NOTE: Faculty, if you are interviewed and quoted by news media, or if your work has been cited, and you have an online link to the article or video, please let us know. Contact us at news@csusb.edu.  

CSUSB Palm Desert Campus expands with new radio classLos Angeles Times/HS InsiderNov. 2, 2017

Laurilie Jackson is the instructor for the Communication Practicum: Radio course, and she feels very enthusiastic about the expansion of the CSUSB Palm Desert Campus’ media department.

“Media is so important these days no matter what field you plan on studying. Everyone needs to understand how to communicate a message effectively using many different platforms,” stated Jackson. “I am excited about the expansion and growth of media offerings at CSUSB Palm Desert. I think it’s a move in the right direction.”

Jackson has years of experience in news reporting and also works as a professor at the Coachella Valley junior college, College of the Desert, where she helped develop KCOD Radio, a nationally recognized radio station that continues to win broadcast awards every year.

The Paws Radio station is currently being developed from the ground up. Jackson teaches the 12 students enrolled in class about FCC (Federal Communication Commission) rules and regulations and departments like programming, news, promotions, social media, and website design.

The complete article can be read at “CSUSB Palm Desert Campus expands with new radio class.”

CSUSB survey shows inland manufacturing numbers steady, but uncertainty aheadThe Press-Enterprise/The Sun/Inland Valley Daily NewsNov. 1, 2017

The Inland Purchasing Managers’ Index for October was almost unchanged from the previous month, giving a snapshot of steady growth for the area’s manufacturing sector in the advent of a state gas tax increase and tax reform in Washington that could affect the economic picture.

The overall October index of 54.8, compared with September’s 55.0, shows “the Inland Empire manufacturing sector and the overall local economy remain comfortably in growth mode,” said Barbara Sirotnik, director of the Institute of Applied Research.

Nationally, the PMI for October was 58.7, a decrease of 2.1 points from September, but the 101st consecutive month of growth for the overall economy, the Institute of Supply Management reported.

The inland index, assembled by the institute based at Cal State San Bernardino’s Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration, said it was the 10th month the index has remained above 50 points, the benchmark for manufacturing growth in the area.

Read the complete article at “Inland manufacturing numbers steady, but uncertainty ahead.”

Tracking Extremism: Brian Levin, director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and ExtremismEducator News

The online magazine featured Cal State San Bernardino criminal justice professor Brian Levin, who documents both ends of the ideological spectrum and their threat to our freedom of speech through his work at the university’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism:

“Many watched Charlottesville and other cities unfold on TV or on the Web. Often, Brian Levin has been there in person to document these events. Levin is director of the nonpartisan Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism and a professor of criminal justice at CSU San Bernardino. He has testified before Congress on hate and terrorism, and is the author or co-author of U.S. Supreme Court amicus briefs, books and articles on hate crime and extremism.

“The California Faculty Association member has worked for civil rights groups and was a New York City police officer. He documents rallies that  attract violent extremists. Last year, he was dubbed “The Jewish Batman” by The Daily Stormer, a neo-Nazi website, after helping save the grand dragon of the California Ku Klux Klan from an angry, armed mob in Anaheim.

“In May, Levin reported that violent clashes with arrests due to political intolerance increased significantly on California college campuses and at Trump campaign rallies. To view “Hate & Extremism in California: 2016,” one of a series of special status reports on hate crimes.

Recently, we asked Levin to shed some light on the ideological conflicts and violent protests that have rocked our country.”

Read the complete article at “Tracking Extremism.”

CSUSB professor comments on anti-extremist crackdown on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter USA TodayNov. 1, 2017

Brian Levin, director of CSUSB’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, is quoted in an article about the role of the Internet in the radicalization of extremists:

Searching for information about certain topics, say the carnage in Syria or the situation in Palestine, quickly leads to websites or YouTube videos. While the material and videos might be violent and raw, they’re not actually advocating anything, so they don’t get taken down. … However finding those and commenting on them might then lead to a user receiving a short-term link to a private discussion on an encrypted platform such as Telegram.

Once there, the Web surfer can find an entire ecosystem of anti-Western thought and material that may raise red flags on other networks. This includes videos in multiple languages, well-designed online magazines, manifestos, downloadable posters and chat groups.

This is where the Internet is able to leverage what once might have simply been a slight bent towards an anti-Western worldview into full-blown activism, or worse.

“People tend to seek content that confirms their biases and make them comfortable with their preexisting world view. Unfortunately that holds true with extremists too,” said Levin.

Read the complete article at “Anti-extremist crackdown on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter only solves part of the problem.”

Presence of violent alt-right groups could ‘ratchet things up’ at anti-Trump rallies in LA, CSUSB professor saysLos Angeles Daily NewsNov. 1, 2017

Anti-Trump protests planned in Los Angeles and around the country Saturday have heightened concern about the potential for clashes between leftist or anarchist demonstrators and far right counter-protesters in the post-Charlottesville era, the newspaper reported. Saturday’s protest could also attract far-right counter-protesters from the new Rise Above Movement, which has been described as “essentially an alt-right fight club” whose ideological platform is largely anti-immigration, xenophobic, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic.

If RAM members, some of whom reportedly live in South Bay cities like Redondo Beach, Hawthorne and Torrance, were to show up at Saturday’s rally, that would “ratchet things up,” said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University San Bernardino.

Members of RAM, which was exposed by the nonprofit investigative newsroom ProPublica in October, have been seen or have boasted about acting violently at recent protests in Charlottesville, Huntington Beach and the Bay Area. Some of their members also attended an anti-Sharia protest in San Bernardino in June 2017, where they were seen holding up signs with slogans such as “Defend America.”

As for the loose-knit anti-fascist, or antifa, movement, in Los Angeles, they have been overshadowed by a more organized left, which involves everyone from socialists and Marxists to labor organizers and pro-immigrant and ethnic groups, Levin, of Cal State San Bernardino, said. The left in Los Angeles is often loud “but mostly peaceful,” he said.

But Levin added that preparing for such demonstrations — and the possibility of violence on either side — is like planning for a hurricane.

“You hope the winds blow offshore but you got to be prepared in case they blow onshore,” he said.

Read the complete article at “LAPD says they’re preparing for possible violence at Saturday’s anti-Trump protest.”

These news clips, and others, may be found at “In the Headlines” on the Inside CSUSB website.