Since launching in 2015, JOVRNALISM™ has been consistently producing award-winning, immersive and innovative non-fiction projects that harness technology to tell compelling stories from our diverse communities.
Each semester this USC-based project works with media organizations and often with non-profits that serve communities that are often ignored by traditional media coverage or routinely presented in a negative light.
For the Fall 2019 semester, the JOURN489 class taught by JOVRNALISM™ founder Professor Robert Hernandez officially launched a series called Who We Are.
Building on its prior projects, the series will formally work with underserved and underrepresented communities, not to simply tell their stories, but to train and empower them to tell their own stories. We provide cameras and accessories – that they keep – as part of this training.
While emerging technology will lead to an inevitable disruption, we need to ensure diverse voices are actively shaping what stories should and will be told through these new media.
That is why every Fall semester Hernandez and his class will train communities to have them produce their own stories, as USC students learn alongside them.
This approach democratizes the new tech and elevates diverse voices.
The work produced isn’t some charity act. The final pieces have been recognized by both media and tech industries as prototypes of quality content, converting any new tech from fad to viable.
This semester we partnered with Peace4Kids, a non-profit focused on empowering foster care youth through media and content creation. They have been perfect partners with a mission that aligns with our goals.
The work this organization does is vital to these kids, teenagers and young adults – as well as the community around them.
Each piece presented in this project was envisioned by the Peace4Kid member and produced collaboratively with the JOVRNALISM students.
We could not be more proud of these pieces that offer a genuine inside into their lives.
This is a collaborative project that involves media partners like KCET/PBS SoCal and tech partners like Samsung XR (which donated the 360 cameras), Capture Reality (photogrammetry software) and SGO (360 video stitching software). Thank you to all our supports, especially the Heeger Funds, that financially support JOVRNALISM students.
