Professor Joe Saltzman
USC Annenberg School for Communication

Joe Saltzman’s chief professional passion is the exploration of the conflicting images of journalists in the media and how those images have affected the American public’s perception. He brings this passion to both his research and the classroom.

The award-winning broadcast journalist spent 15 years researching and meticulously cataloging such images in films, television and radio shows, commercials, cartoons and popular literature. His vast collection includes thousands of hours of TV shows and old radio programs, and he has recently made them available through a project of Annenberg’s Norman Lear Center called “The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture,” of which he serves as director.

Saltzman also recently brought to fruition the project’s first publication, Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film. In the book, Joe Saltzman examines nine films directed by Frank Capra that capture images of journalists. Film critic and historian Leonard Maltin hailed the book as "real scholarship and original research presented in a wonderfully readable style. Joe Saltzman’s book will be consulted for many years to come by film buffs and media scholars alike."

Saltzman, who teaches a course called The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture, has won three teaching awards while at USC. He remains an active journalist producing medical documentaries, functioning as a senior investigative producer for Entertainment Tonight, and writing articles, reviews, columns, and opinion pieces for hundreds of magazines and newspapers.

He received his B.A. in journalism from USC. He has won more than 50 awards, including the Columbia University-duPont broadcast journalism award (the broadcasting equivalent of the Pulitzer Prize), four Emmys, four Golden Mikes, two Edward R. Murrow Awards, a Silver Gavel, and one of the first NAACP Image awards.