25 YEARS OF VOICES Linking past and present. See Page 4.

25 YEARS OF VOICES
Linking past and present.
See Page 4.
2AAJA VOICES
| August 14, 2015
VOL. 25.1
Starting from top left, back row: Michael Grant, Adam Causey, Jessie Tseng, Andrew Tran, Sissi Wang, Ray Ruiz, Rajeswari Ramanathan, Jennifer Crane, Aneri Pattani, Parminder
Deo, Conner Jay. Front row, from left to right: Ko Im, Michelle Toh, Angelie Meehan, Yanan Wang, Merinda Valley, Ruth Liao, Beena Raghavendran, Kevin Truong, Timmy Truong,
Maya Sugarman
Staff
Students
Ruth Liao, ICIS
Director
Adam Kealoha Causey, Las Vegas Review-Journal
Managing Editor
Ko Im, Freelance Reporter
Broadcast Producer
Conner Jay, Discovery Digital Networks
Visual Editor
Michael Grant, San Francisco Chronicle
Mentor
Andrew Tran, CT Mirror
Mentor
Jessie Tseng, The Washington Post
Mentor
Maya Sugarman. KPCC
Mentor
Ray Ruiz, EGMN
Mentor
Robert Boos, Metropolitan State University
Volunteer
Mariecar Frias, NBC Universal
Volunteer
Brian Nguyen, Chicago Tribune (Intern)
Volunteer
Kay Nguyen, The Journal News
Volunteer
Nuran Alteir, The Oregonian
Volunteer
Jennifer Crane, Parminder Deo, Angelie Meehan,
Aneri Pattani, Beena Raghavendran, Raji
Ramanathan, Michelle Toh, Kevin Truong, Timmy
Truong, Merinda Valley, Sissi Wang, Yanan Wang
How to Donate
VOICES is a multimedia project and career
leadership program for college and graduate
students interested in journalism. The program is
part of the nonprofit Asian American Journalists
Association. If you are interested in donating to the
program, please e-mail [email protected].
August 14, 2015 | AAJA VOICES
3
In look back,
majority of
VOICES alumni
still work in media
By Kevin Truong
Despite ongoing changes
in the industry, alumni of
AAJA’s VOICES program
are in it for the long haul.
In a look back for the
convention news project’s
25th anniversary, this year’s
batch of student journalists
conducted a survey and
analysis of dozens of the
program’s alumni.
Of the 185 surveyed, a
vast majority - 79 percent
- work in media. Of those,
77 percent work in journalism, with the rest employed
in the communications,
public relations or entertainment fields.
Among alumni working
in journalism, 11 percent
work in a freelance capacity
and 27.4 percent have editing or executive roles. This
is compared to the roughly
19 percent of minorities
that have supervisory roles
in print newsrooms according to statistics by the
American Society of News
Editors.
The second biggest
employment category was
academia, making up 7
percent of the employment
data. Respondents report
to be busy conducting
research and educating
students in fields including
literary journalism, social
welfare and geography.
Meet Maria Hechanova:
2009 Voices Alumnus
VOICES Alumni in Media
By Angelie Meehan
21%
The 2009 Asian American Journalists Association VOICES Program in
Boston helped shape Maria
Hechanova’s journalism
career today. Learn more
about KOLD-TV’s resident
reporter since her VOICES
experience.
77%
Journalism
Entertainment
PR & Communications
Significant segments are
also working in law, government and secondary
education.
NEWSROOM NUMBERS
VOICES as we know it is
a convergence of separate
AAJA outlets. What once
was a separate newspaper,
radio station, TV station
and website now are a single multimedia entity.
What hasn’t changed is
a commitment to sending
VOICES research
well trained journalists
from diverse backgrounds
into newsrooms everywhere.
When the paper was
founded as AAJA-enda in
1990, newsroom minority
representation was at 7.86
percent, according to the
American Society of News
Editors.
Now the number is close
to 13 percent. The pro-
See Survey, PAGE 5
What was the pivotal
moment in your career
that gave you the certainty
that broadcast journalism
was right for you?
Well, I’ve always liked to
talk and I’ve always been
really curious, and I also like
to know what is going on in
my community, so I think
my freshman year of high
school, I learned that you
can get paid for doing that.
So, I figured a journalism
degree would be the right
way to go.
Describe your experience as a student participant in the AAJA VOICES
Program.
It was amazing. I had
never been to a convention, and this was really the
best way to really just get
involved with AAJA. They
had me meeting all sorts of
people. I was learning about
the importance of making
deadline and also it got me
out of my comfort zone. I
had a chance to not only do
broadcast, which is what I
wanted to do, but also learn
multimedia with print and
also just radio as well.
How did AAJA VOICES
shape your career path?
