#fieldtripfriday

Submitted by Cindy Nguyen, Development and Communications Intern July 17, 2018

Pulitzer Center representative introducing Vox Media

Visiting Vox Media

It’s #FieldTripFriday! 6th and 7th graders from Johnson Middle School along with teacher Candrisse Watkins visited Vox Media for a workshop and tour of the office. Vox Media, Inc is a modern media company that utilizes online platforms and digital forms of storytelling for reporting on news and stories. The students had an in-class workshop at their school the week before to prep them for the visit. Hannah, who works with Pulitzer Center, introduced us to the lobby area, and then to Eliza Barclay, who gave the students a rundown on her job as a senior editor. After some questions from the students, Eliza took us on a tour of the Vox Media office. 

Beginning the tour! Photos of Vox Media employees on the right wall.

Touring the office of article editors and sound editors.

The most exciting part was seeing all of the editors and producers in action, working at their desk, and having meetings. The students were excited to talk to Griffin, who works in sound production. They got to hear him explain how he works with audio to use podcasts. They also met Alex, who does research on sports news. When he asked the students to share their own favorite sports teams, they were really excited to answer and learn more. Eliza made sure to lead the tour in a way that was not only interactive, but a learning experience that opened the students’ eyes to the possibility of pursuing a career in journalism and media.

After seeing both levels of the office, the students went back down to the lobby area to hear from Christina Animashaun and Gina Barton, both of whom are content creators at Vox Media.

Christina, a graphic designer, led a workshop that demonstrated the steps to reporting news through a visual design perspective. She shared some of her own design work, including a recent image she made for Vox’s article on the mental health of Asian Americans.

Pictured: Christina Animashaun

Gina presented to the students a video she created for Vox on Youtube - How poaching is changing the face of African elephants - and asked for their opinions on the content of the video, and what aspects of the video made it compelling. The students got to hear about how Gina pitches dozens of ideas to her senior editor before they choose one and provide her the resources to make her idea happen.

Pictured: Gina Barton. Source: How poaching is changing the face of African elephants (Vox Media)

Since the students will be brainstorming to create their own news stories in a later in-class workshop, Eliza encouraged the students to revisit what they learned today, and named four factors that are important in crafting compelling stories: Tension. Impact. Imagination. Perspective.

Even as an intern joining in on the tour, I felt inspired to look more into digital storytelling after hearing from Vox representatives and how passionate they are about the work they do. Thank you to the Pulitzer Center and Vox Media for hosting these journalism workshops!

The tour is over!

Quick Links

Content produced by Christina Animashaun and Gina Barton

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