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Professor opens lines of communication By Karen Wing
While serving as a member of the Digital Divide panel, Dr. Jorge Reina Schement (left), professor and co-director of the Institute for Information Policy at Penn State, had an opportunity to meet with President Bill Clinton at the White House. Official White House photo	A child swallows poison. Someone is trying to break into your house. You’re looking for a job. In every case, you probably reach for the telephone ... unless you’re one of the 20 million Americans without phone service.   In today’s information age, it’s hard to imagine life without telephone service; this, however, is a reality for 6 percent of Americans. Dr. Jorge Reina Schement, professor and co-director of the Institute for Information Policy in the College of Communications and the School of Information Sciences and Technology at Penn State, has made it his research priority to find out who these people are and why they’re living without a phone that could be needed to call 911, the poison center hotline or a relative.   “It [telephone access] is also important for civil rights, because one can’t fully participate in the democratic process without access to information. If everyone doesn’t have equal access or opportunity, democracy rings hollow,” Schement said.   He discovered that people without telephones are heterogeneous in their demographic and economic characteristics and that gaps between ethnic groups vary on a local, rather than a national, basis. This groundbreaking research concerning universal service and the gaps in telecommunications access has earned him national and international recognition.   The International Communication Association recognized his work with its 2000 award for the “most important applied/public policy research program.” This is the first time this award was given and it honors an individual or individuals who have systematically researched a particular communications policy with the goal of bettering society. In the same year, College of Communications Dean Douglas Anderson recognized Schement’s work with the Deans’ Excellence Award.   Schement’s research and the work of the Institute for Information Policy have a sound record of outreach. Founded in 1996, the institute is dedicated to the potential of information technologies for improving democratic discourse, social responsibility and quality of life.   Projects at the institute strike a balance between applied research aimed at making a direct contribution to society and basic research that seeks to advance our understanding of information and human behavior. Institute faculty members work with partners, such as AT&T, Ford Foundation, Libraries for the Future and Safe Energy Communications Council, in both rural and urban communities.   “Outreach is an integral part of telecommunications and part of the college. From the beginning, we defined the institute as a place whose platform could go beyond Penn State,” Schement said. “Telecommunications has repercussions throughout society, and we wanted to position Penn State as a place where students and others can come and study with us.   “Nobody does what we do better, and faculty from other universities, including Berkeley, University of Texas, Harvard and the East West Center, work through us,” Schement said. The center has also had master’s [degree] and Ph.D. students from Harvard and Princeton doing internships. All of this outreach has given Penn State’s program visibility among other telecommunications programs.   His research interests involving the social and policy consequences of the production and consumption of information were formed during his youth as a Latino in southern Texas. “Much of what I have focused on has been viewed through that lens.”   Schement has served as director of the FCC’s Information Policy Project and is a member of a number of editorial and advisory boards involved in telecommunications and policy issues as they relate to ethnic minorities.   He is also a dedicated teacher and enjoys teaching the basic communications course to 150 to 200 undergraduates.   “They’re wonderful to interact with, and we put everything on the Web — the syllabus, notes and Q&A — so everyone can benefit. The teaching we do is technologically advanced, and we try to expose the students to the fundamental issues connected to the technological environment.”   As Schement continues to actively incorporate changing information technologies into his teaching, his research continues to ensure that others have access to it. He is enthusiastic about the challenge.   “America is a puzzling place to be a social observer,” he said. “I’ve been working on this puzzle for a decade and still haven’t figured out the thorniest questions.”