Our taste for gripping and gruesome is insatiable. Compelling headlines and stories sell newspapers, increase ratings and provide fodder for television dramas. Screenwriter and lecturer Suzanne O’Malley will offer perspective in a lecture on media and society for the University of Houston American Cultures Program.

The event is planned for 7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 18 at the Rockwell Pavilion at the University of Houston MD Anderson Library. The lecture is free and open to the public.

O’Malley is a Yale University lecturer on media studies and a screenwriter who frequently contributes to programs such as “Law and Order” and “Law and Order: Special Victim’s Unit.” As a freelance journalist, her work has been featured on CNN, NBC and other networks. In 2001, she reported on the drowning deaths of five Clear Lake children at the hand of their mother, Andrea Yates. O’Malley’s new book, “Are You There Alone?: The Unspeakable Crimes of Andrea Yates,” details that case and its outcomes.

“Suzanne O’Malley brings great insight to the topic of media and society because of her wide-reaching experiences as a writer, reporter and commentator,” said Steven Mintz, UH professor of history. “We are very fortunate to have her as our guest.”

The American Cultures Program is an academic program within UH’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences that provides interdisciplinary perspectives on the peoples, cultures and history of the Americas. Other guests have included directors Spike Lee and Richard Rodriguez, activist Delores Huerta and folksinger Odetta.

WHAT:	Lecture by Suzanne O’Malley, lecturer, screenwriter and author
WHEN:	7 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 18
WHERE:	Rockwell Pavilion, second floor of the UH MD Anderson Library For directions and parking information, please visit www.uh.edu/campus_map/buildings/L.html
WHO:	UH American Cultures Program

For more information about UH visit the university’s ‘Newsroom’ at www.uh.edu/admin/media/newsroom.