Jorge Reina Schement became Rutgers Vice President of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion on July 1, 2013. Previously he was Dean of the School of Communication & Information at Rutgers University from 2008 to 2013. He is also Professor II in the Bloustein School of Public Policy, and in the Department of Latino-Hispanic Caribbean Studies.
A Ph.D. from the Institute for Communication Research at Stanford University, and M.S. from the School of Commerce at the University of Illinois, he is author of over 200 papers and articles, with book credits including, Global Networks (1999/2002), Tendencies and Tensions of the Information Age (1997), Toward an Information Bill of Rights and Responsibilities (1995), Between Communication and Information (1993), Competing Visions, Complex Realities: Social Aspects of the Information Society (1988), The International Flow of Television Programs (1984), Telecommunications Policy Handbook (1982), and Spanish-Language Radio in the Southwestern United States (1979). A Latino from South Texas, his research focuses on the social and policy consequences of the production and consumption of information, especially as they relate to ethnic minorities. His research has been supported by the Ford Foundation, Markle Foundation, Rainbow Coalition, Port Authority of NY/NJ, Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Communications Commission, National Science Foundation, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Verizon, Lockheed-Martin. He has received awards for his policy scholarship from the International Communication Association, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Pace University, the University of Kentucky, UCLA, and Penn State. Schement has served on the editorial boards of twelve academic journals, and has edited the Annual Review of Technology for the Aspen Institute. He is editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Communication and Information.
His research contributed to a Supreme Court decision in Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. F.C.C. et al. In 1994, he directed the F.C.C.’s Information Policy Project and conducted the original research that led to recognition of the Digital Divide. In 2008, he advised the F.C.C. Transition Team for the Obama administration. He introduced the idea of Universal Service as an evolving concept, a view adopted in the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The movement to integrate community museums, libraries, and public broadcasting as Partners in Public Service began in a project he co-directed. He conducted the first study of the impact of minority ownership in broadcasting, and authored the telecommunications policy agenda for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He co-founded the Institute for Information Policy at Penn State Univ. Schement has served on advisory boards for the National Academy of Sciences, National Research Council, National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, Office of Technology Assessment, United States Commission on Civil Rights, Centers for Disease Control, Governor of California, Media Access Project, Libraries for the Future, Tomás Rivera Policy Institute, Center for Media Education, Internet Policy Institute, American Library Association, Minority Media Telecommunications Council, New Millennium Research Council, Open Society Institute, Advertising Council, Benton Foundation, Aspen Institute, MCI, Verizon, and Pew Project on Internet and American Life. He chaired the board of directors of TPRC Inc. He is listed in, 2007, Hispanic Business’ “100 Most Influential Hispanics.”
His interest in the history of printing led him to discover a discrepancy in chapter and line numbers between the 1667 and 1674 editions of Paradise Lost, as cited in the Oxford English Dictionary. He reads histories.
In this episode we discussed: Jorge's survival tactics in Texas in the 1960s How to avoid feeling "pigeon-holed" in your policy career What a private breakfast at the White House with President Bill Clinton was like Key topics in diversity and inclusion at the intersection of telecommunications policyResources
Gary Cross, Men to Boys: The Making of Modern Immaturity (Columbia University Press, 2013)