It was more than just
AAJA VOICES; it was AAJA
as a whole. I’ve gotten all
my jobs through AAJA. My
first convention, I ended up
meeting someone at my first
station in Yuma. Another
convention, I met my boss
in Lansing, Michigan. And
then, at UNITY, which is
when all the affinity groups
get together, I met my boss
here at KOLD/News 13,
and so it’s just been kind of
a rolling thing. It just really
gives you the opportunity to
practice your presentation
skills and not be afraid to
just go up to executives or
managers, introduce your-
See Hechenova,
PAGE 12
4
AAJA VOICES | August 14, 2015
Your AAJA
national officer
candidates
By Angelie Meehan
AAJA members have three candidates to
choose from for three different offices.
Yes, that means each candidate is running unopposed. AAJA members can cast
their votes through noon Friday, though,
and writing in candidates is still an option.
Results will be announced Saturday night
at the convention gala banquet.
ABOUT EACH CANDIDATE:
VYING TO LEAD AAJA IN 2016-17
Michelle Ye Hee Lee
Yvonne Leow
Nicole Dungca
1. Michelle Ye Hee Lee
is a reporter for The
Fact Checker at The
Washington Post.
2. She was named a
finalist for local
reporting in the
2012 contest for
the Livingston
Awards for Young
Journalists.
3. The Guamanian
graduated from
Emory University.
1. Yvonne Leow is a
Knight Fellow at
Stanford University.
2. She is a proud
alumna of UCLA.
3. Leow was an
adjunct professor
at Arizona State
University’s Walter
Cronkite School
of Journalism
and Mass
Communication.
1. Nicole Dungca is
the transportation
reporter for The
Boston Globe.
2. Previously, she
worked at The
Oregonian.
3. Dungca has covered
the coasts: she’s
written for The
Providence Journal
and The TimesPicayune in New
Orleans.
Fatal Amtrak crash in Philadelphia thrusts AAJA
President Paul Cheung into the news
By Jennifer Crane
Asking questions is like a
hot cup of coffee for journalists: always there and
smooth to the tongue.
But asking questions is
rarely a reciprocal act for
reporters.
While AAJA president
Paul Cheung has told others’
stories, the Associated Press’
director of interactive and
digital news production
never thought his own
would be told.
That changed May 12,
when Cheung was aboard
Amtrak train 188. It left
Washington bound for New
York, but never made it.
It derailed in Philadelphia, and five people were
killed. Among those was a
colleague of Cheung’s, Jim
Gaines, a video software
architect for the AP.
Riding a derailing train
might not seem as scary as
you might think.
Cheung, who had been to
Washington for an event that
was part of the White House’s
Asian American initiative,
said he was watching shows
on Netflix and YouTube when
the train started to shake and
the lights went out.
He didn’t realize it had
derailed until he jumped out
and saw the mangled cars.
“It is just confusing and
disorienting,” Cheung said.
“You don’t think about a
train wreck, it’s not like you
see it coming.”
But the journalistic instincts kicked in. Cheung
said he immediately investigated and documented the
scene, taking pictures and
videos.
Cheung said he was simply “doing his job.”
But he wasn’t the only one
that was doing his job that
day.
Media outlets including
his own employer, plus
MSNBC and BBC interviewed him the night of
the crash. That week, he
spoke to reporters for “Good
Morning America,” The New
York Times, Fox News and
Al Jazeera.
“I don’t think of myself
as the victim or survivor,
but that’s obviously how I
was being portrayed. I was
thinking of myself as a journalist first.”
He said the most difficult part about being
interviewed was remaining
objective.
“You have to be calm and
think through what you
need to do,” he said. “You
want to give information
that is true and accurate and
not exaggerate.”
The experience not only
taught Cheung how to act
in the news but also gave
him an insight into the work
broadcasts journalists do.
“It made me appreciate
journalists who are doing
work on the frontline. In the
midst of chaos you have to
tell stories day in and day
out. Some are risking their
lives to cover the stories.”
Follow Jennifer @jenn_
crane.
August 14, 2015 | AAJA VOICES
From Survey, PAGE 3:
portion of Asian American
journalists in the newspaper
industry hovers around 2.84
percent.
Mekhalo Medina, president of National Association
of Hispanic Journalists, said
a growing realization of the
importance of newsroom
representation is coming at
the executive level.
“When I think of diversity
in 2015, I don’t think of it
as diversity, I think of it as
reality,” Medina said. “If you
look at key media companies, KPCC and Buzzfeed,
they’ve all made the change
to a diverse newsroom as
a way to reach out to an
increasingly broad audience,
and also it just makes business sense.”
Growth and develop-
ment of the AAJA VOICES
program is indicative of a
general trend of rising newsroom diversity, but one that
is threatened by declining
media industry opportunities.
While there’s reason to be
optimistic about that level of
improvement, the industry
itself shows a decline in
total employment, meaning
minority journalists compete for fewer jobs.
Minority staff members,
who are often among the
most junior members of
the newsroom, according to
ASNE studies, are more susceptible to budget cutbacks
and layoffs.
Bob Butler, president of
the National Association
of Black Journalists, said
despite a steady percentage increase of employed
minority journalists in the
intervening decades, the
smaller number of jobs as
a whole means that the
number of minority journalists finding employment
hasn’t made the gains as the
numbers suggest.
