Moderator: Veronica Barriga
Producer: Jasper Harris
Associate Producers: Veronica Barriga, Ethan Hanson, Esteban Reynoso
Anchor: Bridgette Creamer
Social Media Editor: I’maiya Milan Wright
Reporters: Veronica Barriga, Bridgette Creamer, Ethan Hanson, Jasper Harris, Esteban Reynoso, Londy Sagastume and I’maiya Milan Wright
Los Angeles has long been known as the entertainment capital of the nation, but in recent years, it’s also becoming known as the homeless capital. Places like downtown Los Angeles’ Skid Row, Venice Beach, the Los Angeles River bed, and even the sidewalks around City Hall, have become home for many people. According to the Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count, more than 60,000 people in Los Angeles are homeless. All over the county, homeless people are struggling to live, struggling to stay clean, and struggling to get back on their feet — and all of them have stories to tell. But for journalists, covering these stories can present particular challenges.
CSUN Photojournalism Professor David Blumenkrantz has been documenting the lives of homeless people for years, and he said he tries not to show the ugliness of homelessness, but rather tries to show the beauty in the struggle. “We [need to] know them as people, not as a species,” he said. Blumenkrantz said he uses his photography to portray homeless individuals’ struggles.
But journalists and reporters have ethical standards, and Blumenkrantz said he must try to walk the line between what’s right and what’s wrong in his photography.
“[There can be a problem with] how [homeless people are] used, and how they’re presented,” he said. “It depends on their situation, but you try to put a human face to the crisis.”
“[I try to] remove the stigma,” Blumenkrantz said. “We have enough pictures of people in pain and suffering.”
Laura Rathbone is an activist for the homeless, and co-founder of Sisters on the Streets and the Hygiene Campaign, serving homeless people in the San Fernando Valley.
“I remember the first time [I helped a homeless person],” Rathbone said. “I got them connected. [I thought] ‘they’re gonna be off the streets’. But it wasn’t that easy. [It] took them eight months before they finally got off the streets.”
Those months on the street can be especially difficult for women. “Sometimes [homeless women] have to choose between a meal or female hygiene,” Rathbone said. “It’s not right. [Help for women] is needed.” The Hygiene Campaign has opened shower stations and provided soaps, hand sanitizers, and other hygiene products to homeless people, especially women. “And if you see a homeless girl,” Rathbone said, “give her a tampon!”
Blumenkrantz’s work has been exhibited at the Los Angeles Museum of Social Justice. He received the CSUN Exceptional Creative Accomplishments Award last spring for his work covering the homeless community.
Moderator: Londy Sagastume
Executive Producer: Ethan Hanson
Associate Producers: Veronica Barriga, Jasper Harris & Esteban Reynoso
Anchor: I’maiya Milan Wright
Social Media Editor: Bridgette Creamer
Reporters: Veronica Barriga, Ethan Hanson, Jasper Harris, Esteban Reynoso, Londy Sagastume, I’maiya Milan Wright
Moderator: Brandon Benitez
Executive Producer: Tory Isaac
Associate Producer: Andrea Tanchez
Anchor: Andrea Tanchez
Social Media Editor: Samantha Rodriguez
Reporters: Brandon Benitez, Tory Isaac, Nick Logan, Samantha Rodriguez, Andrea Tanchez and Leonard Tesher
Moderator: Jade Davis
Producer: Sammy Shaktah
Anchor: Daniel Martindale
Social Media Editor: Jiani Navarro
Reporters: Jade Davis, Kaylee Kealani, Daniel Martindale, Jiani Navarro and Sammy Shaktah
Over the past several months, women and men have been coming forward with their own personal stories of sexual harassment. With the help of social media, #MeToo stories are spreading.
“I think we all are having a moment right now,” CSUN Title IX Coordinator Susan Hua said. “Whether a survivor is male or female, I think people are breaking the silence … You’re seeing sports figures, you’re seeing politicians, and men in powerful positions, being held accountable for sexual harassment and sexual misconduct. I think [#MeToo is] really giving not only a voice through social media and technology and how that’s impacting this movement, but also allowing people who might not have spoken up years ago … to feel like now there’s support for them.”
The #MeToo movement has encouraged many people to speak up about sexual harassment, and that lets even more victims know that they are not alone.
“I talked to several women who had kept information to themselves for 40 or 50 years, but now feel like coming out,” said Betsy Butler, Executive Director of the California Women’s Law Center. “More than that, they’re ready to make change happen, and it starts with policing. So many levels of action need to take place now, and mindsets [need to] change here in this country. It’s a different culture we need to look at.”
