Diane Winston was installed as the first USC Annenberg Knight Chair in Media and Religion at a ceremony on April 8, 2005.  Dean Geoffrey Cowan and Michael Parks, director of the School of Journalism, invited students, faculty, staff and friends to join Provost Lloyd Armstrong and Hodding Carter III, President & CEO, John S. & James L. Knight Foundation, to announce the establishment of the chair at USC Annenberg and to celebrate the appointment of Diane Winston as its inaugural holder. The program included a special presentation by Luis Lugo, director, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Read Diane Winston's remarks
Read Luis Lugo's remarks
Watch video of the event.

Amy Sullivan, an editor of The Washington Monthly, discussed why Democrats have sidestepped religion and how they need to address it for the 2008 campaign.

Co-sponsor: USC Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics

David Domke, former journalist and Communications professor at the University of Washington, looks at how political leaders use the news media to shape public discourse and the subsequent implications for American public opinion and democracy.

Using Pres. George W. Bush as a case study, Domke shows how religious language permeates political discourse, resulting in a new kind of “political fundamentalism.”  

Co-sponsor: USC Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics

Watch video of the event here.

Press about the event:   
Daily Trojan, 10/26/04

Journalists nationwide attended an in-depth seminar on the impact of religion and politics on voting patterns, diversity issues, science and foreign policy.

The Western Knight Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, in cooperation with the Knight Chair in Media and Religion, sponsored a four-day seminar on covering religion and public life.

For a complete list of presenters, participants, and other resource materials from this event, click here.

Top editors of select major newspapers nationwide discuss the importance of religion, spirituality and ethics to all aspects of newsroom coverage.

Co-sponsors: USC Annenberg School of Journalism, Western Knight Center for Specialized Journalism.

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times and National Public Radio film critic; Richard Fox, professor of History, USC and author of Jesus in America: Personal Savior, Cultural Hero, National Obsession; Barbara Nicolosi, executive director of Act One, Inc.; William Fulco, NEH Chair in Ancient Mediterranean Studies at Loyola Marymount University and on-set consultant for the film, and Benedict Fitzgerald, co-writer of the screenplay, discuss Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.

Co-sponsors: USC School of Cinema-Television, School of Religion, Center for Religion and Civic Culture, Office of Religious Life.

Watch video of the event.