“We’re finding that even in
states with a lot of diversity
in population, we don’t have
a lot of diversity in newsroom management,” Butler
said. “The big issue is that
the people making hiring
decisions want more diversity, but don’t know how to
achieve it.”
Statistics collected in 2014
by the Radio Television Digital News Association found
that minorities make up less
than 10 percent of managers
at radio or television stations. In print newsrooms,
the number is even lower,
with less than 3 percent of
those in “supervisory roles”
of minority descent, according to ASNE.
LOOKING AHEAD
Leaders in journalism
diversity and advocacy all
agree on at least one part
of the solution: helping
journalists to develop digital
and technological storytelling skills.
To that end VOICES has
stepped up to the plate,
with mentors and editors
developing data analysis
and graphic tools that have
become industry standards.
“A lot of the students have
kind of that interest and try
to find stories that lend itself
more to data analysis and
opportunity for data,” said
Andrew Tran, data editor
for The Connecticut Mirror
and a VOICES mentor. “It’s
become easier now for a lot
of reporters to take what
they see on their spreadsheets and visualize it.”
Still, experts in journalism say in order to build
minority representation, a
number of tactics will have
to be used, including greater
connectivity with media
industry executives and a
realistic picture of how to
prepare people to find work
in the industry.
“The solution is really
multi-pronged,” said AAJA
President Paul Cheung.
“We need to keep asking
the question of, ‘How do we
work with media partners to
keep diversity at the front of
their minds?’”
Follow Kevin
@kevinbtruong.
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AAJA VOICES | August 14, 2015
New comedy
breaks ground
with Asians in
leading roles
By Beena Raghavendran
The entire middle school
lunchroom is watching as a
black boy calls a Taiwanese
boy a dreaded slur in the
pilot episode of “Fresh Off
the Boat.”
In a moment that becomes
the climax to 12-year-old
Eddie Huang’s terrible first
day at a new school in Florida, the boy utters the word,
“chink.”
“Fresh Off the Boat” pushes racial and social issues
such as the Asian American model minority myth.
The show fits in at ABC, a
network that prides itself on
breaking barriers in family
sitcoms, including “Modern
Family,” which premiered
in 2009 featuring two gay
white dads raising an adopted Asian daughter.
The significance of “Fresh
Off the Boat” isn’t lost on
critics after the show’s first
season. The fictional Huang
family is the first leading
Asian family on American
television in 20 years.
About 7.9 million watched
the pilot, according to
Nielsen ratings on TVSeriesFinale.com. By season’s end,
about 5.75 million tuned
in for the finale. For comparison, about 7.1 million
watched the “Modern Family” season finale.
It hits home for AAJA
member Jeff Yang, a Wall
Street Journal TV writer
whose son, Hudson, 11,
landed the role of Eddie
Huang on the show. Yang
grew up in the U.S. and
faced many of the same
cultural confrontations as
his son’s TV character: kids
calling his food smelly and
making fun of the way Asian
names sound.
In the show, set in 1995 —
and renewed for a second
season — the Huangs
uproot from their home in
Chinatown in Washington,
D.C., and move to Orlando,
Fla., where they are the only
Asians in their neighborhood. Eddie and his younger brothers learn about the
importance of their identity
as their father learns the
ups and downs of running
a business and their mother
works to fit into the community.
The show is a “such a
huge, huge revolution,” Yang
said, proving to the world
that the Huangs and other
Asians are as American as
the Joneses or the Smiths.
But the show points to the
deeper issue of the dearth
of Asians on television.
An article published by
Fusion, a joint venture by
Disney-ABC Television and
Univision, notes that of 800
main cast members on 100
network TV shows, 6.6 percent of main cast members
are of Asian descent. Out of
the actors in the survey, 37.9
percent of the shows have
at least one Asian main cast
member, and 7.8 percent of
“Fresh Off the Boat,” which premiered in February on ABC, features the first Asian American family on
television since “All-American Girl” ran in the 1990s. Courtesy of Bob D’Amico / ABC.
shows have multiple Asian
main cast members.
The last time an Asian
American family was featured on U.S. sitcom was
1994, in “All-American Girl.”
Comedian Margaret Cho
starred as a rebellious Korean American young adult
who butted heads with her
family.
It lasted only one season,
but some of its lasting memories were from off-screen.
Cho told KoreAm Magazine
that she was called too fat
for the camera, had to lose
weight and struggled with
drug addiction.
Even when Asians are
on television, they seem to
be problem-free and speak
perfect English, which
isn’t necessarily reflective
of Asians in America, said
Xing Lu, who teaches a
course on Asian American
media representation at DePaul University in Chicago.
Where “Fresh Off the
Boat” is faring better, according to Yang, is that it
was created by Asian Americans. It’s based on the memoir of New York City chef
Eddie Huang. Show creator
and Nahnatchka Kahn is
Persian-American, and
executive producer Melvin
Mar is Chinese-American.
Dabbling in topics including stereotypes about
Asians, assimilation and
identity the way “Fresh Off
the Boat” does is a success in
itself, Yang said.
