I never would have thought that at 36 years old, I would feel those same jitters I did as a kid heading to my first day of school. These butterflies weren’t about fitting in or making friends—they’re the kind that come when you’re standing at the edge of something historic, something that could reshape how Los Angeles—and its future journalists—tells its own stories.
This fall semester at USC, I launched Journalism 499 at USC Annenberg. The class is formally titled “Bridging the Media Gap Between L.A. Influencers and Independent Journalists,” and the idea for it came when I saw the divide getting deeper between new school creators and old school journalists.
It was starting to feel like the old school journalists among us were feeling resentment towards the birth of these new “newsfluencers,” who present news with much more multimedia visual and audio aid than a traditionally published story, because these new creators possessed something that journalists desperately needed: engagement and impressions in this new age of media.
Meanwhile, influencers would often “get inspired” for their own content by taking a lot of the work that journalists would take hours and days and sometimes weeks to produce, without a single bit of attribution. (Which, if we are being real, national broadcast news stations often do with the work of local reporters, also without credit.)
I was inspired by my punk and oi! bringing, which always preaches “Unity!,” when it came to me: Why can’t we meet in the middle and learn from each other?
Journalist-minded writers can learn new tools to expand their storytelling into younger eyes and ears, meanwhile journalism-minded influencers would learn about ethics and tools to create their own original reporting.
After all, we’re all after the same goal: Sharing stories and reaching new audiences.
This is the first class of its kind anywhere: a bridge between the raw energy of influencers and the rigor of traditional journalism, training the next generation in what I’m calling “hybrid reporting,” which picks up where L.A. TACO’s award-winning “street-level” journalism, which was another term that came to me just trying to find solutions for what many say is a dying industry.
The goal is to bring full, fact-checked stories on our site that stand on their own, paired with video versions built for social media that also stand on their own for those “headline readers.”
This isn’t theory. It’s the exact model our team has been perfecting at L.A. TACO for 20 years—street-level, inclusive, unapologetically L.A.-style journalism. A big shout out to our director of social media, Memo “El Tragón” Torres, for innovating the “video headline” style that you all love and see on our social posts every day.
And now, we’re scaling it into a classroom.
To me, this hits deeper than institutional validation. Many years ago, I applied to transfer to USC Annenberg from Pasadena City College. I was rejected. Jonathan Gold—yes, the Jonathan Gold—wrote my recommendation letter. It wasn’t enough then.
But today, we’re not just in the building. We’re rewriting the damn syllabus and hopefully future-proofing journalism. More importantly, this class is an extension of our obsession to cover OUR Los Angeles for decades to come, the way we see it as people who love this city with everything they’ve got.
It’s not about one semester or one cohort—it’s about embedding our DNA into the future of journalism. These students will learn to chase leads in taquerías, fact-check breaking news stories in real time, and turn a viral clip into a 1,500-word investigation. They’ll do it with the same urgency for the raw truth and texture that defines L.A. TACO.
None of this happens without our members. Their support doesn’t just keep the lights on; it funds experiments like this. It turns rejection letters into classrooms. It proves that independent, community-backed media can out-innovate legacy institutions.
The class is part of L.A. TACO’s exciting new project, the L.A. TACO Media Lab. Thank you so much to Amara Aguilar for believing in me, a college dropout, for so many years now, and giving me the framework to make this class finally happen. It’s been an enriching experience to teach this class with you and continue to learn how young people are doing journalism.
And to everyone reading this: If you’re not a member yet, now’s the time.
Tell your friends who still give a damn about being informed and making decisions that don’t just benefit yourself but your neighbors. Tell your group chats with the homies. Tell the skeptic who says journalism is dying. L.A. TACO isn’t just covering Los Angeles—we’re training the generation that will do it long after we’re gone.
This is how we endure. This is how we win.
In solidarity,
Javier Cabral
Editor-in-Chief, L.A. TACO
