Fellowship Application Deadline: January 17

Above is the work of Stepfanie Aguilar (UCLA, Editor-in-Chief PacificTies.org), Evonne Liew (freelance), and Liberty Zabala (CSUN, KCSN news anchor, RTDNA chapter president) at the Hollywood premiere of Kung Fu Panda 2 on May 22.

AAJA-LA board member Suzanne Joe Kai, provided equipment from her company StudioLA.TV, secured press credentials and access to the red carpet, and mentored us in the planning, shooting and production of the video, print and online stories.

Liberty Zabala (CSUN, KCSN News anchor, RTDNA chapter president) at the press screening of Kung Fu Panda 2 in Hollywood. Photo by Suzanne Joe Kai.

Evonne Liew (freelance reporter/ photographer) at the Red Carpet premiere of Kung Fu Panda 2 in Hollywood. Photo by Suzanne Joe Kai.

To see additional footage/ reporting from Aguilar, Liew, and Zabala, check out AsianConnections.com.

LIBERTY ZABALA

When I was offered the chance to cover the L.A. premiere of Kung Fu Panda 2, I immediately jumped at the opportunity. Not only do I love 3D animation, I enjoy covering movies that highlight Asian-American culture and teachings. Working with a team of other reporters, Stepfanie Aguilar and Evonne Liew along with the executive producer of StudioLA.TV, Suzanne Joe Kai, was a wonderful learning experience. Suzanne and I attended the press screening the day before the red carpet premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, where we got a sneak peek of the film a week before it opened.

Stepfanie shot amazing celebrity photos/ footage on the red carpet, and Evonne shot great photos/ footage all around the red carpet area.

We even got free popcorn and soda! Ah, yes, the perks of being press, I can get used to this! After the movie, I started writing a script for my stand-up and my review of the film. Suzanne had already spotted a perfect area to shoot a stand-up right out in front of the theater with a giant Kung Fu Panda 2 poster hanging in the background.

We probably shot 2 different versions of my stand-up about twenty times. I especially liked when people would walk in front of the camera and costumed superheroes would try to get into the shot! We finally got the perfect stand-up and wrapped up for the day.  Suzanne was a great mentor throughout the shoot helping me work on my voice and energy in front of the camera. I greatly appreciated her encouragement and support.

We worked separately for most of the piece.  The team shot, narrated, and produced the feature, with Stepfanie Aguilar editing the video on Final Cut Pro . Our team was very tech-savvy. We coordinated each other’s part primarily via email and phone. I gained a new appreciation for technology and the wonders it can do for young journalists who may not have such professional equipment. My review of the film also went up on AsianConnections.com. I was very happy that I was not only able to report but also write about the film and my experience covering it.

Stepfanie Aguilar (UCLA, Editor-in-Chief PacificTies.org) with AAJA-LA board member Suzanne Joe Kai, reviewing footage from the Red Carpet event. Photo by Evonne Liew.

STEPFANIE AGUILAR I have lived in Los Angeles for three years, and I had never seen a red carpet premiere until a few weeks ago. I didn’t think I’d go to my first one as a photographer.  Suzanne Joe Kai, a board member of AAJA-LA, offered students and other young journalists a chance to cover the red carpet premiere of Kung Fu Panda 2 for AsianConnections.com.
I arrived at the Kodak Theater at 8:00 a.m., waiting for Suzanne and Evonne Liew—all of us as a crew, preparing for the event coverage.

After meeting up, it was time to check-in. Although it’s good to be in front, I learned that shooting photographs would even be better when closer to the entrance.

With two DSLR cameras around my neck, I captured shots of every actor and actress, including the director Jennifer Yuh Nelson. It was tougher taking photos of more popular celebrities like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt since they rushed down the carpet. Luckily, I did get Lucy Liu to look at my camera. I copied other photographers when they shouted out the celebrity’s name so that they could directly look at my camera also.

After everyone went inside the theater, I lingered around some more just in case anything would’ve popped up. I met with the rest of the crew, who were filming the event. After hours of exchanging photos and video clips, we all headed home. We weren’t done yet though. Post-production started the next day and lasted all week, mostly communicating through phone calls, e-mails, and Skype-chatting.

This whole experience was a thrill—nothing I’ve ever done before. Now knowing it’s possible to cover events like this one, I’m on the lookout.

(L-R) Evonne Liew, Stepfanie Aguilar and John Sakata working on their stories from Kung Fu Panda 2's Red Carpet premiere at a Hollywood diner. Photo by Suzanne Joe Kai.