But the show isn’t necessarily perfect, Lu said. The
stereotypes on it are often
so exaggerated that no one
could actually believe they’re
true.
It also risks reinforcing
what it puts on air, Lu said.
But perhaps the millions
of TV sets featuring “Fresh
Off the Boat” will bring
more understanding of
Asian American culture,
said Kristina Wong, an
Asian American comedian.
She said that as more media emerges, those perceptions could broaden, too.
Wong knew “American
Girl” well: the show came
out when she was in high
school.
Now, viewing Fresh Off
the Boat, Wong appreciates how Constance Wu’s
character Jessica Huang is
depicted as a “tiger mom”
but shows her vulnerabilities throughout the series’
first season.
The stereotype is that
Asian Americans just show
up and magically achieve
success, she said.
“We’re not these machines,” Wong said.
And that, Lu said, is progress.
Even the title of the show
switched up the traditional
meaning of the phrase “fresh
off the boat” to show Asians
adjusting into a new culture,
she said — “not as a slur, but
embracing the issue.”
“It takes ownership of the
term,” she said.
Follow Beena @thebeenster.
August 14, 2015 | AAJA VOICES
7
Japan Film Festival continues through Sunday
By Timmy Truong
Festivals in San Francisco’s Japantown often
celebrate traditions with
centuries of history.
But a newer event in the
Bay Area this week aims to
celebrate contributions of
modern Japanese culture.
The Japan Film Festival
of San Francisco is back
for it’s third year, offering
up an eclectic selection for
AAJA convention-goers
with a little free time. It
continues through Sunday
as part of the larger J-pop
Summit showcasing Japanese music, pop culture,
fashion, cinema, food, spirits, art and technology.
The film festival itself will
screen 24 cinematic works
in styles ranging from
anime, live-action, documentary and short film that
span genres such as science
fiction, historical drama,
crime drama, and much
more.
Manami Libioshi, executive director of the festival, helped start after she
noticed a void in availability of Japanese film in the
Bay Area. Some festivals
showcased Japanese film
but never focused on them.
Avid fans of Japanese
cinema had no source that
catered to them, she said.
“Out of over 600 films
released in Japan every
year, we can introduce only
24 films at our festival this
year,” Libioshi said. “But
still I am trying to choose
the films that represent the
status of Japan right now
with universal themes that
anyone can relate to.”
A clear theme in a handful of themes in this year’s
films is stagnation, Libioshi
said.
In a case of art imitating
life, it stems from a stasis that followed the 2011
earthquake and ensuing tsunami that killed
thousands that led to the
Fukushima nuclear disaster.
Japan still suffers from
the debilitating effects of
the earthquake and is still
rebuilding, which has affected its society negatively.
“I can easily see a sense of
stagnation in many Japanese films these days that
must [be] a reflection of
our society,” Libioshi said.
But some films are more
uplifting, Libioshi said.
“I also notice that more
films are made on the
theme of women regaining
their voice, strength and
independence,” she said. A
few of the films that fit that
bill include “Kakekomi,”
“Pale Moon,” “100 Yen
Love,” and “0.5 mm.”
Follow Timmy
@timmaytusa.
IF YOU GO
The Japan Film Festival of San
Francisco continues through
Sunday at The New People
Cinema, 1746 Post Street, San
Francisco, CA 94115.
FRIDAY
“Our Family” 7 p.m.
Kabukicho Love Hotel 9:20pm
SATURDAY
“100 Yen Love” 12 p.m.
“TOKYO SHORT SHORTS 2015: A
New Generation of 5 short films”
2:30 p.m.
“The Birth of Saké” 4:30 p.m.
“The Tale of The Princess Kaguya” 7 p.m.
SUNDAY
“The Birth of Saké” 4:30 p.m.
“INITIATION LOVE” 2:30 p.m.
“0.5mm” 5 p.m.
AAJA Voices thanks CNN for its support of
the 2015 student project.
8
August 14, 2015
AAJA VOICES
9
OPENING RECEPTION
The 2015 AAJA national convention kicked off Wednesday in the
grand ballroom at the Hyatt Regency in downtown San Francisco.
Festivities included a lion dance, thank you acknowledgments to convention sponsors, including Buick, and a welcome from convention
co-chairs Kevin Lee and Donna Tam as well as AAJA president Paul
Cheung and executive director Kathy Chow. | Photos by VOICES staff
10
AAJA VOICES | August 14, 2015
Bay Area chapter plans
cross-cultural cookbook release
By Yanan Wang
Standing on the rooftop,
George Chen looked almost
regal.
It was a sunny day in San
Francisco, the city’s vast
expanse of hills and colorful
houses free of fog.
With his hands on his
hips, Chen moved his hulking frame towards the edge
and looked down at the Chinatown alleyway that would
become the private entrance
to his forthcoming high-end
Chinese restaurant, 8 Tables
by George Chen - one part
of his plan for a four-story
culinary and retail complex
called China Live.
“You ever meet a Chinese
person who doesn’t like to
eat?” he chuckled. “There’s
not many.”
