Dr. Jeffrey Cole, Director of the Center for Communication Policy

Dr. Jeffrey Cole has been on the UCLA faculty for the past 27 years and serves as Director of the Center for Communication Policy. His faculty appointment is in the Anderson Graduate School of Management and the Social Science Division of the College of Letters & Science. Cole is Principal Investigator of the UCLA World Internet Project, a long-term longitudinal look at the effects of computer and Internet technology on all aspects of society. At the announcement of the project in June 1999, Vice President Al Gore praised Cole as a "true visionary providing the public with information on how to understand the impact of media."

Cole was Principal Investigator of the Network Television Violence Monitoring Project which in 1995, 1996 and 1997 issued annual reports to the television networks, Congress and the nation. Upon the release of the 1996 report, Cole held a joint press conference with President Bill Clinton who referred to the Center for Communication Policy as "the premier educational institution setting trends in entertainment." Nationwide there was unanimous praise for the quality of the reports and their contribution to the television violence debate. Cole has testified before Congress on television issues and has spoken as a keynote and panel member at more than 200 conferences on communications issues.

In 1994, 1995 and 1996 the Center co-authored with U.S. News & World Report national surveys examining attitudes and values of decision-makers in the entertainment industry. In 1994 the Center co-sponsored "The Superhighway Summit" in UCLA's Royce Hall with keynote speaker Vice President Gore and the leaders of most of the nation's major media companies. For the annual Family Reunion Conferences in Nashville, Tennessee, Cole has worked with Vice President Gore to produce films opening the 1995 through 2000 conferences. All of the films were screened before an audience of 1,400 including the Vice President and President Clinton. He also has worked directly with Vice President Gore to produce a short film on the issue of smoking and the entertainment industry.

Over the past seven years the Center has sponsored or co-sponsored national conferences on the impact of the Internet, religion and prime time television, television and advocacy groups and images of girls in the media. Two major books have come out of the religion and advocacy conferences.

Cole has lectured extensively in Asia and Europe and throughout the U.S. He regularly consults with top government officials and leaders of the telecommunications industries throughout the world on communications issues. Over the past 27 years, Cole has taught to over 35,000 students. In 1987 he received the University's Distinguished Teaching Award.

In 1998 Cole joined the faculty of the Anderson Graduate School of Management where he is directing the track on Entertainment, Media and Communication.