Athens, Ga. — The University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication has announced the appointment of four new board members to the Peabody Awards, television and radio’s most coveted prize.
The Peabody board, which includes television critics, industry practitioners, scholars and experts in culture and fine arts, will be joined by Susan Douglas, University of Michigan; Jonathan Estrin, American Film Institute; Raul Garza, Hill & Knowlton, Inc. public relations firm; and Frazier Moore, Associated Press.
“Our new board members bring a wealth of experience to the Peabody Awards programs,” said Peabody Awards Director Horace Newcomb. “Their perspectives will add to our discussions as we continue to recognize the most distinguished examples of electronic media produced around the world.”
Douglas is a professor and chair of the department of communication studies at the University of Michigan. She is the author of numerous books, including Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media, Inventing American Broadcasting and Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination, which won the 2000 Sally Hacker Popular Book Prize from the Society for the History of Technology. Her most recent book, The Mommy Myth (with Meredith Michaels), explores the changing representations of motherhood in the mass media from 1970 to present.
Estrin is executive vice president of the American Film Institute and a prize-winning television writer and producer. Estrin served from 2000 to 2004 as dean of the College of Media Arts and Design at Drexel University. In more than 25 years in Hollywood, Estrin created and produced series, movies and miniseries for broadcast and cable networks. In 1997, with his late wife, Shelley List, he received the Valentine Davies Award from the Writers Guild of America, which “honors those who have contributed to the entertainment industry and the community-at-large and who have brought dignity and honor to writers everywhere.”
Garza is senior vice president and director of diversity communication for Hill & Knowlton, Inc., public relations firm in Los Angeles. Previously as director of multicultural public relations for AT&T in New York and New Jersey, Garza produced the first consumer education series on telecommunication for Spanish-language television and introduced a weekly program on U.S. citizenship to Spanish-language radio.
Moore, a 1974 journalism graduate of UGA, reviews television programs, profiles stars as well as figures behind the scenes, and analyzes the TV medium at the Associated Press (AP). Before joining AP, Moore freelanced for publications including People, Spy, Connoisseur and Interview magazines, as well as for The New York Times. Moore was a staff writer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Fort Myers News-Press, where he earned a National Headliners Award in column writing. In addition, Moore was director of publications for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
Entries for the 64th annual George Foster Peabody Awards, recognizing outstanding achievement in electronic media, are due to the Peabody awards office on Friday, Jan. 14, 2005. Original broadcast, cablecast and webcast programs presented in 2004 are eligible for entry. The awards will be presented during a May 16 luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York.
The Peabody Award, established in 1940 and administered by UGA’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, is the oldest honor in electronic media. Today the Peabody recognizes distinguished achievement and meritorious public service by stations, networks, producing organizations and individuals.
For entry information or for a complete list of all Peabody Board members, visit www.peabody.uga.edu.
