ITMC: Neon Tommy Upgrades Content
Neon Tommy started producing stories from the moment the Media Center became its new home on Aug. 25. Editor-in-Chief Will Federman says the new space has encouraged more people to produce and edit stories. With a new workspace, the digital news outlet is now working to upgrade its website storytelling. The goal is to include more multimedia elements in web stories such as interactive maps and graphics.
Writers have taken advantage of the new space by collaborating with other student-run media outlets set up in the Media Center. Neon Tommy Senior Sports Editor and ATVN sports anchor Matthew Tufts says it's easy to collaborate because there is a designated sports pod where all sports department editors and writers can work on stories together.
The goal is to have students share video, research, sound and interviews to produce coverage across all media platforms.
See more of Wallis Annenberg Hall, home of the new Media Center.
I think it is great that USC has a new media center and I think it is great that Wallis Annenberg funded it and named it after herself. The question I have is whether any related news entity, such as Neon Tommy, will have the editorial freedom to cover what Wallis Annenberg is trying to do to public land at the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve. The LA Times, LA Daily News, Daily Breeze, Argonaut and LA Weekly have all covered this story. Neon Tommy last published a one-side article, by an arts editor, well over a year ago. It is time for an objective story on this highly controversial project. It will be a great test for the new media center to demonstrate that it has the editorial freedom to produce media coverage that may not be desirable to the the center's primary source of funding.
Walter Lamb
Ballona Wetlands Land Trust