Francis Steen awarded the 2008 Brian P. Copenhaver Award for Innovation in Teaching with Technology

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Francis Steen, Assistant Professor in Communication Studies, was awarded one of three Copenhaver Awards for 2008.  The Faculty Committee on Educational Technology notes that Professor Steen and Otto Santa Ana, Associate Professor in Chicano/o Studies “are being honored for their work in the Digital Civic Learning Initiative.The UCLA Communication Studies Archive (CSA) is one of the largest archives of news and public affairs television programming in the world.  Prof. Steen is one of the collaborators and creators of the Communication Studies Archive and played a vital role in developing the digitization, indexing and searching system that make the CSA a valuable tool for teaching. Prof. Steen and Santa Ana are part of the Digital Civic Learning initiative which uses the Communication Studies Archive to encourage critical analysis of mass media and promote civic engagement.  The Communication Studies Archive allows instructors to teach media studies using near real time analysis of television news.  For example, Prof. Santa Ana used the archive to have his students analyze how immigrants were portrayed in the television news coverage of the May 1st and May 2nd, 2007 immigration demonstrations.” Francis Steen InterviewOtto Santa Ana Interview