THE PEABODY CENTER FOR MEDIA AND SOCIETY

The goals of The Peabody Center for Media and Society are:

• to establish the premier site for reasoned deliberation of increasingly significant connections linking electronic media and vital social topics and issues

• to address the policy communities dealing with these issues

• to survey and assess changes that have occurred and those now taking place with regard to media, culture, and society

• to engage and inform the public with regard to media-related matters that touch daily experience

To accomplish these goals the Center will become the home of:

The Peabody Seminars
www.peabody.uga.edu/peabodyseminars
The Peabody Seminars, the capstone project of the Center, will bring together policy makers, media executives, academic researchers and citizen members of the Peabody Board on an annual basis to address immediate social issues in which electronic media are central. The deliberations of the Peabody Seminars may result in specific commentary on the state of media related issues and in direct public responses to topics defined as “social problems” concerning contemporary media industries, media content, and media distribution. The Seminars may also define and distribute specific policy suggestions and recommendations. The Center will regularly publish the results of Seminar deliberations in “white papers” and make them available to appropriate audiences. No organization currently affords such an opportunity for efforts of this significance and magnitude on a regular basis. The acknowledged authority of the Peabody Awards appropriately extends to such an activity and immediately lends authority to the outcome of Seminar deliberations.

The Peabody International Initiatives
As changes in media industries continue to develop throughout the world, the Peabody Center will be the locus of ongoing discussion, evaluation, training, and dissemination of vital information. Peabody programs will also be presented at international venues abroad.

The Peabody Public Programs
Developed from the Archive and the research efforts, these programs will address media related topics and be open to the university and local communities and to visitors from around the state, the nation, and the world.

The Peabody Master Classes
This existing program was initiated in 1992 to integrate the Peabody Awards more directly into the academic life of the University and under auspices of the Center will be further integrated into other activities.

All these activities are enhanced by the availability of the Peabody Archive in the University of Georgia Library. This collection contains nearly all the entries submitted for adjudication from the late 1940s to the present and comprises an invaluable resource, a veritable electronic social history of the second half of the 20th century. The Peabody Center will work closely with the University Library to maintain, enhance, and open the Peabody Archive for purposes of research and teaching.