Conversation With Geoffrey Baum

July 7, 2009 7:51 AM

Norman Corwin, Writer in Residence from the USC Annenberg School for Communication, speaks with Geoffrey Baum, the managing director of USC Annenberg’s Center on Communication Leadership and Policy.

NC: Geoff, I know that you have worked with Geoffrey Cowan when he was dean of USC Annenberg and now that he has returned from Harvard you are assisting him again. What is the nature of your new association?

GB: I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work for both Geoffrey Cowan and then the succeeding dean, Ernest Wilson. Now that Geoff is back, we have started a new center called the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy. It is made possible through the support of the Annenberg Foundation, which wanted to help set up a new center to for innovative research projects and train a new generation of leaders in the communication fields.

We have undertaken a number of daunting challenges. For example, what’s going to happen to the news business with newspapers suffering greatly in this current economic downturn? What role does new media play? What kind of leadership is needed to help create these new channels of news and information that the public needs to stay informed and be engaged?

NC: Are either of you worried about the seeming imminence of trouble at The New York Times, Boston Globe and the Los Angeles Times?

GB: We are very concerned about the decline in the newspaper business all across the country. Even though many get their information online through blogs and other sources, the source of most news that is gathered in this country is generated by newspaper journalists who report and cover and write about what they see and have researched.

We are looking at new models for news and information, and we are helping journalists learn how to survive and thrive in this new media environment, and ensure there will be a robust, independent journalism profession in the years ahead.

NC: Geoff Cowan is the author of a play on the Pentagon Papers.

GB: Yes, Top Secret:The Battle for the Pentagon Papers.

NC: I went to a performance of that play at the Skirball Center, and it seemed to me a wonderful way of introducing Americans to recent history. Do you have any idea of what is happening to that play?

GB Well, I’m pleased there is some news we can break here. We have just been informed that Top Secret will have a run in New York. The New York Theater Workshop is going to present the play in a partnership with a number of other theatre companies on the stage that originated the musical Rent. It is going to be on an extended run in New York in spring 2010.

NC: I hope to see it there.

GB: Absolutely! We will be producing a special event in Manhattan that the folks from USC will be invited to attend.

NC: Do you miss the freewheeling days when you helped to arrange programs such as the one you co-produced with me at The Museum of TV and Radio in 2005?

GB: It was a highlight of my professional career to produce a series of readings of Norman Corwin works in a theatrical setting. We were able to recruit a terrific group of actors, including Ed Asner, thanks to you, and we were able to bring together an audience who knew and appreciated the works. Now, we get to recreate the spirit of the activities we presented when I was at the school through the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy. We have organized a number of terrific public events over the past year. We hosted programs with Ted Turner, the founder of CNN, and Brian Lamb, the founder of C-SPAN, along with a special program with Tavis Smiley, the Young Scholars Forum, where we brought hundreds of area high school students to campus to talk about what they can do to become leaders in their communities.

NC: Is there anything that you would like to do around USC that you have not done?

GB: I would like to help the university and the Annenberg School continue on the trajectory they have been on in the last several years. The closing line of Ambassador Annenberg’s mission statement when he dedicated the school is “… to be of service to all people is the enduring mission of this school.”

We teach a lot of skills, and we conduct very important research about the media and its role in our society, but there is a higher purpose for what we do. It is to be of service.

NC: What do you think about President Obama’s policies toward education?

GB: Well, I actually wear two hats. I am not only a proud employee of USC, but I also am a trustee of Pasadena City College and serve as a member of the board of governors for California’s community college system. I was fortunate to be able to attend the inauguration of President Obama. I took a group of high school students to Washington, D.C., as part of a program to learn about government and the political and democratic process. I believe President Obama is deeply committed to investing in education.

As a state and a nation, we are not going to grow more natural resources; we are not going to expand our physical borders. We will succeed only if we prepare people with the knowledge and skills to support themselves and work together. President Obama understands this and he has devoted a number of his initial activities to supporting and rebuilding education and research in this country. As a nation we have fallen short in investing in education. Our infrastructure in public and private schools and universities is not as strong and robust as it should be.

NC: Have you ever thought of teaching as an occupation?

GB: I have thought about it, and I worked as a substitute high school teacher when I was in graduate school. Teaching is very, very hard work. Every time I teach, I am reminded how hard the faculty work to prepare and organize and instruct students at every level.

NC: What would you like to teach?

GB: As an undergraduate, I majored in literature, so I enjoy teaching literature . I love to teach government and political science and journalism, of course.

NC: Who would be your model as a teacher?

GB: I have lots of models. No one is more passionate, inspiring and devoted to students than Geoff Cowan. I am also fortunate to work alongside some of the very best instructors who were teaching when I received my master’s degree in journalism in 1989, including Joe Saltzman, who is an absolutely terrific professor. Félix Gutiérrez was a mentor from whom I learned so much, as well as Jon Kotler on the journalism faculty.

NC: I trust that you will continue to write your history and the history of your university in glorious penmanship. I am indebted to you for your kind service to my form of theatre.

GB: I appreciate that. I am looking forward to seeing your book (One World Flight: The Lost Journal of Radio’s Greatest Writer) come out in the fall, another milestone in the amazing life and career of Norman Corwin.

NC: Thank you. I have a copy reserved for you.

Search search

Search only News Archives