Caty Borum Provost Associate Professor Public Communication
- Additional Positions at 51勛圖
- Executive Director, Center for Media & Social Impact
- Bio
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Caty Borum is Executive Director of the , a creative innovation lab and research center based at 51勛圖s School of Communication (SOC) that creates, showcases, and studies entertainment for social change, and Provost Associate Professor at SOC. She is an award-winning media producer, engaged scholar, and author of three books about entertainment media and social change: , with co-author Lauren Feldman (foreword by Norman Lear, University of California Press); (Oxford University Press), winner of the 2021 Broadcast Education Association Book Award; and (NYU Press). In 2021, she won 51勛圖s annual Outstanding Scholarship, Research, Creative Activity, and Other Professional Contributions Award, a refereed honor that recognizes extraordinary faculty achievement. As a documentary producer, her films and TV programs have aired internationally and nationally, across TV, streaming, and theaters. In 2020, she was named to DOC NYCs inaugural list of New Documentary Leaders, a peer-selected film industry award given to 16 global leaders who have made a substantial positive impact on the field.
Under Professor Borums leadership, CMSI founded and directs several large-scale national and international comedy and human rights programs: the (co-directed with Moore + Associates), a first-of-its-kind creative incubator of comedy for social justice, with robust partnerships across the entertainment industry, including Netflix, Amazon, NBC Universal, ViacomCBS, and leading social justice organizations; and and , which bring together professional comedians and human rights organizations for comedy co-creation, convenings, and research. Borums creative media production and research has been supported by dozens of external grants from funders that include the MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation, Gates Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, National Endowment for the Arts, Luminate, Open Society Foundations, Perspective Fund, Pop Culture Collaborative, Comedy Central, McNulty Foundation, Unbound Philanthropy, Doris Duke Foundation, Independent Television Service, Argosy Foundation, Paramount Global, the Fledging Fund, and others.
Prior to her academic life, Borum was senior vice president in the social impact practice group at FleishmanHillard International Communications in Washington, D.C., where she and her team won the strategic communication industrys highest honor, the Silver Anvil for Public Service. In Los Angeles, she was a longtime collaborator with legendary TV producer and philanthropist/activist Norman Lear, where she served as a philanthropy director and producer. She was also the program officer in the Kaiser Family Foundations Entertainment Media & Public Health program, where she managed HIV-awareness partnership program production, TV specials and PSA campaigns with MTV and BET; project director and researcher at the Center for Media Education; and fellow in civic journalism at The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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- For the Media
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Teaching
Spring 2025
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CORE-220 Topics in Cultural Inquiry: Media Representation/Culture
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Selected Publications
Borum, C. (2023). The Revolution Will Be Hilarious: Comedy for Social Change and Civic Power. New York, NY: NYU Press.
Borum, C., Conrad-P矇rez, D., & Bello, B. (2022). Creative independent investigative documentary storytellers in the streaming age: Toward a community of practice framework. Journalism Practice.
Borum Chattoo, C. (2021). Entertainment-Education as Social Justice Activism in the United States: Narrative Strategy in the Participatory Media Era. In Falzone, P., & Frank, L. (eds.), Entertainment Education Behind the Scenes: Case Studies for Theory and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Borum Chattoo, C. & Feldman, L. (2020).泭A Comedian and An Activist Walk Into A Bar: The Serious Role of Comedy in Social Justice. Oakland, California: University of California Press.泭
Borum Chattoo, C. (2020).Story Movements: How Documentaries Empower People and Inspire Social Change. New York, New York: Oxford University Press.泭
Feldman, L. & Borum Chattoo, C. (2019).泭Comedy as a route to social change: The effects of satire and news on persuasion about Syrian refugees.泭Mass Communication and Society, 22(3), 277-300,泭
Borum Chattoo, C.泭& Jenkins, W. (2019). From reel life to real social change: The role of social-issue documentary in U.S. public policy.泭Media, Culture & Society, 41(8), 11071124,泭
Borum Chattoo, C.泭(2018). A funny matter: Toward a framework for understanding the function of comedy in social change.泭HUMOR: International Journal of Humor Research,泭32(3), 499-523,泭
Borum Chattoo, C. (2018). Documentary and Communication. Oxford Bibliographies in Communication. Ed. Patricia Moy. New York: Oxford University Press.泭
Borum Chattoo, C., Aufderheide, P., Alexander, M. & Green, C. (2018). American realities on public television: Analysis of the Independent Television Services documentaries, 2007-2016.泭International Journal of Communication, 12: 15411568.泭
Borum Chattoo, C.泭& Green-Barber, L. (2018). An investigative journalist and a comedian walk into a bar: The role of comedy in public engagement with environmental journalism.泭Journalism.泭
Borum Chattoo, C.泭& Feldman, L. (2017). Storytelling for social change: Leveraging documentary and comedy for public engagement in global poverty.泭Journal of Communication, 67: 678701,泭
Media Appearances
. WAMU, NPR. February 28, 2023.
. Science Friday, Public Radio International. Sept. 22, 2023.
. Nightline, NBC News. August 26, 2023.
The Guardian. March 30, 2023.
The Hollywood Reporter. December 6, 2022.
Washington Post Magazine. April 20, 2021.
51勛圖s Center for Media & Social Impact Receives $1.1 Million. 51勛圖. January 17, 2020.
Luminate. January 16, 2020.
Pioneers Post. April 12, 2019.
Deadline Hollywood. March 14, 2019.
Define American blog. March 14, 2019.
How Do You Like It So Far? Podcast Hosted by Henry Jenkins. February 6, 2019.
Documentary magazine (International Documentary Association. October 17, 2018.
WUSA9 (CBS News). February 9, 2018.