Crossing Jefferson and McClintock

At peak rush hours, hordes of bicyclists, skateboarders and pedestrians charge through the Jefferson Boulevard and McClintock Avenue intersection. While the streetlight timer counts down the seconds, a young woman strolls and chatters on her cell phone, people on cruiser bikes zoom in every direction, and students late for class dodge traffic. Light after light, people repeatedly break into their chaotic paths, and, except for the rare collision, no one has ever been injured, according to DPS Capt. David Carlisle.

The willy-nilly patterns of the junction demonstrate a shared defiance of authority. Official California law requires bicyclists to walk their bike in the crosswalk. But they hardly ever do. Most keep pedaling and ignore common courtesies of yielding to a mother and her child or slowing down before a large group.

Ashley Dotterweich, a junior majoring in English, meanders through the intersection at least four times a day to and from the USC campus. “It’s mostly making big arcs around everybody. People on bikes forget how to steer. They do this thing—” Dotterweich gestures like she is swiveling handlebars from side to side, “—like they don’t know where they’re going. It’s like, just choose a direction, already.”

Pedestrians concede the right-of-way to bigger, faster clusters of bike riders. Gliding off the curb like a flock of birds taking flight, the bike riders’ feet seldom touch the ground. Elevated on their seats, few yell out warnings to people in the way. In the absence of language, subtle gestures – a nod of the head, a slight shift to the right to allow someone to pass on your left, a sudden decrease in speed – govern the arena.

American intersections are masculine: one street joins another at a perpendicular angle. Unlike roundabouts in France, which guide pedestrians and cars in a circle, square intersections foster aggressive movements. Slower people shrink their strides, never straying outside the white parallel lines, while faster people cut careless swaths. For those who travel at medium speeds, navigating between slow and fast crossers requires flexible decision-making.

“You’re going, you’re flowing, letting someone by,” said Amanda Ashley, a senior majoring in communication who rides a neon green cruiser bike. “Everyone has formed their own mini-lane.”

The unpredictability of the intersection, the flirting with the “possibility of improvisation” as Richard Schechner wrote, is a charged field of free expression. People rumor that at the end of every month, police officers, looking out of place with their strapped helmets and tight-fitted navy uniforms, monitor the intersection to ticket and fine bicyclists who do not walk their bikes. Seeing someone walking their bike could signify the presence of a cop – common street knowledge. After the police arrive, everyone walks their bike. When they haven’t been seen for weeks, bicyclists resort to familiar law-breaking habits.

Staying Optimistic as a Journalism Student

This post was originally published at Free Press, an organization promoting new public policies for journalism.

When I walked into my arts reporting class, statistics from the latest "State of the Media" report were written on the whiteboard like an epitaph on a tombstone.

“That’s depressing,” one classmate said in a defeated tone. My professor, Sasha Anawalt, director of the USC Annenberg/Getty Arts Journalism Program and former dance critic for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, turned around with a grin on her face. The statistics were, in fact, uplifting news. “Wanna know why?” Anawalt asked our confused class.

We had heard the gloomy facts so often, we were jaded. A report about newspaper advertising revenues falling 25 percent from 2008 to 2009 was no longer astonishing. But as my professor pointed out, there are reasons to be optimistic. Chaos creates new order, and we’re seeing opportunities for growth even in a crumbling industry.

Consider this: More than half of Internet users are also involved in social media, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism. And now, the dominant form of communication is the cell phone. These evolving cultural phenomenon are paving the way for an emerging media era where new and innovative forms of journalism are possible, and as a student and growing journalist, I’m excited.

Larry Jinks, a McClatchy Company board member, said that the answer to creating order will be young reporters who understand technology and have a passion for the craft of journalism. I know it will be tough during the transition, but I think people who are truly passionate about reporting the truth will survive and help pioneer new business models. They will be able to adapt to new styles of journalism – professional and amateur, commercial and nonprofit, public and university-supported. Some professional news organizations are partnering with universities for content. For example, USC Annenberg graduate students partnered with California Watch to produce an interactive series on hunger in California, which will air on KPCC 89.3 FM radio.

I’m also planning to survive by diversifying my knowledge. In a globalizing world, it’s important to understand issues from many angles, or what author Thomas Friedman calls having a “six-dimensional” perspective. This multifaceted lens includes understanding the intersections of politics, culture, technology, finance, national security and ecology. In order to understand the news industry right now, finance is especially relevant. I have a minor in entrepreneurship, and I completed courses in feasibility analysis and small business management, both of which challenged me to consider myself as a personal brand. Journalists need to be entrepreneurial. They must be resourceful to establish a reputation for credible, high-quality reporting, which will bring value to their work and differentiate it from the blather on the Web. I encourage my peers to take classes in business and technology. This knowledge will come in handy when the baby boomer generation -- including rigid senior news executives – passes the reigns of the world to younger leadership.

I’m already excited by early signs of growth. Alternative news media models are popping up, such as Spot.us, which supports community-funded reporting; Patch.com, which focuses on hyper-local reporting; and FLYP Media, which experiments with different interactive digital layouts. Though I’m graduating in May, I’m full of hope for my future and the next generation of student journalists.