Horace Newcomb, director of the prestigious George Peabody Awards Program, will speak at UMBC on “Studying Television in the Post-Network Era: Responses to a Changing Media Industry.” The lecture, scheduled for Thursday, September 15, at 4 p.m. on the 7th floor of the Albin O. Kuhn Library, celebrates the recent establishment of UMBC’s upper-level undergraduate Certificate in Communications and Media Studies.

Newcomb, who holds the Lamdin Kay Chair for the Peabody Awards in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Georgia, pioneered UMBC’s first popular culture and mass media courses as an American Studies faculty member in the mid-1970s. During those years he also served as television columnist for the Baltimore Sun.

A widely respected scholar in mass media studies, he is author of "TV: The Most Popular Art," (Doubleday, 1974), co-author of "The Producer’s Medium" (Oxford, 1983) and editor of six editions of "Television: The Critical View" (Oxford, 1976-2000). From 1994 to1996 he served as Curator for the Museum of Broadcast Communications in Chicago, with primary duties as editor of "The Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia," considered the definitive library reference work for the study of television.

Newcomb’s research and teaching interests are in media, society and culture, and he has written widely in the field of television criticism and history. Recent lectures in the U.S. and abroad have focused on cultural exchange and international media industries. Known during his years at UMBC as an outstanding teacher, he was named one of three Outstanding Teachers in the Graduate School at the University of Texas at Austin in 1989.

The Peabody Awards, established in 1941 and based at the University of Georgia, are considered the most prestigious recognition of distinguished achievement by radio and television networks, stations, producing, organizations, cable television organizations and individuals. In 2004, 32 awards were made, including one to WBAL-TV for a series of reports on the Chesapeake Bay, credited with spurring state environmental policies, and Bill Moyers was recognized for his life-time of contributions to electronic media.

The lecture is sponsored by the Department of American Studies, the Social Sciences Forum and the Humanities Forum. For further information, contact the Department of American Studies at 410-455-2106.