Ampersands are visual characters that simply represent the word “and.” But for a new Annenberg Radio News podcast, its symbol is being used to exemplify passion. Ampersand, which uses the character as its logo, covers everything that is arts and culture related throughout the Los Angeles region and USC campus.
Associate Professor Sasha Anawalt helps a student edit her script at the Media Center’s arts and culture desk.
Concurrent with creating stories that move, Anawalt wants her students to make a difference in the lives of the people they interview. She explained that often people in creative fields are misunderstood or ignored. The podcast is making an effort to have these artists gain recognition through their show. So far that objective has been fruitful. Recently, Ampersand did a piece about two punk bands, The Julie Ruin and the Sex Stains, who performed for Visions and Voices last Monday. Two weeks before the show, Meghan Farnsworth, the social media manager and website designer for Ampersand, interviewed the punk musicians. When the interview went up on their website, it gained a lot of attention. “We haven’t even begun to do PR or advertising for Ampersand,” Anawalt said. “All the attention is due to Twitter and because those musicians have tweeted it out.” Launching Ampersand would have almost been impossible without a traditional classroom setting, Anawalt said. Her course Jour 592: Specialized Journalism: Reporting the Arts has helped pilot the new podcast because it’s laid the foundation for arts coverage. Most of the students in her class have never done journalistic work before, Anawalt explained.
For the new podcast, an ampersand represents passion for everything arts and cultures related.
As the new building was nearing its completion, the idea of adding an arts and culture desk was on the mind of Willa Seidenberg, professor and director of ARN. During a collective meeting with ARN, ATVN and Neon Tommy it was decided to put the idea into action.
“Now that there’s an arts and culture desk is in the Media Center, they’re interacting with ARN,” Seidenberg said. “Before, Ampersand would have been completely separate from anything that anyone else was doing.” Last year every USC Annenberg media organization had its own room to produce work, and ARN was located in the former digital lab of the ASC building.
Seidenberg explained that adding an arts and culture section within to the former ARN headquarters would have made it difficult for all students to work communally. Seidenberg explained that she worked on developing an arts and culture segment on ARN for about five years prior to Ampersand. In fact, ARN tried a trial run last semester but it was unsuccessful. “When we started talking about the Media Center, one of the obvious ideas was to do an arts and culture desk,” Seidenberg said. “It was the right time, the right place and we had the right students.” The new space has been instrumental for the podcast since its helped forge collaborative work amongst Ampersand journalists and other organizations in the Media Center.
“This room is a game changer because it gives us a place to do our work together with the benefit of having expertise everywhere you turn,” Anawalt said.
When Anawalt’s course began earlier this fall, she asked each one of her students what their first creative act was and she discovered that the majority of her students continue to be interested in or practice that art form today. Having Ampersand journalists write about what they are interested in has allowed them to tap back into their imagination and creativity, Anawalt said.
“You don’t hear the word ampersand a lot in your life,” Anawalt said. “However, because my students are covering arts and culture, and entertainment, and creativity, they liked this idea that creativity knows no bounds only ‘ands.’"