Unlike most tech start-up founders, AAJA member Mike Kai’s story began with a foray into journalism as a teenager.

Kai, 28, is the CEO and founder of LIFEYO, a website creation platform that has been in development for the past three years. The site was launched in beta a year ago, and by word of mouth, more than 20,000 sites already have been created through LIFEYO. It just launched its latest version this month. LIFEYO aims to simplify the website-building experience, with drag-and-drop features, allowing users to customize content and create a site within minutes.

“The Internet allows people to participate in media different from traditional media,” Kai said.  “With the Internet, everything is a lot faster.  Everyone talks about how fast Twitter is, but fast to me is the ability to get a website up and running through a website like LIFEYO and focus on an idea you have.”

At first glance, it might not seem like LIFEYO, a website hosting platform and AsianConnections.com, an online magazine focusing on Asian Americans and East Asians doing interesting things, have much in common. But on the contrary, the two are very much intertwined and in fact, one might not exist without the other.

“(AsianConnnections) kind of kicked off that direction in life for me,” said Kai, who started the website in 1998. “When I was 15, the Internet was very new and the idea of blogging hadn’t come up yet, but I decided to build this website. It was basically this really cool opportunity for a kid to call up Jackie Chan’s publicist and land an interview and go on to cover really cool people.”

Kai’s mom, AAJA-LA board member Suzanne Joe Kai, one of the first Asian American women to become a broadcast television personality, got involved and mentored Kai in journalism.

Kai says he started the site to provide a broader perspective on Asian Americans.

“I felt that often Asian characters are typecast in the media and yet there are a lot of great stories that aren’t being told,” he said.

The ease of creating online content has led to more opportunities to cover angles not being told in mainstream media, particularly in regards to Asian American and minority perspectives.

“In minority journalism, there’s a lot of stories that aren’t being told in traditional media, but you have the opportunity to fill that void,” Kai said. “To me, that’s what’s really exciting—you have a choice of where to find news, not just relying on traditional sources, and also the choice to create content. The ability to participate is just getting easier and easier.”

Today, Kai is no longer involved in the day-to-day operations of AsianConnections, which is still up and running and is now run by his mom, who he says it’s a “labor of love.”  The site, currently undergoing a major system upgrade, has a number of contributors since its inception, including Ben Fong-Torres, author and rock journalist who wrote for Rolling Stone, and Chef Martin Yan, author and host of PBS series “Yan Can Cook.” The site produced a live chat with action star Jet Li with Warner Bros. U.S. Astronaut Leroy Chiao blogged about his experiences while orbiting the Earth as Commander of the International Space Station.

As a teenager, the experience creating the website brought to life the power of the Internet to make unheard voices heard.

“The biggest lesson I learned is that basically when you have an idea and you’re driven by something meaningful to you, you should pursue it,” Kai said.  “For me, the mission to go out and present Asian actors or chefs or restaurant owners in a way that’s very open, that was something I cared a lot about and I was very fortunate the Internet came around the same time I was growing up where it was something I could create and people would take it seriously.”

For Kai, the venture is not just another business, but a chance to allow others to easily create content and have their voices heard, just as he did as a teen.

“Web development has changed a lot with people being able to create a persona on Facebook, yet building a site is still a pretty extensive process. If you don’t have that knowledge, you need to hire someone and once you do have a website, it’s challenging to keep the site updated,” Kai said. With technologies more available in the web browser, we had opportunity to build a product really easy to use.”

The lessons Kai learned as a teenager creating and running AsianConnections are the motivating force behind his work life today.

“I feel very fortunate that having that experience opened up a big world I didn’t even know existed,” Kai said. “In creating LIFEYO, we wanted to create a way for people to get an idea out there in just a few clicks whether they’re a journalist, have a business, or just want to share a family web site. It’s a very powerful thing to be able to get content online and that’s what we’re driven by right now.”

CONTACT: MIKE KAI — MIKE@LIFEYO.COM

Q&A

Why did you decide to create LIFEYO?

I basically felt there was a big need for people to have a tool that’s easy to use and that allows them to share content. We identified that there’s 500 million people using Facebook.  At the same time, a lot of these people are learning to use social media and a lot of these people are taking the next step and making websites. It lets you control your brand and take ownership. It’s great if you are looking for a job or have a hobby and want to share content.

What kind of things do people use LIFEYO for?

One of the ways people use it is to have a personal, professional page for themselves. It’s a great way to have your resume online. It lets you create an online personal persona and gives you a lot more control so you can present yourself in a professional way. Especially for someone who does creative work, having a website is great way to share selections with potential employers.

