Intersections: The South Los Angeles Reporting Project
Posted by jessdrkn on July 15, 2009
Location: Los Angeles 
Focus: hyperlocal/community news in undercovered, ethnically diverse South L.A. neighborhoods around University of Southern California campus
Started: 2009
Writers/Employees: USC Annenberg School for Communication multi-media project; journalism professors and co-directors of the project are Bill Celis and Willa Seidenberg; journalism student reporters, contributors of stories submitted for print, online or radio; collaboration with school’s Annenberg Radio News, Watt Ways digital magazine and Metamorphosis project
Funding: Project chosen to receive J-Lab: Institute for Interactive Journalism grant; university-affiliated
Site: intersectionssouthla.org
The goal is to create a two-way street for South L.A. communities and the media; to generate more, much-needed stories; and to train a new generation of journalists for open-minded, culturally literate reporting.
Students working with the project will produce stories in print, broadcast and online forms. Stories will also increasingly appear in Spanish and Korean. The project will incorporate research conducted by the Metamorphosis Project for more substantive discussions about minority, ethnic and immigrant communities across Los Angeles.
Sample stories: ”New Flavors in South Los Angeles” (short video spotlighting new coffee shop, wine shop in area reflecting gentrification); “Crenshaw High School students salute arrested teacher”; “News Analysis: Proposed teacher layoffs signal deeper problems for troubled LAUSD”; “Rugby revolution is South Los Angeles”; “Storage auctions in South Los Angeles: A solution for unemployment?”
Other: USC press release on project