Chen is one of the 25 local
chefs whose recipes are
featured in the AAJA San
Francisco Bay Area chapter’s
East West Eats cookbooks,
which compiles recipes from
big culinary names in the
city with hunger-inducing
photos by award-winning
AAJA photographers.
The project, conceived
several years ago and now in
the final stages of production, began as an offshoot
of the chapter’s annual East
West Eats culinary showcase, where many of the
same chefs demonstrated
their prowess in the kitchen
to captivated crowds. Both
cookbook and showcase aim
to raise funds for an AAJA
student scholarship.
“It was like having a wedding every year,” Ryan Kim,
a former chapter president
who initiated the venture,
Chef and restaurateur, George Chen, featured in the Asian American Journalists Association’s new cook book titled East West Eats, points out
the back alley entrance of one of his new restaurants. San Francisco, California, August 13, 2015. TIMMY TRUONG / VOICES.
said of the event. The idea
of the cookbook was to take
away the burden of planning
such a large affair while still
upholding hometown eating
traditions.
The book, which features
everything from snow pea
shoot dumplings to croissant bread pudding, is
slated for official publication
this fall. It is available for
pre-sale orders on Indiegogo and at Hyatt Regency
during the AAJA national
convention.
In addition to Chen, the
cookbook’s roster includes
other major players in the
San Francisco food scene
like Belinda Leong of B.
Patisserie and Charles Phan
of Slanted Door, in the Ferry
Building near the convention.
As Bay Area chapter member Patti Tom notes in the
publication’s “Letter from
the Editor,” the unconventional path that renowned
Vietnamese chef Phan took
to reach his level of success
is inspiring to young Asian
American journalists facing
a comparably uncertain
future.
“The intersection of Asian
cuisine and AAJA makes
sense as a way to support
and give coverage to under-recognized communities,” Tom writes, “and to
encourage the Bay Area’s
youth to pursue their career
dreams.”
Phan exemplifies that
spirit, as Tom points out.
He “wasn’t always known
as the inventor of modern
Vietnamese cuisine in the
United States.”
Prior to his foray into
the restaurant business, he
studied architecture at UC
Berkeley, designed clothing
and even sold software.
Through these varied experiences, he realized that
what he enjoyed most of all
was supporting his family
through the kitchen.
Today, the Slanted Door is
one of the highest-grossing
independent restaurants
in California, according to
Restaurant Business mag-
azine.
No less ambitious than
Phan, Chen is on a mission
to prove to consumers that
Chinese food doesn’t have
to be cheap — and that soy
sauce can be as diverse as
olive oil.
“Most Americans think it’s
just red cap, green cap,” he
said. Chen’s recipes in East
West Eats include mapo
tofu and “Mom’s Favorite
Pot Stickers,” which he made
in his home kitchen using a
cast iron pan.
Ever the stickler for
authenticity, Chen said, “If
they don’t actually stick to
the pan, you’re cheating.”
Follow Yanan @yananw.
August 14, 2015 | AAJA VOICES
11
Non-profit organization Motherland Nepal traveled with a relief team to Nepal after an earthquake struck the country on April 25, 2015. Nepali people in the Bay Area tracked the
earthquake, and the second tremor that hit on May 12, through Facebook. Courtesy of Anil Pandey.
Internet, social media expedite disaster news reporting
By Merinda Valley
One evening last spring,
Anil Pandey was alone in his
home office at about 11 p.m.,
catching up with a close
friend in Nepal via Facebook
chat when his newsfeed began to fill with posts about
an earthquake.
From those updates, rife
with exclamations of “Oh,
my God,” Pandey learned of
the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Nepal
on April 25. Although the
disaster zone was thousands
of miles from his home in El
Sobrante, California, Pandey
found out about the earthquake within 20 minutes of
its occurrence.
“Facebook was the best
medium for us to get information,” Dahal said. “Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp,
all these social media are the
most powerful.”
Pandey, 51, is among a
growing number of people
who find their news and
ethnic content from Facebook and other social media
platforms. He is chairman
for Motherland Nepal, a
non-profit social and cultural organization, and the
honorary public relations
representative of the Nepal
Tourism Board for San
Francisco.
The earthquake and a
second tremor in May killed
more than 8,600 people and
injured twice that number,
according to an incident report by Nepal Disaster Risk
Reduction Portal. Many Nepali living in the Bay Area
received news of the earthquakes from Facebook —
not from traditional media
outlets, such as newspapers
and broadcast news reports
Harihar Dahal, 43, of
Sunnyvale, California, heard
about the first earthquake
from his nephew in Kathmandu. The nephew was
typing a Facebook post from
the doorway of his house as
people were running out of
the crumbling buildings.
As his Facebook friends
in Nepal uploaded pictures
and posted descriptions
of the destruction, Dahal
viewed the changes in the
landscape of his home country nearly in real time.
A new study published
by Pew Research Center in
association with the John
S. and James L. Knight
Foundation shows that
Facebook is growing rapidly
as a source of news. Sixty-three percent of Facebook
users surveyed reported
getting news from the social
networking site. That is a
notable increase from 2013,
when 47 percent of Facebook users considered it a
news source. The trend is
independent of overall site
usage, which has been stable
since 2013.
