed Cray's new book, Ramblin' Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie , was featured in the March 29 issue of The New Yorker . The magazine's reviewer called the book a "work of tempered debunking." Cray also discussed Guthrie on WBUR, a Boston public-radio station, and on KCET Television's "Life & Times." "It was that vision of California, the different vision than the Chamber of Commerce put forward, that radicalized him and he became a very major advocate of farmworkers in organizing," Cray told KCET. New Yorker article» WBUR interview» "Life & Times" interview»

On March 12, the 71st anniversary of President Franklin Roosevelt's celebrated "Fireside Chats" on radio, visiting professor Norman Corwin told NPR's "Day to Day" that the president was a master of the medium. "His 'Fireside Chats' were not just friendly neighborhood get-togethers. They were substantive," Corwin said. "The choice of that term 'Fireside Chat' is an indication of how shrewdly he used the medium. It was not 'Fireside Addresses,' it was not a press conference, it was nothing but a chat, which invoked the sense of a small group of people sitting around a radio." Listen to Corwin on NPR»

35 Professor Manuel Castells , who holds the Wallis Annenberg Chair in Communication Technology and Society , was awarded an honorary doctorate March 17 by City University London. Presenter Frank Webster praised Castells as "a prolific author" and "an energetic thinker," adding: "His accounts of 'The Information Age,' his conceptions of the 'network society' and its 'information flows' have rapidly become part and parcel of how we think about our times." Prior to the doctorate presentation, Castells delivered City University's 18th Birley Lecture to a packed audience of faculty and students.

Professor Doe Mayer was one of three USC faculty members presented with the "Remarkable Women" award on March 3. Created to celebrate the achievements and contributions of women faculty, staff, graduate students and undergraduates at USC, the annual awards are a collaboration between the Office of Campus Activities, the Women's Student Assembly, the Center for Women and Men, and Gender Studies. Criteria for faculty selection include achievements in one's field, contributions to USC, commitment to students, commitment to women's issues, community involvement, leadership accomplishment and professional recognition.

Tri-Sight Communications , USC Annenberg's student-run public relations firm, held an extremely successful media day in early March on behalf of its client, The Memorial Coliseum Commission , which was working to restore the Olympic rings from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games' Opening Ceremony. Student members of the firm developed a media strategy, distributed media advisories and called various media outlets to pitch them on the idea of covering the pick-up of the 2.5-ton Olympic rings. The story received wide coverage in Los Angeles print and broadcast media, and through the Associated Press it garnered broadcast coverage in nine other cities across the United States, and print coverage in three other cities. USC Daily Trojan story» L.A. Times story»

Associate dean Thomas Hollihan recently spoke to the Los Angeles Times about presidential hopeful John Kerry's comments regarding the "Republican attack machine." "This makes it hard to appear later that he's in any way above the fray and that the other side should be held accountable for taking the debate into the gutter," Hollihan said. "And when the attack comes from the candidate himself, then there's no distancing himself from the message at all." L.A. Times story»