Eyes looking to the future Daily News page editor educates journalism students in Great Hall

Monica Velasquez mvelasquez.roundupnews@gmail.com

Adaption to new technology was what journalism students were reminded of in The Great Hall on Monday.

Hammerwold was part of the Media Arts Department Speaker Series, organized by Amara Aguilar an assistant professor of multimedia.

“We bring these speakers in to share their experiences and create a dialog among what they are doing in the profession or other issues related to the media industry,” Aguilar said.

During his time with the students Hammerwold discussed how the Internet has impacted his career.

“The internet is the biggest threat to my profession and my career as a journalist,” Hammerwold said. He was also not afraid to tell students that people in the journalism field are losing their jobs.

“We lost 45 percent to 50 percent depending on what number you look at of journalism jobs in this country over the last four years,” Hammerwold said.

Hammerwold explained that professionals who are getting laid off are not willing to adapt.

“If you want a job and you have the right skills this is a prime time to be a journalist,” Hammerwold said.

He spoke of the importance of being adaptable.

“The internet is the single biggest opportunity for our profession and [their] career as a journalist.” campus-wide utilities extensions.

One of the recommendations that Hammerwold provided was to start a portfolio and have something to show that spans years of work as opposed to just a few months.

“No one wants to read your story, they want to be informed,” Hammerwold said.

At Pierce College COMMA Aguilar is aware of the changing times.

“In the Media Arts Department our focus is on the fundamental journalism skills no matter what format you’re using or what platform you’re using,” Aguilar said.

Steven Rosenberg, a web editor at The Daily News is using technology like Twitter to help him with news judgment.

“I watch it for breaking news and know how ‘important’ a story is by how often it appears in my Twitter stream,” Rosenberg said during an email interview.

While the idea of Twitter is new in regards to the days of the printing press Hammerwold feels that it is just another step of the process.

“I am a journalist,” Hammerwold said.

Among the building projects, two deal with landscape and accessibility, one deals with a student learning environment, and one deals with parking lot improvements.

In taking them off the construction moratorium, the district will be expending a total of $33 million, according to the final expanded moratorium list released by BuildLACCD.

The four other projects that qualified, but were not chosen, for early release are the expanded automotive and new technical education facilities, West Central Plant, and parking lot and roadway projects by the anthropology and geography building and for lots 5 and 6.

“There were some projects that we could have asked for, but there were still some issues with the remaining buildings,” Burke-Kelly said during the meeting. She cited the West Central Plant as an example. The plant is associated with the project to expand the automotive facility, but because of design awarding issues, it wasn’t one of the projects chosen to move forward with.

“I think the president [BurkeKelly] is trying to be very fair and accommodating [with the projects],” Tom Fortune, chairman of the Industrial Technology department, said.

The campus now plans to proceed with looking for a consultant to help with the reevaluation of the projects, according to Project Deputy Director Ed Cadena.

“[We’re applying] the measure of master planning so that we can address not only budgets and educational projects, but also be responsible to things the moratorium is speaking to,” he said.

The construction moratorium was implemented by LACCD so that they could evaluate whether or not they could afford to maintain and operate projects under its 14-year, $6 billion Building Program.

“In essence, the district’s evaluation of the candidates does show that there won’t be an increase in maintenance requirements,” Cadena said. “Some, [like parking lots] don’t even involve maintenance and operation.”