Bringing conversations about sexual violence into the mainstream helps remove the stigma for survivors, by showing how sexual harassment has affected the lives of many men and women.
“Part of the oppression of women is that we think we’re alone, and we think that our personal difficulties, or our harassment stories or whatever, are individual, and they never are.” CSUN Gender and Women’s Studies Professor Jennifer Berry said. “I think this is what the MeToo movement has done, is [demonstrate] that you are not alone. Not only are you not alone, we’re building an army.”
Despite the numbers of people coming out with their own personal stories, a lot of victims have not come forward, and Hua said some may not know how to bring grievances or talk about their experiences. She said students and faculty at CSUN are able to report any sexual harassment case through the Title IX Office.
“We have done extensive training, with both our students and employees, making sure that students know who they can go to as confidential resources here on campus,” Hua said. “That’s usually our counselors, our mental health advisors, and our victims advocate on campus…. Knowing the different resources [survivors] can access on campus [helps, and] I think we are seeing an increase of survivors who feel that they are ready to talk about their experiences, and as they are continuing to process their experiences, to get help, and to hold individuals accountable.”
But it still may be hard for some victims to come forward with their story, even if they have the resources and people available to them.
“Some women will never come forward,” Butler said. “You know, a lot of these situations [involve people whom] they know, and so they have to grapple with whether they want to bring it all out in the open. These aren’t generally strangers, particularly on campus, who have assaulted them or harassed them.”
Hua said that students’ cultural backgrounds and legal status can also be a factor.
“CSUN is such a diverse community,” she said, “and we have undocumented students who may not want to go above the radar, even though they have been victimized … Or we have cultural differences, in which someone, for example, from an Asian culture, might feel like [they] can’t talk about it, because that’s airing [their] dirty laundry or bringing shame to [their] family.”
Legal experts said movements like #MeToo are only the beginning, and that much more needs to happen in order to prevent sexual harassment.
“I think we can do better,” Berry said. “I think we can have higher expectations of men; I think we can believe women, and work with young people and care deeply about their lives. I think us older people [need] to remember how young and hopeful we all start out, and keep that hope alive.”
Moderator: Heatherann Wagner
Producer: Haley Spellman
Anchor: Lauren Turner Dunn
Social Media Editors: Cammeron Parrish and Jacob Gonzalez
Reporters: Jacob Gonzalez, Katherine Molina, Cammeron Parrish, Haley Spellman, Lauren Turner Dunn and Heatherann Wagner
More women are participating in sports today, from youth to pro athletics, but you wouldn’t exactly know that by watching television. A USC study shows that in 1989, five percent of television news media covered female athletics, but in 2014 the percentage had decreased to three percent, and the representation of women in sports media lacks substance as well.
“The number of girls or women [who are] participating in sports in the United States is some 40 percent,” said CSUN Professor of Kinesiology Chris Bolsmann, “so if we’ve got only four percent coverage, for me it suggests what is taking place is just a replication of inequality within society. Sport is an interesting vehicle or lense to look at society. If we look at the patriarchal nature of our society, and more recently the misogynistic nature of our society, that is a reflection of that more generally.”
Title IX is the federal law within the Education Act of 1972 that gave way for equal opportunity, protection from discrimination based on sex, and protection of benefits based on sex. Since its passage, the United States has seen a rapid increase in women’s participation in sports. That increase in women’s participation in sports, from the youth level to pro, hasn’t led to an increase in women’s sports coverage, but it has been extremely beneficial for giving opportunities to women within athletics within the last 40 years.
“Sometimes change requires law, and sometimes change requires some enforcement,” said CSUN’s Associate Athletics Director of Marketing Dawn Ellerbe,” because even now, in 2016, every university, high school, and junior high hasn’t embraced the equal play for women. Without [Title IX], I don’t think we would have seen the rise in women’s sports.”
The future of women’s sports might very well be the inclusion and integration of the best women within athletics competing with and against men. From real life representations like Little League World Series sensation Mo’ne Davis, to dramatized versions for Hollywood like Fox’s Pitch, maybe more and more women within predominantly male sports will become more accepted.
“The question we should possibly be asking is, ‘Why do we have gendered sports in the first place?’” Bolsmann asked. “Should we not be talking about having not-gendered sports, so if somebody is good enough, without respect to if they are male or female, they can play on a team? If we have a level playing field of some sorts and open it up to competition on the basis of being a human, rather than being a man or a women, we could move into some interesting spaces and interesting discussions more generally.”
