Inaugural journalism fellow dives into virtual reality

Blog, Community, News

Even before Ruby Yuan set foot on campus, he knew what type of education he wanted to get. The journalism major, who will be graduating in 2020, was interested to find the intersection between journalism and technology and he knew USC Annenberg was the place to explore this.

“Three days before I came to Annenberg, I read a piece about Syrian refugees and virtual reality,” Yuan said. “I was like, how cool would that be if I could somehow persuade my school to make a journalism class about VR?”

During the new student assembly that year, Robert Hernandez, associate professor of professional practice, introduced himself and his JOVRNALISM — the “VR” stands for virtual reality — class to the new cohort of undergraduates.

Yuan was hooked — and has been ever since. Yuan, who is also the executive editor of Annenberg Media this year, has been named the first Emerging Technologies Fellow at USC Annenberg, an opportunity funded by the Heeger Brothers’ Fund. The fund was established by USC alumni Robbie Heeger (BA, broadcast and digital journalism, 2012) and Adam Heeger (BA, business administration, 2011). Robbie Heeger took Hernandez’ class while in college, and through this gift, he and his brother wanted to help connect journalism students with the changing technological landscape while increasing awareness of the JOVRNALISM program and power of virtual reality storytelling.

“Ruby embodied what I envisioned for this fellowship: someone who is genuinely passionate about it,” said Hernandez, who is overseeing the gift. “He is phenomenal in terms of his work and his integrity and how he represents Annenberg. He lives and breathes this school to an obsessive level.”

Read the entire profile here: https://annenberg.usc.edu/news/spotlight/journalism-fellow-dives-virtual-reality

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JOVRNALISM at The Webby Awards

Blog, Community, News

USC Annenberg student Kaidi Ruby Yuan and professor Robert Hernandez were in New York to represent the entire JOVRNALISM team that produced The Deported.

The project, which launched after the Spring 2018 semester, was given the People’s Voice Award in the student category.

As part of The Webby Awards tradition, the JOVRNALISM team had to come up with a 5-word acceptance speech.

We all agreed on “Comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable,” but that was six words. After much debate, we decided to go with “Comfort the afflicted. Fight on!”

There were several celebrities on hand receiving awards for their work, ranging from Issa Rae to Gritty.

They also created several social media shareable moments, like this bullet time video:


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Download the videos here:

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EVENT: Homeless Realities premieres at LA Central Library

Class, Community, Events, News

Our Homeless Realities project, produced by the Fall 2018 class, will be debuting at a public event held Saturday, February 16 at the Central Library in Downtown Los Angeles.

The event, which starts at 2PM, will not only feature the diverse and innovative experiences, but will also have a panel discussion with the students and the homeless participants that produced the stories.

The entire project will also launch across all the JOVRNALISM platforms, including on a project site: http://homelessrealities.jovrnalism.io

To learn more about the project, including the training the class offered the community, read this story by USC Annenberg.

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Johnnie’s House: Innovation in immersive storytelling

Class, Community, Project

It was our first meeting with community members from Leimert Park, Los Angeles’ historic and influential Black neighborhood just east of Crenshaw.

Sitting in a large circle inside the iconic KAOS Network, my students and I heard a variety of stories ranging from the legendary jazz musicians that lived blocks away, to revolutionaries of the Watts Riots to how a new public transit station could bring in either new opportunities or gentrification.

The Fall 2017 class wanted to experiment with new, cutting-edge technology that included augmented reality, 360 video, Unity and videogrammetry (which produces a moving hologram).
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