THE NORMAN LEAR CENTER
AT USC ANNENBERG
PRESENTED "DEMOCRACY ROW"
AT DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION

LOS ANGELES -- The Norman Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication presented Democracy Row -- a unique tradeshow celebrating democracy and highlighting the importance of voter information, at the Los Angeles Convention Center during the Democratic National Convention.

Democracy Row was an exposition of over 50 non-partisan organizations that are working to improve the quality, quantity, diversity and availability of reliable information about political candidates, campaigns and issues. (See below for a full listing of participating groups.)

Strategically located in the West Hall of the Convention Center, Democracy Row highlighted some of the worthy innovations in political coverage and citizen engagement.

Democracy Row ran from 1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. from Monday, August 14 through Wednesday, August 16 and from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 17. Live updates from Democracy Row were web-cast on the hour at the Reliable Resources home page (www.reliableresources.org). View the Web archives.

Norman Lear officiated at the official ribbon-cutting ceremony to open Democracy Row at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, August 14. Live coverage of the ceremony was web-cast on the home pages for Reliable Resources, the Norman Lear Center (www.entertainment.usc.edu), and the On-line Journalism Review (www.ojr.org). View the Web archives.

Democracy Row was part of Reliable Resources for Broadcast Political Coverage, a new, multi-year initiative at USC Annenberg. Funded by a grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Reliable Resources is focused on improving broadcast television's political coverage.

In conjunction with Democracy Row, Reliable Resources also hosted a panel discussion entitled Improving Broadcast Political Coverage, moderated by Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Dean of USC Annenberg's sister school at The University of Pennsylvania. Panel participants included Cokie Roberts of ABC News and NPR, and Paul Taylor from The Alliance for Better Campaigns among others. The discussion took place on Tuesday, August 15 from 10:00-11:30 a.m. at The Annenberg Auditorium on the USC campus.

"The 15,000 members of the media expected at the Convention will find Democracy Row an eye-opening opportunity to see how groups across the country are working to excite and engage citizens in politics," said Martin Kaplan, USC Annenberg School for Communication associate dean and director of the Lear Center. "We're thrilled to be the only outside group with a major substantive presence actually inside the convention perimeter."

The goal of Reliable Resources (www.reliableresources.org) is to develop and distribute tools to help local and network television provide innovative and informative political coverage, and to recognize and reward those efforts.

The Norman Lear Center (www.entertainment.usc.edu) is a multidisciplinary research and public policy center exploring implications of the convergence of entertainment, commerce, and society. The impact of entertainment on news and politics is a principal focus of the Lear Center.

The Pew Charitable Trusts (www.pewtrusts.com) support nonprofit activities in the areas of culture, education, the environment, health and human services, public policy and religion.

The following groups are scheduled to participate in Democracy Row:

Alliance for Better Campaigns
(University of Pennsylvania)
www.bettercampaigns.org

Transition to Governing
(American Enterprise Institute)
www.aei.org/governing

Ballot Maker
www.ballotmaker.com

Break Away Technologies
www.breakaway.org

Brennan Center for Justice
(NYU School of Law)
www.brennancenter.org

Brookings Institution
www.brook.edu

California Chicano News Media Association
www.ccnma.org

Smart Voter
California League of Women Voters
www.ca.lwv.org
www.smartvoter.org

California Voter Foundation
www.calvoter.org

Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies
(American University)
www.american.edu/ccps

Center for Democracy and Technology
www.cdt.org

Center for Responsive Politics
www.opensecrets.org

Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation
www.csef.org

Committee for Economic Development
www.ced.org

Campaigns and Elections
Congressional Quarterly
www.cq.com

Council for Excellence in Government
www.excelgov.org

C-SPAN
www.c-span.org

Democracy Online
(George Washington University)
democracyonline.org

Youth-e-Vote
Freedom Channel
www.freedomchannel.org
www.youthevote.net

Frontline
www.pbs.org/pages/frontline

Grassroots.com
www.grassroots.com

Hudson Institute
www.hudson.org

Institute for Global Ethics
www.globalethics.org

iVillage.com
www.ivillage.com

LATNN.com
www.LATNN.com

League of Women Voters
www.lwv.org

Web, White and Blue
Markle Foundation
www.markle.org
www.webwhiteblue.org

Medill News Service
www.medill.nwu.edu/journalism/mns
www.yvote2000.com

MSNBC
www.msnbc.com

National Coalition on Black Civic Participation
www.bigvote.org

National Issues Forum
www.nifi.org

Norman Lear Center
(USC Annenberg)
entertainment.usc.edu

Online Journalism Review
(USC Annenberg)
ojr.usc.edu

People for the American Way
www.pfaw.org

Policy.com
www.policy.com

Project for Excellence in Journalism
www.journalism.org

Project Vote Smart
www.vote-smart.org

Radio Television News Directors Foundation
www.rtndf.org

Rap the Vote
360 Hip-Hop.com
www.rapthevote2000.org
www.360hiphop.com

Reliable Resources
(USC Annenberg)
www.reliableresources.org

Rock the Vote
www.rockthevote.org

Service Vote 2000
www.servicevote.org

Slate.com
slate.msn.com

Southwest Voter Project
www.svrep.org

Suck.com
www.suck.com

Neglection 2000
Third Millennium
www.thirdmil.org
www.neglection2000.org

United Leaders
www.unitedleaders.org

Campaign Assessment and Candidate Outreach Project
(University of Maryland at College Park)

Vote.com
www.vote.com

Voter Foundation

Voter.com
www.voter.com

Washington Times
www.washtimes.com

Watts Community Action Labor Committee
www.wlcac.org

White House Project
www.thewhitehouseproject.org

Youth Vote 2000
www.youthvote2000.org