Jeffrey Cole

He has been at the forefront of media and communication technologies in the United States and other countries for 25 years. Specialist in technology and new media, Cole has been worked as a consultant for governments and large companies in developing their digital strategies.

In July 2004, Dr. Cole joined the USC Annenberg School for Communication as Director of the brand new created Center for the Digital Future and as a researcher teacher. The Center is a research and policies institute committed to a work of real and beneficial effect on people's lives, trying to make the most positive potential of mass communication and the fast development of new communication technologies.

Prior to joining USC, Cole worked for a long time in University of California (UCLA) where he was director of the Center for Communication Policies of Anderson Graduate School of Management. At UCLA and, nowadays, USC Annenberg, he launched and directed the World Internet Project, a long-term survey, conducted in some 25 countries, on the computer technologies and the Internet effects. When launching the project in June 1999, Vice President Al Gore pointed Cole as a "true visionary bringing public information on how to understand the media impact." After nine years, due to its unique data on Internet users around the world, the World Internet Project has become an international leader in the study of how social, economic and communication aspects of our way of life has being changed. Cole always reports trends and insights collected in the project to the White House, to the FCC, to the Congress and to the United States Department of Defense and several other governments. Regarding the companies, he has been worked as a consultant to Microsoft, WPP (Group M), Ericsson, Bertelsmann, Sony, Time Warner, Accenture, Coca-Cola, AT&T, AARP and others in their strategies for traditional and digital media.

In the 90s, Cole worked with four US television networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) in an antitrust practice that allowed broadcasters to act jointly in the area of television programming for the first time. Meeting with the presidents, senior counsel, programming heads and other leaders responsible for the broadcasters, he has issued annual reports for the television industry, United States Congress and the United States. When there was the disclosure of the report in 1996, Cole and President Bill Clinton met with the press. Clinton referred to the Centre for Communication Policy as "the first educational institution to establish trends in the field of entertainment." In the US, his reports were praised for their quality and contribution to the debate about the content on television.

Cole testified before the US Congress on matters of television and was the main speaker and debate participant in more than 500 conferences on media and technology. He worked for Bill Clinton and George W. Bush governments on media and telecommunications areas, providing detailed reports on the work in the Centre. He has made frequent presentations in the United States, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa.

In 1994, the Center co-sponsored the event “The Superhighway Summit” at UCLA's Royce Hall with the leaders of most major US media companies. For the Annual Family Reunion Conferences in Nashville, Tennessee, Cole has produced, together with Vice President Al Gore, opening movies between 1995 and 2002. The movies were shown to an audience of about 1,400 people, including Vice President and President Clinton.

. Cole was a member of the executive committee of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences - ATAS) from 1997 to 2001; was the founding director Interactive Media Association at ATAS (Interactive Media Peer Group). He taught for about 35,000 students at UCLA. In 1987 he was awarded Professor Emeritus of the university.


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