J-School Students Exhibit Multimedia Expertise In Nationally-Published Report

An extraordinary new media project produced by four students at the Graduate School of

Journalism has been published nationally by Univision.

The report, titled Legalizing Death, is a sleek multimedia package in both English and Spanish that was produced for a visual journalism class at the J-school. The project includes a 2,500-word report, original photography, an infographic, and videos.

Second-year students Naomi Nishihara, Mara Van Ells, Nina Zou and Nadine Sebai spent months producing the nuanced report about aid-in-dying laws in America. In it, they tell the story of Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old California woman with terminal cancer who moved to Oregon to take advantage of the state’s aid-in-dying laws. Maynard’s story sets the foundation for the student’s original reporting on California’s subsequent push to pass legislation similar to Oregon’s.

Koci Hernandez, who taught the student’s visual journalism class in the spring and advised them in their reporting and producing, called Legalizing Death “”_by far the most sophisticated first-year new media project produced at the School in recent memory.”

The idea for the story came from Zou, who’s long been interested in the topic and has been closely following the development of aid-in-dying laws.

Producing this story in class took about 15 weeks, and included learning to design, code, photograph and shoot video. “The most impressive thing is to remember that many of these students had not produced something like this before this class,” says Hernandez.

“As a new media student, we feel really lucky to have a program that can equip us with the most cutting-edge multimedia skills like coding and design, allowing us to experiment with new tools and shift from traditional storytelling to online media,” says Zou, who designed the look of the project and produced the videos.

Aid-in-dying laws are controversial, with passionate supporters and opponents. The project’s main reporters, Nishihara and Van Ells, captured both sides of this sensitive debate through in-depth interviews. “It was important to include voices on both sides of the issue to present a full picture of aid-in-dying/physician- assisted suicide,” says Van Ells. “The majority of the people we interviewed had strong feelings on the subject.”

The students traveled across Northern California to research and conduct interviews in places like the Santa Cruz Mountains and Sacramento. They also received funding from the Yellow Chair Foundation that covered travel expenses.

They spent an entire semester producing the project, but struggled to find a publisher. In the meantime, California legislators were hard at work on a bill similar to Oregon’s. Then, in early October, Gov. Jerry Brown signed an aid-in-dying bill into law, at which point the reporters sought out another potential buyer. “We were sitting with the completed story for months,” says Nadine Sebai, who researched the story and produced videos. “When we realized the bill was going to Gov. Brown’s desk, we pushed to publish it.”

A fellow classmate put them in touch with an editor at Univision who agreed to purchase the story. The final project was published and then duplicated and republished in Spanish. Although the story is heavily focused on California, both versions were published nationally. “We wrote the story about California,” says Nishihara. “But since Aid-in-Dying is legal in other states and being considered in still others, we felt like it had national relevance.”

“The result is an almost textbook example of the creative arc that we hope our students will follow,” says Dean Edward Wasserman. “They study under terrific professors, use their skills in real world settings, and get published professionally,which allows them to showcase their talents to future employers. It was an inspired project by four highly talented reporters.”

By Alex Kekauoha (’16)