Students, faculty and guests have the opportunity to learn about and discuss the latest ideas and technology in journalism at USC Annenberg’s weekly Journalism Forum series.
The forums are sponsored by the school’s nine-month Journalism M.S. program, which launches fall 2014. With topics ranging from women in media technology to using Google Glass to tell stories, forum attendees are given a glimpse at “the story behind the story.”
Journalism Director Michael Parks described the purpose of the gatherings, held every Tuesday at noon in USC Annenberg’s Geoffrey Cowan Forum (Room 207), as a way to bring students all over campus “a different sort of learning environment that’s not classroom, not textbooks.”
“It’s a way to build media literacy, to understand how to evaluate the news and information you get by understanding how it comes together, and to look at the horizon and beyond,” Parks said.
The forums kicked off Aug. 27 with a discussion, organized by Journalism Professor Robert Hernandez, about storytelling using Google Glass and how it is important for journalists to explore new digital tools. Four USC Annenberg Google Glass explorers were on the panel.
“Quite honestly, when has journalism ever benefited from ignoring or dismissing technology?” Hernandez asked a packed room of intrigued students and faculty. “Someone’s got to play with it and figure it out.”
Though the forums have all had different speakers that discuss vastly different topics, the common themes of experimenting with new technology and the future of the media are prevalent throughout all discussions.
Parks pointed out that the forums should get “students ... thinking about the present and how they want to develop and shape the future," noting that the fate of the industry is entirely in their hands.
A Sept. 24 forum, led by Aaron Koblin, the creative director of the Data Arts Team at Google and this year’s Innovator in Residence at the Annenberg Innovation Lab, continued the forward-thinking conversation about technology and creation. Koblin shared some of the data art projects he’s done for Google over the last few years, including an interactive music video for Arcade Fire.
The use of new technology, specifically when reporting in diverse communities, was also the topic of discussion when participants in the USC Annenberg Reporter Corps program and their professional mentors led an Oct. 1 discussion.
Reporter Corps mentor Sahra Sulaiman said her reporting in South Los Angeles involves riding her bike through the community and following gang members on Twitter. When reporting in a diverse community, she said, “being aware of who you are and how people are going to see you is a really important thing.”
The forum itself also incorporated social media by encouraging audience members to tweet questions, followed by the hashtag “#ReporterCorps,” to be asked at the end of the event.
Parks said that he hoped people would use social media at the forums because they are a good way to get the attention of people outside of USC, especially prospective students. Additionally, professional media outlets and USC Annenberg student media outlets have covered several of the forums.
“We want to let people know that this is the school that is up there exploring the future,” said Parks. “You want to be in that conversation.”
There will be a new forum held every Tuesday through the end of the semester. Here is the complete schedule:
- Aug. 27 – Storytelling with Google Glass
- Sept. 3 – The Obama-Xi Sunnylands Summit
- Sept. 10 – We the Media: Annenberg Emerges as Publisher
- Sept. 17 – The Image of the Washington Journalist
- Sept. 24 – Innovator in Residence Aaron Koblin
- Oct. 1 – Reporting on Diverse Communities in the Digital Era
- Oct. 8 – A Conversation with Kim Ghattas
- Oct. 15 – Wired Women: Bridging the Technology Gap
- Oct. 22 – Sports & the LGBT Experience
- Oct. 29 – TBA
- Nov. 5 – Lewis Friedland
- Nov. 12 – Matt Galligan, Founder of Circa
- Nov. 19 – Richard Reeves on the 50th Anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy
- Dec. 3 – TBA
