My Experience with Journalism and Audience (J-323) and why I recommend you take it!
By: Tamanna Sood ‘ 24
If you’ve wanted to create your own podcast, YouTube channel, or online product and you’ve never felt confident or comfortable enough to, USC has the perfect elective to finally launch your dream project. As part of fulfilling my journalism elective requirements, this past semester I signed up for the class JOUR- 323, Journalism and the Audience. I had absolutely no preconceived notions about the class beforehand. All I knew was that I needed a 2 unit journalism elective course, and this was the only one that fit my schedule. I had no idea how impactful and important this class would be for me as a journalism student.
J323 is a relatively tiny elective, and only about fourteen students were in my course. The class met once a week for one hour and forty minutes, and oftentimes, these classes were my favorites for the week.
Led by Robert Hernandez or Profe., as he tells his students to call him, the class aims to educate students on how to create digital products like podcasts, newsletters, instagram pages, and more that are designed to engage with a specific audience. Profe. Brings his expertise in web journalism and emerging technologies including AR/VR, wearables, and drones to the class. This was the first journalism class I took where I felt like I was finally able to create something that I was truly proud of building and that aligned with my interests.
In the first half of the semester, Profe. taught us about the specific building blocks we would need in order to create niche and engaging content. Some of the things we focused on were the importance of choosing the right platform, the meaning of your digital footprint, how people get their news and engage with content, finding our audience, and most importantly, design product thinking. Had I not taken this class and ventured into creating my own product alone, I probably wouldn’t have considered 90% of these things. This class taught me the importance of detail and intentionality.
The first seven weeks of the semester were given to the students to think critically about what they would choose to create. In the seventh week, we were tasked with pitching our product to the class and feedback. I went back and forth on my product till the seventh week. The only thing I was sure of was that I wanted to create something for the South Asian community. In the end, I chose to create a podcast called “The Dirty Chai Podcast,” where I would be discussing taboos and stigmas in Desi culture.
The second half of the semester was dedicated to running and establishing your product. Each student had their own one on one meeting with Profe. to discuss their product and establish a content agreement. In my meeting, Profe. and I decided that I would create a podcast with four long interview-based episodes that would be 25+ minutes long and four short filler episodes that would be about 10+ minutes long. Along with that, I would also run an Instagram for the page that would have 30 posts in total related to marketing the content I had created for the podcast.
While the goal of the class was to create a product that engaged with a specific audience, the number of followers that we managed to reach was not considered part of our overall grade. This allowed us to post whatever and however we deem fit for our product. The only requirement, in terms of followers, was that we used different strategies to appeal to new followers. For example, if I was posting something, I would attach at least 10 to 12 different hashtags to boost engagement and allow people to find my product. It was nice being able to use different techniques to gain followers while not necessarily worrying about a certain number, and it helped me gauge which strategies work best for me.
In terms of assignments, for the first half of the semester, we would do reflection based blog post assignments on the topic discussed during the week. Profe didn’t use Blackboard, so all of these assignments were posted on a Wordpress website dedicated to the class. For the second half of the semester, students were mostly left to create content for their product. Our final was finishing our product and the content we agreed upon alongside writing a final write up about our experiences running the product.
There were so many things I enjoyed about this class, but at the top of the list had to be Profe. and his passion for journalism. He was an incredible teacher that was super honest with the class about the journalism industry. He also introduced me to so many different facets of journalism that I didn’t know existed. He opened my eyes to now careers and mediums that I wouldn’t have discovered had I not taken this class. At the beginning of the semester, Profe said that this class would bring our passion back for journalism after being jaded by J-School, and I have to say I wholeheartedly agree.
Profe also invited many guest lecturers into the class from several different parts of the journalism industry. Being able to hear the experiences of so many working journalists also made the class incredibly impactful. I was able to gauge the industry in its totality, and it was different from any other journalism class I had ever taken.
I won't lie and give you false expectations about this class. For a two unit class, it’s a lot of work. My podcast was really niche, and it was hard for me to find sources to speak to. I had to do extensive research for each topic and figure out podcasting logistics. I was also really overbooked this semester, and it was hard to create a schedule to finish creating all the content I needed to by the final. However, even then, it was my favorite class I took this semester. If you've always wanted to try your hand at digital content creation, I highly recommend it. This class allowed me to dip my hand into something I always thought I wasn’t good enough to do and the truth is not only am I good, I also like it!
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