Moderator: Alicia Dieguez
Producer: Susana Guzman
Anchor: Jackie Wawee
Social Media Editor: Nick Torres
Reporters: Alicia Dieguez, Thomas Gallegos, Susana Guzman, Ebony Hardiman, Ke-Alani Sarmiento, Nick Torres and Jackie Wawee
Recently, social media have started setting a high beauty standard for both men and women.
Billions of dollars are spent annually on beauty products in this country, and a study done by a British makeup company found that 68 percent of employers say they would not want to hire women who don’t wear make up.
“One’s sense of self-esteem is hit hard when one feels as though he or she doesn’t measure up to the classic image of the media,” psychologist Yvonne Thomas said.
“The media’s job is to tell a story, ” said Gender and Women’s Studies Professor Shira Brown, Director of the Women’s Research and Resource Center. “The story being told portrays a false sense of image for the average person, especially young boys and girls, whether it’s on television, magazines or the radio…Unfortunately the story being told is [of] a particular body or hair type, which puts pressure on society’s body image.”
The Internet has become the go-to way for finding information. Many people go online to do research about health and beauty, and find the same unrealistic standards of beauty there that they would in traditional media. Experts said those standards have an impact on individuals.
“I got a lot of doors shut on me, and that really actually lowered my self-esteem and I did get anorexia,” said social media model Magi Tcherno. She said she didn’t feel beautiful until she under went a breast augmentation. Tcherno jumpstarted her own modeling career by representing herself online after she was rejected by modeling agencies who told her she wasn’t good enough. It was at that point, she said, that she became more determined and developed the self-confidence to build her own modeling career.
Dove, a personal care products manufacturer owned by Unilever, has built a marketing strategy around increased self-esteem for men and women, partly by showing many different body types and standards in their advertising.
“I believe that good things come when you show diversity in body type; good things come when you show diversity in skin color and height,” Brown said.
Moderator: Delmy Moran
Anchor: Brittni Perez
Producer: Celene Zavala
Social Media Editors: Jordan Williams
Reporters: Delmy Moran, Brittni Perez, Kiesha Phillips, Daniel Saad, Jordan Williams and Celene Zavala
Millions of Muslims around the world have had their religious faith put on trial because of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris, San Bernardino, and Brussels. Some political analysts and American Muslims fear that the battle for the Republican nomination has prompted controversial rhetoric against their religion, including proposals to register Muslims already living in America, order police to patrol their neighborhoods and mosques, and ban any further immigration.
Islamic leaders and imams in several countries say they are not responsible for terrorist organizations, and that terrorists should be recognized as separate from their religious beliefs.
Muslim Public Affairs Council President Salam al-Marayati, said in a news conference in Los Angeles following the San Bernardino attacks, that the Muslim society will not be divided by ignorant hate.
“In the media landscape, one of the only times there is an opportunity for the Muslim voices to be heard is in the aftermath of a terrorist attack,” said Edina Lekovic, Public Affairs Consultant at the Muslim Public Affairs Council. “It sets up one of the few opportunities for there to be a mainstream Muslim voice, but it’s still in the context of bad news.”
Muslim organizations in America say they have seen unprecedented spikes in hateful episodes after anti-Muslim remarks were said by some presidential hopefuls. There have been many cases of vandalism and threats made towards mosques and those who attend them.
“People are going to have fundamentally, deep and profound disagreements about the highest things, and unless they get a sort of grip over themselves (and) learn to contain themselves, (then) these disagreements will find themselves in violence and political violence,” CSUN Political Science Professor Nicholas Dungey said.
“Look we’re all concerned about safety,” Lekovic said, “and that’s something that I react to, too. It’s not a Muslim thing, a white thing, a black thing, a Latino thing…At this stage in our country, it’s an American thing.”
Moderator: Ala Errebhi
Anchor: Noemi Barajas
Producer: Ala Errebhi
Social Media Editors: Jamie Perez and Caitlin Pieh
“# Oscars So White” is the hot topic again this year as preparations get under way for the 88th Academy Awards. This is the second year in a row that all of the nominees in major categories are white.
A Los Angeles Times study found that Oscar voters have a median age of over 60 years old, and are 94 percent Caucasian, and 77 percent male.
“This [year’s group of nominees] is a literal reflection of the members who make up the academy,” actress and comedian Alexandra Karova said. “They are old school dinosaurs; they do not reflect what the people are feeling at all.”