What is the goal of LIFEYO?

With the Internet, there’s literally no telling, for us. Our main priority is creating a product so easy to use that people want to share it with their friends. We find that when people are successful creating websites, they want to go share it with their friends. The need to have a website is pretty universal across multiple professions.

What makes LIFEYO different from other web platforms?

We’re really not trying to reinvent the wheel. The need for easy website creation has been around a long time. You don’t need to download any software, everything operates within the browser. When you compare LIFEYO to Tumblr or Blogger, the thing we try to focus on is making the design process of the site very streamlined and giving people a lot of flexibility in making your design your own.

We offer a blogging tool that lets people keep their site fresh and updated, but it also lets you add additional pages, so can have a photo gallery, contact form, you can easily integrate it with Facebook, embed videos from YouTube, have Google Maps, anything you can think of.

What can journalists learn from web developers?

For journalists, especially for journalists just starting off, they want to create a brand, they want to create something people feel has quality content. But sometimes what is overlooked is the experience accessing the content and how it is portrayed visually. If I’m a journalist and want to blog, I could just go to Blogspot and get the same template that everyone else has, but that doesn’t necessarily portray my hard work in the best way. From a web design standpoint, branching away from your basic Facebook or Twitter account is a big step forward in having a web presence you can manage.

How did you come up with the name?

I didn’t want to create something that dictated what people want to produce and the most all-encompassing aspect I could think of to reflect that was “life.” I just added “yo” because it added that fun aspect, it was easy to spell, short and tongue-in-cheek.

A CENTURY ON, RE-ENVISIONING A 21st CENTURY RAFU SHIMPO: Samantha Masunaga (Peter Immamura Memorial Scholarship recipient/ UCLA junior) talks to editors at the largest and oldest Japanese daily newspaper about grappling with a changing newspaper industry.

‘GRADING THE TEACHERS’: 100 interviews later…: Sonali Kohli (AAJA-LA scholarship winnner/ UCLA sophomore) interviews education reporter Jason Song about preparing the 2010 LA Times series on value-added analysis.

PATCHING UP THE JOURNALISM INDUSTRY: Natasha Zouves (Sam Chu Lin scholarship winner/ USC junior) interviews AAJA-LA members Patrick Lee (regional editor, LA) and Hazel Lodevico To’o (glendora.patch.com) about working for AOL-owned Patch.

STEFFI LAU is a senior at USC who is double majoring in East Asian Languages and Cultures & Public Relations with a minor in marketing  “Despite the fact Steffi had not worked in broadcast journalism before, she was able to rapidly transition, producing engaging, concise, well written scripts just as good as those written by our full time reporters,” — Alistair Shewring, supervisor/ Blue Ocean Network ( Beijing) “Steffi will grow to be a stellar journalist in the years ahead” — Lisa Wong Macabasco, managing editor/ Hyphen Magazine Lau carries a 3.7 GPA. She speaks Mandarin. Lau is deputy editor of US-CHINA Today from the US CHINA institute. In 2008, Lau worked for Asian Week in San Francisco where she was an intern who so impressed her bosses that they made her managing editor of a magazine supplement on the Beijing Olympics. Last summer, Lau spent the summer in Beijing—not to write for a newspaper. She was a reporter for the Blue Ocean Network which provides TV content to the west about China.

Join or Renew for 2011

AAJA’s mission is four-fold:

1. To provide a means of association and support among Asian American and Pacific Islander journalists.
2. To provide encouragement, information, advice and scholarship assistance to Asian American and Pacific Islander students who aspire to professional journalism careers.
3. To provide to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community an awareness of news media and an understanding of how to gain fair access.
4. To research and point out when news media organizations stray from accuracy and fairness in the coverage of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

AAJA membership is based on the calendar year, January to December, regardless of when dues are received. Membership registration submitted today is good through December 31, 2011.

There are three ways to obtain a registration form for membership:

1. Click here to register online.

2. Click here (PDF) to download a printable copy of the AAJA membership form.

3. Contact AAJA directly for a membership application form.

E-mail: National(at)aaja.org
Phone: (415) 346-2051 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              (415) 346-2051

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AAJA-LA is on Facebook.  Learn the latest Chapter news @ http://www.facebook.com/pages/AAJA-LA/9740341099

At a January 21 banquet, members of the AAJA-LA board honored four college students in Sherman Oaks with scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $2,500.