Daniel C. Tsang, a librarian in Asian American
studies, political science and
economics at the University
of California-Irvine, said
accessibility and affordability contribute to immigrant
communities’ use of social
media for news.
“It’s become the norm for
people of color and immigrant groups to first use
Facebook, for instance, to
communicate,” Tsang said.
Tsang followed the Umbrella Movement that occupied city streets in his native
Hong Kong from September
to December 2014 through
Facebook. Activists leading
the political protests used
the site to communicate
directly with their audience.
In the aftermath of the
earthquake in Nepal, media
outlets in the Bay Area did
not have access to information about the disaster.
Pandey turned to Facebook,
phone calls and accounts
from Nepali journalists
to keep the community
informed.
“Actually, I was the main
source for Bay Area TV and
newspaper,” Pandey said.
“They don’t know anything
much more than us because
we have a direct connection through Facebook and
Viber.”
Pandey and others from
Motherland Nepal created
a Facebook post and tagged
those they knew were safe
in Nepal, or asked them to
tag themselves. Without
Internet access, some were
slow to respond. Pandey
also called members of the
See Quake, PAGE 12
12
AAJA VOICES | August 14, 2015
Vegetarian options don’t take an ask, just an order
By Aneri Pattani
When I stepped onto Market Street, more than 3,000
miles from home, aromas
reminiscent of my mother’s
kitchen immediately greeted
me. I inhaled the familiar
scents of slightly sour, fermented dosa batter and spicy
potato filling as I took in my
first view of The City by the
Bay.
With my suitcase still in
hand just outside Embarcadero Station, I spotted a
South Indian food cart. It
was the first of its kind I had
seen outside of India and the
only I had ever seen advertising dosa as vegan-friendly.
I had truly arrived in San
Francisco.
Before this week, I’d only
spent a few days on the West
Coast. As a life-long vegetar-
From Quake, PAGE 3:
Nepali community in the
Bay Area to check on their
relatives in Nepal.
“We did a lot of work for
a couple of days, making
sure everyone is safe,” Pandey said.
Facebook’s Safety Check
aided their efforts. The feature, launched in October
2014, was developed after
the 2011 earthquake and
tsunami in Japan. It sends
users a push notification if
the current location listed
on their profile is in a crisis
area. The Safety Check notification asks the user, “Are
you safe?” Users can post
“I’m safe,” or “I’m not in the
area,” in response, and also
account for others whom
they know are safe. Users
can filter their friends list
to determine who has been
marked safe and who has
not responded.
On April 30, Facebook
ian born in Connecticut atvegan ice cream sandwiches.
tending college in Boston, I
This was no longer Boston,
was thrilled by the prospect
where I searched food truck
of vast food options here.
menus for an item with
My Californian
minimal meat
friends had told
and then asked
tales of vegan
for a substituoptions in any
tion.
restaurant and
My dietary
vegetarian
preferences
meals on every
were now a norcorner. I didn’t
mal part of the
believe them.
menu.
But this week
Even in the
in San Francisrelatively limitco has proved
ed realm of food
them right.
truck cuisine,
Aneri Pattani
At the SoMa
there were still
StrEat Food
so many choicPark, food
es. I didn’t have
trucks offered vegetarian
to take a 30-minute T ride
udon bowls, vegan tofu
to the North End for Italian
salads, and Latin American
or walk the 20 minutes to
empanadas. Pictures adverChinatown for Asian food,
tised vegan paella, Medias I often do in Boston. All
terranean falafel, and even
this diversity was in one
CEO Mark Zuckerberg
posted on his timeline
about the efficacy of Safety
Check after the first earthquake in Nepal.
“We activated Safety
Check and more than 7
million people in the area
have been marked as safe.
More than 150 million
friends were notified and
those updates let people
rest easier and relief efforts
remain focused,” he wrote.
With Nepal’s population
of 29 million, that equates
to about one-fourth of Nepalis being accounted for
by Safety Check.
Nevertheless, Pandey
said electricity outages and
disconnected phone lines
prevented him from reaching some of his relatives in
Nepal for almost a week.
For Sapana Sharma, 37,
of El Cerrito, California,
coverage of the earthquake
was overwhelming.
Sharma typically relies
on online news published in
Nepal instead of local and
national U.S. media coverage of South Asian events.
With infrastructure disabled after the quakes, Nepalese media sources were
publishing news through
Facebook instead of their
own websites, so Sharma
looked there for updates.
Sharma, who immigrated
from Kathmandu to the
United States in 2002, has
a brother, uncles, aunts and
cousins in Nepal. Facebook
Messenger was the only
way she could contact those
relatives and her cousin in
neighboring India. When
Viber and Twitter were
ineffective, Facebook was
reliable.
“And that is one of the
reasons I am so thankful for
Facebook,” Sharma said.
Follow Merinda @merindaleana.
parking lot in San Francisco.
I wondered: “Is this how
most people feel in a restaurant, when they can order
nearly every item on the
menu?”
