October 24, 2013

Dr. Johanna Blakley, managing director and director of research at the Norman Lear Center, has appeared on Good Morning America, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, and Current TV to share her research on a wide variety of topics, including global entertainment, cultural diplomacy, entertainment education, celebrity culture, fashion, digital media and intellectual property law. Her work has been cited in Reuters, the New York Times, The Economist, the Washington Post, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, Politico, Huffington Post, Forbes and Business Week.

The Kal and Lucille Rudman Institute for Entertainment Industry Studies and Pennoni Honors College's 2013-14 Great Works Symposium has invited Blakley to Drexel to give a presentation on how government wars on terror and drugs are depicted in television’s most popular dramas. This free and open-to-the-public event will take place Tuesday, Nov. 5 at 6:30 p.m in the Papadakis Integrated Sciences Center’s Room 104 (Chestnut and 33rd Streets, Philadelphia).

In partnership with the Gates Foundation and the Knight Foundation, Blakley recently launched a major new research initiative, the Media Impact Project, to collect and analyze information from multiple institutions and provide thought leadership on the best ways to measure engagement with media and evaluate social impact. The project has received $3.25 million in seed funding, building upon Blakley’s extensive experience in entertainment education and her recent efforts to develop more sophisticated instruments to measure the impact of feature films and documentaries on the attitudes, knowledge and behaviors of viewers. Click here to visit Blakley's website for more information.