UCLA Daily Bruin editors Samantha Masunga (Peter Imamura Memorial Scholarship, $1,500) and Sonali Kohli ($1,500) and USC Trojans Natasha Zouves (Sam Chu Lin Memorial Scholarship, $2,500) and second-time AAJA-LA scholarship recipient Steffi Lau ($1,000) were selected as 2010-2011 AAJA-LA scholarship winners.

The Chapter scholarship winners are selected on the basis of academic achievement, demonstrated journalistic ability, financial need commitment to the field of journalism and/or sensitivity to Asian American and Pacific Islander issues.

“I have no doubt that each one of our scholarship recipients this year is going to achieve success and contribute in a positive way to our profession,” said Frank Buckley (anchor, KTLA Morning News), scholarship committee co-chair.

The Los Angeles Chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association awards up to $10,000 in scholarships each year to deserving students who reside in Southern California or attend universities in the greater Los Angeles area.

AAJA-LA Chapter president Ky Trang Ho (Investor's Business Daily) with scholarship winners Sonali Kohli and Samantha Masunaga

Prior to this year, students from University of Southern California, UCLA, Chapman University, Los Angeles City College, UC Irvine and Cal State Northridge received scholarships ranging from $500 to $2,500.

“I hope our members will do everything they can to mentor and encourage these students as they continue their educations and begin their careers,” said Buckley, a former AAJA-LA scholarship winner.

The Scholarship Committee included co-chairs Buckley and Henry Fuhrmann (assistant managing editor, LA Times). Judges Bob Bayer (former LA Times editor) and Traci Tamura (senior producer, CNN) also served on the committee.

If you’re interested in learning more about the AAJA-LA scholarship process, please e-mail aajalalosangeles@gmail.com.

STEFFI LAU is a senior at USC who is double majoring in East Asian Languages and Cultures & Public Relations with a minor in marketing “Despite the fact Steffi had not worked in broadcast journalism before, she was able to rapidly transition, producing engaging, concise, well written scripts just as good as those written by our full time reporters,” — Alistair Shewring, supervisor/ Blue Ocean Network ( Beijing) “Steffi will grow to be a stellar journalist in the years ahead” — Lisa Wong Macabasco, managing editor/ Hyphen Magazine Lau carries a 3.7 GPA. She speaks Mandarin. Lau is deputy editor of US-CHINA Today from the US CHINA institute. In 2008, Lau worked for Asian Week in San Francisco where she was an intern who so impressed her bosses that they made her managing editor of a magazine supplement on the Beijing Olympics. Last summer, Lau spent the summer in Beijing—not to write for a newspaper. She was a reporter for the Blue Ocean Network which provides TV content to the west about China.

SAMANTHA MASUNAGA is a junior at UCLA majoring in English “Sam’s performance was truly exceptional, indeed at the very top of the class.” — Jonathan F.S. Post, professor of English, head of UCLA’s Summer Overseas Shakespeare Program. “Tenacious, thorough and a highly skilled writer.” — Gwen Muranaka, English editor in chief/ Rafu Shimpo Masunaga has a GPA of 3.859. She’s the Science and Health Editor at The Daily Bruin. She has interned at The Rafu Shimpo. In Masunaga’s essay, she talked about the impact of working at the Rafu on her feelings about ethnicity, saying: “I have learned that cultural knowledge is more than just eating traditional foods and writing kanji.”

SONALI KOHLI is a sophomore at UCLA with a 3.67 GPA Sonali is “a serious and qualified candidate worthy of one of AAJA-LA’s scholarship.” — Bryan Chu, NBA.com Kohli is the Westwood Crime Editor for the Daily Bruin She has interned at the Orange County Register Sonali submitted a beautifully written essay about traveling to New Delhi as a 13 year old Indian American and how that helped to shape her as a journalist today. Her letters of recommendation paint a picture of a pro-active, hard-working, relationship-building bright young reporter.

NATASHA ZOUVES is a junior at USC double majoring in broadcast journalism and health promotion “It is seldom that an instructor at our school has someone in class as energetic, gifted and personable as Ms Zouves.” — Larry Pryor, USC associate professor Zouves has a 3.8 GPA She has worked at local stations KCBS as a field producer and at KNBC as an associate producer for News Raw. In 2009, she presented a research paper “What Are You? The Mixed Race Experience of Young Adults” at Santa Clara University at the 36th annual western undergraduate research conference. Natasha writes in her essay about how the words written on the chalkboard on the first day of her high school journalism class remain with her today. Natasha’s brother has autism and the words on the chalkboard read: “Journalism gives voice to the voiceless.” As Natasha said in her essay: “These words spoke to me on such a deep level and have stayed with me ever since, affecting every piece of journalism I write or shoot.”