Egos: Not in check
Canada.com and the Calgary Herald
carried a CanWest News Service essay analyzing the implications of
the discovery that Paris Hilton’s mobile phone archive included
photos only of herself. W. Keith Campbell, a social psychologist at
UGA, argued that dramatic increases in the population’s self-esteem
in the current generation have combined with technological advances
for surprising results. “People talk about the ‘me generation’
and baby boomers, but now it’s even worse,” he said. “When
you’re with your friends or family, typically your illusions
of grandeur are constrained or minimized. But when you have a mechanism
like the Web, you can be anything. So all those restraints that keep
our egos in check are removed.” Technology, he said, lets people
create a self-referential universe.
Complex but not unusual
UGA’s Robert E. Hoyt, professor of risk management and insurance,
was one of several experts that the New
York Times asked to help clarify standards and acceptable
practices for a lengthy story about the complex relationship between
insurance and investment company American International Group, or
A.I.G., and its affiliate C.V. Starr and Company. He told the reporter
that he did not consider it unusual for a managing general agency—like
Starr—to receive reinsurance commissions.
Deft questioning
UGA law professor Ron Carlson was quoted several times in ABC News
coverage of the Michael Jackson trial. He discussed the behavior
of defense and prosecuting teams. He suggested, for example, that
celebrity defense witnesses such as Stevie Wonder, Elizabeth Taylor
and Diana Ross “will be called mainly as character witnesses,
talk about what a good guy he is, that he has a good reputation
in the entertainment industry, has spent all his life helping children.
The defense may hope that jurors will think that if someone as reputable
as this celebrity thinks Michael Jackson’s OK, then he must
be an OK guy. You’ve heard of guilt by association. Well,
this is sort of the reverse—innocence by association.”
Welcome move
James Holmes, senior research associate at the Center for International
Trade and Security, published an op-ed in the Washington
Times about the agreement on nuclear security signed by presidents
Bush and Putin at their February meeting in Bratislava. “To
describe this as a welcome move understates matters,” Holmes
said. He concluded: “Russia must remake its professional culture,
and it needs American help. To do otherwise would forfeit the security
of both countries.”
Inhibitions and threats
UGA journalism professor Kent Middleton said the Federal Communications
Commission “is inhibiting broadcasters,” while college
administrators are “threatening student press freedoms,”
in an address to the annual Georgia Bar Media and Judiciary Conference
in Atlanta. Middleton’s talk was reported in the Boston
Globe. “College students should enjoy broader free
speech rights than high school students,” Middleton said.
Faith and understanding
UGA history professor Ed Larson was quoted in a Kansas
City Star article about scientists and why they often feel
estranged from the general public. The story focused on the “faith
gap” between scientists and non-scientists, which Larson said
resulted from the professional interest of scientists in how things
work. “If not for scientists, you don’t understand a
rainbow,” he said. “You don’t understand a beautiful
red sunset . . . so you just say, ‘It must be God.’
The scientists can explain it.”
Kim Carlyle of the UGA News Service monitors coverage of UGA
in local, state and national media. Contact her for information
about these or other stories in the news.
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