Communications | Penn Today

Image: Marc Goldfarb

How storytelling can motivate us to help others

A new study from Annenberg School’s Communication Neuroscience Lab finds that personal stories—instead of cold facts—make people want to help keep others safe.

Interim president Wendell Pritchett interviewing Ken Burns.

Ben Franklin: A voice from the past that speaks to our time

At the 2022 Silfen Forum, Penn Interim President Wendell Pritchett chatted with filmmaker Ken Burns about his new two-part documentary on Benjamin Franklin.

People in the street hold signs that read, in Ukrainian and English, "Stop Russian Aggression."

Tech’s role in Russia’s war on Ukraine

Media scholar Courtney Radsch says tech platforms should have been faster to address Russian government propaganda, misinformation, and censorship.

An illustration of many different-colored heads with many different-colored talking bubbles.

People imitate accent features they expect to hear, even without hearing them

Research from postdoc Lacey Wade confirmed this idea, what she calls expectation-driven convergence, in a controlled experiment for the first time. The work reveals just how much the subconscious factors into the way people speak.

Lights. Camera. Crime

Dan Romer of the Annenberg Public Policy Center analyzed Philadelphia’s broadcast networks in 1998 and found crime coverage to be racially biased, which he concluded is tied to financial incentives. “The suburbs are the target for their advertisers because they have more wealthy households and they tend to be white,” he said. “Showing people of color attacking whites, that’s scary stuff. Now, that’s a cynical view. But I mean, it’s a business.”

Radio microphone and a soundboard with an ON AIR sign.

Public media can improve our ‘flawed’ democracy

A new study finds that countries with well-funded public media have healthier democracies, and explains why investment in U.S. public media is an investment in the future of journalism and democracy alike.

A group of older people at a restaurant clinking half-full wine glasses, with their masks pulled down around their chins to reveal a smile. Food is on the table.

New COVID-19 roadmap: Four takeaways

A report spearheaded by PIK Professor Ezekiel Emanuel, with input from other Penn experts, lays out a dozen priorities for the federal government to tackle in the next 12 months. The aim: to help guide the U.S. to the pandemic’s “next normal.”

Outmatched in military might, Ukraine has excelled in the information war

Kathleen Hall Jamieson of the Annenberg Public Policy Center said Ukraine’s messaging strategy has been “visually evocative [and] highly dramatic.”

A nurse seated at a work station in a large hospital room with patient beds.

Why unions matter for nursing

A new study examines nursing’s relationship to union organizing and feminism, as well as the profession’s unique organizing challenges.

Group of protesters in masks in the streets, one carries a large sign that reads BLACK LIVES MATTER.

The Black Lives Matter movement, but not COVID encouraged voters toward Biden

As swing voters registered more awareness about discrimination against Black Americans, they became more likely to vote for the party they felt would best rectify that—Democrats.

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