2005 Report 
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Douglas Rushkoff

Douglas Rushkoff is one of today's most engaging and perceptive commentators on the impact of technology and media on society. He explores how communications affect our values and our lives - from how to raise children in a media-driven culture to how to find and impart meaning in business, education and even religion.

A media theorist and cultural anthropologist, Rushkoff is the author of ten books on media, technology and popular culture, including Coercion, Cyberia, Media Virus and Playing the Future. His books and novels have been translated into over 25 languages. His next book, Back in the Box, looks at how the current renaissance in business and culture gives organizations the freedom to return to core competencies and "innovate from the inside out."
 
Rushkoff received national acclaim as the correspondent for the PBS Frontline documentary, The Merchants of Cool, which examined corporate America's massive, and sometimes subversive, efforts to capture the elusive teen market - and the $100 billion they spend each year.

His 2004 follow-up Frontline documentary, The Persuaders, explored how the 'persuasion industries" of advertising, marketing and political campaigning are impacting American society. From branded entertainment to narrowcasting (delivering tailored messages to individual voters), marketers are integrating their messages deeper into the fabric of our lives. "We Americans value our freedom of choice - choice in the market place of goods, and choice in what has become a marketplace of ideas," says Rushkoff. "By revealing some of the most effective practices of the persuasion business, we may better understand our choices and perhaps make wiser ones."
 
A professor of media culture at NYU, Rushkoff is also a board member of the MediaEcology Association and the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics. His keen insights into industries, from telecommunications to entertainment, have made him a sought-after advisor to companies and philanthropies, including Sony, TCI, Turner, Dell and the Markle and Bronfman Foundations.

His articles have been published in Time and The New York Times, and he has appeared on many TV programs, from NBC Nightly News to Larry King Live. Each week Rushkoff reaches millions of people with his New York Times Syndicate cyberculture column, his articles on the mobile internet at www.thefeature.com, and his commentaries on NPR and his blogs on www.rushkoff.com .

By pulling back the curtain on today's marketers and advertisers, Rushkoff encourages us to look for ways that, together, we can participate consciously in the creation of our culture. He helps students connect with the value of learning, parents connect with the world of their children, and business people reconnect with the core values of their industries.

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