Dr. Martin Kaplan

Biography

Marty Kaplan is a Research Professor and the Norman Lear Chair at USC Annenberg, where he directs the Norman Lear Center. With over 20 years of wide-ranging experience across politics, journalism, entertainment, and academia, Kaplan's work focuses on understanding how media shapes society. His research interests include local TV news campaign coverage, the impact of public health messages in entertainment, the use of narrative in communicating science, and the effects of the attention economy on democracy. Kaplan's diverse background includes serving as the executive assistant to the U.S. commissioner of education during the Carter Administration and working as the chief speechwriter for Vice President Walter F. Mondale. He also spent 12 years at Walt Disney Studios, where he was vice president of production for live-action feature films. Kaplan has written columns that have won six first-place journalism awards from the Los Angeles Press Club and has contributed to public radio programs. He graduated summa cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in molecular biology, was a Marshall Scholar at Cambridge University, and earned his PhD in Modern Thought and Literature from Stanford University.

Research Interests

Experience

Awards