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6/1/2017 0 Comments

I’m going on a reporting trip to Tijuana and I need your help

Thanks to a reporting fellowship with the International Women’s Media Foundation, I’ll be spending most of July in Tijuana working on stories about cross-border trends in education and urban infrastructure that are driven by immigration. 

And I’m asking you for a favor. 

Over the next month, I’ll be searching for bilingual education sources and leads both in San Diego (or Southern California) and Tijuana. I want to know what curriculum changes administrators and teachers have made in order to address the needs of migrant children from Mexico and Central America now in their schools. And vise-versa. What are Mexican teachers and administrators doing in order to meet the needs of American students now living in Tijuana and other parts of Baja California? Perhaps you know of a good program or teacher or know of an issue I should be following … Dime! 

I’m also reporting on how urban planners in Tijuana are dreaming up what that metropolis is starting to shape up to be — a diverse city of immigrants: Central Americans, Haitians, Americans, Mexicans and Tijuanaese. I’m specifically interested in housing needs, infrastructure needs for the colonias that have developed into what is now “sprawl,” and what does sharing water resources for San Diego and Tijuana look like in the future.

Does this sound interesting to you? Do you think you can help me? Fantastic! Cuéntame! Send me an email. Tweet me (@erikaaaguilar) or let’s connect somehow. 

Thanks, family! 


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2/10/2017 1 Comment

#NextGenRadio still teaches me

A couple times a year I travel with a group of talented journalists – reporters, editors, web developers, sound engineers and other media experts – teaching young, college students how to produce really good audio. It’s called Next Generation Radio.
 
Next Gen, for short, is my journalism family. I’ve grown up with them.
​
It all started in 2006. I sat in a hotel meeting room in St. Louis anxiously waiting for my name to be called for the category of Best Radio Documentary for the College Broadcasters Inc., awards ceremony. I had produced a short radio piece for my college station KTSW 89.9-FM at Texas State University about Texas music history. (Gosh, I miss college radio – an experimental laboratory you’ll rarely experience again!) That’s when a man lowered a red, black and blue NPR business card before my eyes. No words were needed. I followed him into the hallway.
 
That man’s name is Doug Mitchell (@nextgenradio). He is the founder of Next Generation Radio.
 
The short of the story is I found myself in his radio training workshop the next year. I had just started a job with KEYE-TV in Austin running the assignment desk and helping write and produce for the morning newscasts, and I was enrolled in more than a full schedule of senior-level college courses. (What was I thinking?!) But I signed up for the one-week Next Gen radio workshop anyway held at public radio station KUT 90.5-FM in Austin … and it was one of the best career decisions I’ve ever made.
 
I learned how to produce good radio but mostly, I made lifelong connections with journalists I admire and still learn from today, and consider mentors of mine. (Thanks, Doug. Thanks, Jennifer Stayton.)
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That's me programming settings into a Marantz field recorder during the February 2016 Next Generation Radio training program at KJZZ in Phoenix, AZ.
​Since then, I’ve mentored at several Next Gen training workshops in partnership with the University of Nevada at Reno, KJZZ 91.5-FM in Phoenix, back at KUT 90.5-FM, and soon, in April at KUOW 94.5-FM. I always look forward to these workshops. They’re exhausting because in order for it to really work, as a mentor, you’ve got to be fully committed to inspiring, learning, adapting and helping someone help themselves grow. I always say it’s the one week I work the hardest and play the hardest. 

I tell you this story simply to share something I created for Next Gen. It’s a short animated video explaining how the program works and where we’ll be in April. I’m pretty happy with this thing because it’s another example of how Next Generation Radio has helped me expand my skillset long after my #NextGenRadio student experience in 2007. 
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10/2/2016 0 Comments

Speed mentoring at Cal-State Northridge

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October 2, 2016
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​I get mistaken for a college student a lot. My passive solution to this is to keep a very basic, traditional wardrobe. So, when I was invited Wednesday to participate in a speed mentoring event at Cal-State Northridge, I felt confident my navy trousers, plain white top and brown leather bag would communicate "adultness."

"Hi. What's your name," asked the woman at the check-in table. I answered. She asked if I registered for the event because I wasn't on the list. 

I could feel the heat of embarrassment rising in my neck. Had I arrived too late? (There's some adulting for you.) Maybe they were unimpressed with my work, dropped me and hoped I wouldn't show. I started to mumble about some email invite I got a few weeks ago but then, the nice CSUN student who escorted me from the parking garage to the student center, saved me: "No, no," she said. "She's a mentor. A professional journalist." 

The woman apologized. "I'm sorry," she said. "You look young." I smiled defeated. So much for the basic wardrobe trick. 

After that, I started to question what wisdom could I impart. These college journalists were probably social media stars. Millennial go-getters with video skills I envied.

I walked into the ballroom, anyway. (Technically, I shoved a cookie in my mouth first, then walked in.)

For three hours, I answered all their questions, even ones I didn't know I had answers to!


  • How did you get to where you are?
  • What if a source doesn't respond to your request for comment? 
  • How important is social media?
  • Do you really have to brand yourself? 
  • Is writing important for broadcast? 
  • What is beat reporting? How do you do it? 
  • Can you look at my resume?

About 65 CSUN journalism students attended. I probably met a dozen of them. It was good fun. I realized I knew a lot more about online/digital reporting that I thought. However, the most important lesson I took home -- and hopefully, so did the students -- was that the fundamentals of reporting are your foundation. 

Tell a story with characters and conflict, with research and confirmed facts, with curiosity and good writing. It doesn't matter if it's on social media, TV or in a newspaper; solid reporting and good storytelling are at the heart of all journalism platforms. 

Oh, and I learned that basic clothing doesn't make you look older. But you'll always matc
h.

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9/27/2016 0 Comments

Creative nonfiction writing classes

September 24, 2016

I hate writing.

​That's what I once told my former news director. I know. The gall. You'd think a journalist would delight in the act of translating thoughts, dialogue and information into written word. Not me. 

I only dislike writing because it's a never ending pursuit of perfection. Good writing rarely happens in the first draft. It's the eighth or ninth, and even then, a writer always finds something to improve.

However, I like having had written. And after gathering heaps of reporting material, organizing thoughts into an interesting, cohesive story line is often overwhelming for me. That's why I've decided to take creative nonfiction writing classes with UCLA's Extension certificate program. 

I saved nearly every bit of reporting material over the last 10 years: raw audio interviews, ambient sounds, news articles, research documents, photos, etc. There's got to be a story within these archives that's worth revisiting with unlocked creativity.   

My first class is Monday, September 26. I'll keep y'all posted on how it goes. ​
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