I wasn’t the only one buzzing with excitement.
Kendra Eckblad, a San
Francisco native and
University of Southern
California student eating
vegetarian udon at SoMa
on Tuesday, said she loved
how most trucks provided
vegetarian options that were
very similar to the original
cuisine.
“You still get the type of
food that the place is known
for, as opposed to getting a
completely different menu,”
she said.
Food truck owners seemed
cognizant of this demand.
Miguel Vimes, owner of
From Hechenova,
PAGE 3:
self and just feel comfortable doing that.
Why should college students apply to the AAJA
VOICES?
Well, first, let’s be honest,
when you’re in college, you
don’t have a lot of money,
and really, VOICES does
help you out financially.
But that’s not the only
reason why you should get
involved. It’s just a great
opportunity to be exposed
to different mediums of
journalism, and then, again,
connect with professionals
who can really help you in
your career, and bottom
line, it’s just a lot of fun.
What advice do you have
for future student participants before starting the
AAJA VOICES Program?
Calpe Paella food truck, said
he added vegan paella and
gazpacho to the menu when
he noticed patrons asking for
vegan options.
Thomas Eng, owner of Lil
Burma food truck, which
advertises four vegan options
and a spread of vegetarian
choices, said the meat-free
items make up at least 20
percent of his daily sales.
As I explored the SoMa
food truck park and enjoyed
some vegan paella, I wondered if the ubiquity and
diversity in vegetarian food
that I discovered in San
Francisco would make it to
Boston anytime soon.
Will I ever step out of a T
station and smell dosa on
the street? That’s the dream.
Follow Aneri @apattani95.
Be as prepared as possible.
Read other AAJA VOICES
articles. Really ask around,
maybe former participants,
even alumni, and see what
helped them. I think if you
go into it doing your research and just soaking it in
when you get there, that’s
the best way to experience
it.
Any final thoughts on the
AAJA VOICES Program?
I love AAJA VOICES. I
met some of my best friends
through the program. I still
keep in touch with some of
the other alumni, and it’s
really great to see everybody
as students move forward
in their careers, and I really
recommend the program for
anyone.
Follow Angelie @AngelieMeehan.
August 14, 2015 | AAJA VOICES
Evrybit
ICIS
VOICES also appreciates our
sponsorship from individual AAJA
member supporters and the
following AAJA chapters:
New York, Los Angeles and Texas
13
14
AAJA VOICES | August 14, 2015
Like a handstand, street performing San
Francisco family’s life is a balance
By Aneri Pattani
Forget balancing a checkbook.
Orion Griffiths spends
his days balancing atop
a wooden board perched
on a rolling cylinder. The
27-year-old street performer entertains scores of San
Francisco spectators who
look on in awe as he juggles
clubs and stands on his
hands, without falling 10
feet.
Most people would probably opt for the checkbook
task, but Griffiths loves his
job. He’s a member, along
with his parents and adult
siblings of the Sardine
Family Circus—named
for a funny scene in which
the Griffiths piled out of a
packed RV.
“When you make somebody smile and laugh when
you’re performing and you
shock them from the talent
you’re doing, then you’re
serving somebody,” Griffiths
said. “And I believe there’s
no greater thing than serving somebody.”
Orion and his seven siblings grew up as part of the
traveling circus that their
parents, John and Pauline Griffiths, began in the
1980s.
The couple, who lived
in England when they
were younger, had often
discussed exploring the
world. They didn’t consider it seriously until John
met a group of musicians
called the Tibetan Ukranian
Mountain Troupe in 1984 at
the Stonehenge Festival for
traveling performers.
“I just happened to be
driving by one day – wearing a suit, driving a nice car,
The Sardine Family Circus performs near Pier 39 in San Francisco. The circus has been putting on shows in
the Bay Area for five years. Courtesy of the Sardine Family Circus.
going from one business appointment to the next,” John
Griffiths recalled, “when I
got to meet this small circus
group.”
After speaking with
the members about their
lifestyle, John and Pauline
decided they wanted to
experience life on the road
as well.
The timing was perfect.
The parent company for
the alternative fuel store
that John ran had just gone
bankrupt. He decided to
finish his last few contracts
and sell the store.
They set out the following
spring – living out of their
RV, homeschooling their
children and performing
music wherever they went.
It wasn’t until later that the
family took on circus acts.
“It started with just music,
and the circus slowly crept
in and then overtook the
music,” John said.
The children picked up
juggling, acrobatics, contortions and unicycling on the
road. Orion was 7 when he
started performing.
“Traveling was fun because we would get to do so
many different things every
day,” Orion said. “We missed
out on normal school and
that part of life, but we did
develop a very good sense of
what the world is really like.”
The lifestyle also strengthened their sibling bonds.
“We didn’t have a group of
friends,” Orion said. “Your
close friends were your
brothers and sisters. You develop not just a respect, but
a full trust, and it definitely
makes it a little easier [to
perform together].”
In 2003, John decided
to bring the family to the
United States after seeing
American performers in
Switzerland. He wanted
his children to develop the
same level of showmanship.