UCLA’s Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies Studies looked at movies, television and digital platforms in 2012 and 2013 in its recent Diversity Report, and found that minorities had only half as many acting roles as whites, and are proportionately under-represented in writing and directing as well. Over the course of its 87 years, only 35 awards have been given to African American actors and actresses, and Halle Berry is the only African-American woman to win best actress, in 2002.
CSUN Africana Studies Professor Marquita Pellerin-Gammage, author of “Representations of Black Women in the Media: The Damnation of Black Womanhood”, said many of the roles offered to African American actors and actresses reflect negative stereotypes.
“African Americans are pigeonholed into these stereotype roles,” she said. “They almost validate the reason why they are not nominated for these types of awards, when they’re only granted such narrow representations.”
Many movie-goers are expressing their concern about the lack of diversity among the nominees on social media platforms, calling this year’s Academy Award nominations ‘a controversy’.
“This is not a controversy, because it has been happening for so long,” Cinema Television and Arts Professor Nate Thomas said. “They need to stop talking and do something about it.”
Some minority actors and actresses are choosing to boycott this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith and director Spike Lee have vowed not to attend this year’s award show.
Karova said she believes that Oscar nominees should not be the only ones who boycott the Oscars this year.
“Do not give them the ratings,” she said. “Let’s give it to the other shows, [who give awards] that are based on talent, not based on appearance. Stop giving [the Oscar telecast] our eyes and money…and start paying attention to shows where people are paying attention to us.”
Moderator: Glenna Dixon
Anchor: Anna Logan
Producer: Harry Abelson
Social Media Editors: Harry Abelson and Jasmin Dalton
Reporters: Jasmin Dalton, Kiara Draper, Anna Logan and October Primavera
Many toy stores and manufacturers divide their merchandise by color and gender. Typically, toys for girls are associated with the color pink, and toys for boys with the color blue. However, some stores this holiday season have announced they are doing away with gender segregation when it comes to toys. And Mattel has released a Barbie doll commercial featuring a boy playing with the doll.
The traditional separation of toys and colors according to gender is not a natural phenomenon, according to CSUN Sociology Professor Dr. Amy Denissen.
“Something like wanting to play with a particular toy — we have really good research that demonstrates that that is something that is socially learned,” she said. “It is not an innate trait or interest that we’re born with, but it’s something that children learn.”
Communications Professor Dr. John Kephart III said these toys, and the expectations that go with them, can affect people into adulthood. Kephart said boys are expected to play competitive sports or games like ‘cops and robbers’, which condition their mind to accomplish set goals. On the other hand, girls play games such as ‘tea party’ or ‘house’, which encourage communication and nurturing. Kephart said this might be one reason why about 50 percent of women who enter into the male-dominated field of technology tend to leave, citing a hostile work environment as the reason. “And so women are tracked into [technology fields] less often in their education; they’re hired less for it structurally; and they feel less comfortable and able to communicate with coworkers once they are there,” Kephart said.
Women who exhibit the so-called masculine behaviors valued in the workplace are stigmatized and sanctioned as being ‘bossy’, rather than becoming the leaders men do when they exhibit the same behavior, Denissen said.
“It’s equally concerning that young boys aren’t encouraged to be emotional,” Kephart said, “or encouraged to show a softer side, or think that they have to compete, or be assertive and to dominate other men and women in order to succeed.”
“I think it would be good for boys to be encouraged to play with dolls,” Gender and Women Studies Professor Dr. Kristyan Kouri said. “It would develop their nurturing skills. When they grow up to be fathers, they will take a more active role in nurturing their children. And girls need to develop those visual spatial skills that things like Legos, Lincoln Logs, and Bionicals teach them as they are building them, and that will maybe be a small step in helping them move into fields like engineering, which is still a male dominated occupation.”
“It’s not that we will be able to get rid of gender,” Kephart said. “But instead [we should] stop saying ‘this gender is better than this gender’, or ‘this sex has to perform this gendered behavior or this gendered role’.”
“Difference isn’t the problem,” Denissen said. “It’s when difference is transformed into distinction, which is when we use difference to create hierarchies, when we use difference to say that one group is superior to or better than another group [that’s the problem]. And I think gender is one of these differences that we’ve created, that is used to create distinctions to say that one group is better than the other.”
“We need to make gender roles more flexible,” Kouri said. “You can be male or female by not conforming to these rigid notions of what a male and female should be, or also maybe creating other genders.”
Moderator: Stephanie Lopez
Anchor: Sara Vong
Producer: Teresa Barrientos
Reporters: Teresa Barrientos, James Lindsay, Stephanie Lopez, Veronica Perez, Sara Vong
Social Media Editors: Veronica Perez and Sara Vong
