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Faculty & Research

Robert Hooper


Robert Hooper

Robert Hooper

Associate Adjunct Professor;
Head of Southeast Asia Programs, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation
rhooper@ucsd.edu
Phone: (858) 534-1734
Fax: (858) 534-3939

Office Hours:
Friday
3 - 6:00 p.m.
or by appointment


Office #1420

Education

J.D., University of California, Davis, 1974 (law)
M.F.A. University of California, Los Angeles, 1982 (motion picture and television production)
B.A., University of California, San Diego, 1969 (economics)

Biography

CV

Professor Hooper is an award-winning television producer and international educator whose research examines the role of media in interethnic conflict resolution, terrorism, environmental policy, and human rights. A Fulbright Senior Scholar to Indonesia (2001), Fiji (1994), and Malaysia (1989–90), and an Eisenhower Fellow in Media and Education to Malaysia (1996), Hooper serves as an adviser to the Press Institute of Bangladesh, where he develops current affairs television programs and educates reporters for the nation’s television networks. In recent years, he has worked closely with the broadcast media and universities of Iraq (Kurdistan), Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia and Laos to develop news and documentary programming and to strengthen academic programs in media and journalism. In Laos, Hooper trains reporters and producers for Lao National Television, while advising the National University of Laos on curriculum and infrastructure for a new television and journalism degree program. In Iraq, with support of the Kurdistan Regional Government and the U.S. Department of State, he conducts workshops on television news and current affairs program production to help strengthen democratic institutions, civil society, transparency and the rule of law.

A graduate of the School of Theater, Film and Television at UCLA, Hooper produced the award-winning national PBS documentary, Alaska's Killer Whales, hosted by actor William Shatner. Other groundbreaking documentaries cover nuclear waste disposal (Decisions at 1000 Fathoms), uranium and public health (Uranium, the Aftermath), toxic chemicals (Voices from Love Canal), land use conflicts (Battle at Webber Creek), Pacific islanders (Skin Stories) and historic railroads (The Impossible Railroad). His work has aired nationally and locally on PBS, ABC News 20/20, and CBC Current Affairs (Toronto). Hooper’s articles appear in international media journals and his newspaper columns appear in the Los Angeles Times and leading domestic and international newspapers. He is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the Society of Professional Journalists, and the State Bar of California.




Reporting exercise: Suicide bombing of the Palace Hotel, Sulaimaniyah, Iraq


Broadcast Journalism Workshop, Press Institute of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Programs and Centers

Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation (IGCC)

Perspectives

Hooper can provide commentary on the role of media in fragile states, including the use of domestic television to strengthen democratic institutions, promote national unity, protect the environment and respond to terrorism and ethnic conflict in the Asia-Pacific region.


Broadcast Journalism Workshop, Press Institute of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh

IRGN 490D Conflict, Terrorism and the Media

Fall 2009
Course Description:

This course will examine violent conflict, including warfare, insurgencies, ethnic violence and terrorism, and how journalists and mass media institutions -domestic, foreign and international– report stories, construct images and create mythologies that frame, legitimatize and define conflict. With the advent of global telecommunication infrastructures, armed conflicts, including seemingly irrational acts of violence that lack any strategic objective, increasingly play out as communication strategies framed for specific target audiences. Political conflict, and terrorism in particular, increasingly is being waged on the Internet, 24-hour television news coverage and the front page of daily newspapers throughout the world. The interrelationships between media organizations, combatants, and the political process in the United States and in other nations will be explored within a political, cultural, economic and historical context.



IRGN 490 Media and Democracy in Asia

Spring 2009
Course Description:

This course will examine the mass media in contemporary Asian nations, with emphasis on its role in economic development, civil society, democratization, environmental protection, conflict resolution, human rights, the status of women and minorities, and national identity. Theoretical approaches to development will be analyzed in light of the rapidly changing institutions and practices of Asian media, including terrestrial broadcasting and satellite delivered radio and television, newspapers and periodicals, and new media (Internet) venues. The practice of journalism will be examined in specific Asian nations, with attention to issues of censorship and government control, ownership of media outlets and institutions, and other factors that determine or influence the content of domestic Asian mass media.