After years performing in
Boston and Key West, Fla.,
the Sardine Family Circus
moved to San Francisco
about five years ago. They
frequently perform at Pier
39 and Fisherman’s Wharf.
Now the act centers on
three siblings: Orion, Alex,
and Meisje, as well as Meisje’s husband, Kevin. John
and Pauline have mostly
retired.
But the family is still a
unit, they all agreed.
“We’re very family-oriented,” Orion said. “You can do
your own thing, but you stay
tight as a group.”
John said the best performances come from being a
family.
“We’re a team,” he said.
“When we’re all on stage
together, we’re a force.”
Follow Aneri @apattani95.
August 14, 2015 | AAJA VOICES
15
Journalism start-ups join tech
giants in Silicon Valley
By Yanan Wang and
Parminder Deo
Two years ago, Ryan
Singel had a routine.
He worked at Wired.
com, where he wrote
and edited stories
about cybersecurity,
tech policy, startups,
search engines and
more — name an issue
impacting Silicon
Valley, and it was likely
that he’d covered it
during his decade on
the job.
“There’s a rhythm to
publishing,” he said.
Pitch meeting in the
morning. Five-hundred-word story filed
in the afternoon. Then
some back and forth
between the art department, editors, the
copy desk. Publication
by nightfall.
As the office became
more digitally-driven,
the pace of Singel’s
routine increased, but
the technology he was
using didn’t get more
intelligent.
“That’s what frustrated me,” he said.
“The quality of the
tools wasn’t keeping
up with the velocity of
the changes in online
publishing.”
So he ditched rhythm
to enter an unpredictable world.
In 2012, Singel left
Wired.com to build
the solution that he
had been looking for.
His startup, Contextly, is an engagement
platform aimed at
keeping readers on
their clients’ websites,
whether that is a
major metropolitan
newspaper like the
Dallas Morning News
or a niche website like
Adafruit, which bills
itself as “the best place
online for learning
electronics.”
Many of Singel’s clients are media startups themselves, which
makes experimentation a major part of
their relationship.
He’s not alone in
trying to tap into the
growing demand for
media technologies
as traditional outlets
scramble to find ways
to keep up with a
changing readership
landscape. Matter, the
public media accelerator from which Contextly emerged, has
now cycled through
its fourth class of
startups after being
founded two years
ago with the mission
to support “ventures
that have the potential to change media
for good.”
The results so far
have been varied.
SpokenLayer, another Matter startup,
is currently in the
process of signing
on high-profile news
organizations as clients. A digital audio
platform that turns
articles into audio
recordings, SpokenLayer is joining a slew
of journalism startups
tapping into the markets beyond writing.
“There’s already so
much competition for
visual time,” founder
Will Mayo said. “We’re
one of the few companies trying to access
people on auditory
channels.”
SpokenLayer has
found that the amount
of time spent on an article increases from 10
seconds to 15 minutes
when accompanied by
an audio track.
Meanwhile, other
Matter ventures like
Beatroot, an analytics system for digital
publishing, have since
been discontinued. So
goes the world of startups.
“At its heart, Matter
is about community
and culture,” Matter
managing partner
Corey Ford said. “It is a
collaborative community by design because
that’s how innovation
happens.”
In Mountain View,
California, where companies like Google are
based, a startup called
OZY Media also finds
its home. The international online magazine
- backed by Silicon
Valley notables including Laurene Powell
Jobs, wife of the late
Apple co-founder Steve
Jobs - employs former
professionals from
companies as diverse
as VICE and Goldman Sachs, branding
itself as writing for the
“change generation.”
“I think a change
generation has shown
up,” said OZY founder
Carlos Watson, “and
the people who are often running the shops
don’t see it.”
Jim Brady, owner
of Philadelphia news
startup Billy Penn,
agreed that most
traditional media
organizations are still
playing catch-up. The
rate at which technologies have emerged for
digesting media has far
outpaced the internal
growth of newspapers
and magazines. He
was executive editor
of washingtonpost.
com for four years and
also is former editor-in-chief of Digital
First Media.
Journalists should
never have been surprised by the increasing prominence of
digital outlets, Brady
said. But they were.
“The Internet used to
be viewed as a distraction,” Brady said. “Now
no one is debating
whether the Internet is
the future.”
Now that anyone
with a computer can
upload blog posts
online, he noted,
established publica-
tions can no longer be
the “gatekeepers” they
once were.
“If you’re sitting
there trying to yell at
anyone who can publish, you’re screaming
into the wind,” Brady
said. “What you have
to do is put yourself
a little bit farther
downstream — to look
at everything that’s
coming out of this fire
hose and separate the
facts from the fancy,
the propaganda from
the truth.”
Follow Yanan @
yananw and Parminder @Parde0.
16
AAJA VOICES | August 14, 2015
VOICES thanks the San Francisco
Chronicle and Lodi News-Sentinel
for generously sponsoring the
printing of the student publication
for the Asian American Journalists
Association 2015 convention.
Lodi News-Sentinel
www.lodinews.com