Final Project on LA Minorities

Contemporary art movement in Chinatown LA gives hope to struggling businesses

Multimedia Tools Assignment

Christine O'Donnell's 2010 Campaign Contributors


TwitStat on Kanye West


Yahoo's Most Popular Stories



Women of Color Breast Cancer Awareness Event

Breast Cancer Survivors of Color Pamper Up to Raise Awareness

When Diane Patterson visited the doctor’s for a breast reduction surgery last February, she was expecting a simple procedure to downsize her chest.

But after going through several examinations, she discovered that there was a much more pressing matter to deal with: breast cancer.

“It was a small enough tumor where I didn’t have to go through chemotherapy,” said Patterson, 45. “I still had to go through radiation. It was a very excruciating process.”

Following the diagnosis, she braved through 25 treatments of radiation in five weeks. However, complications arose when her breast MRI revealed that she also had thyroid cancer.

After courageously fighting two battles in one year, Patterson is now cancer-free. And as a survivor, she said she does not want to sit idly by while others experience the same mental and physical pains.

“My thing is, I took my breast cancer as a blessing,” said Patterson, who works as a payroll administrator at Catalina Express. “And if I can go out and help some other woman who has breast cancer, that would be my goal in life. A lot of times we’re just stuck in a rut, where we don’t know where to go.”

So she single-handedly organized the Women of Color Breast Cancer Survivors Day of Luxury in collaboration with Beauty 360 of Manhattan Beach on Oct. 23, where around 50 survivors and volunteers participated to enjoy a free day of pampering, entertainment and food.

“I organized this event because I wanted other

survivors to come out to enjoy a day of luxury and be around other survivors,” Patterson said.

Several services were at the participants’ disposal around the store: a hand and arm massage, a makeover

and a before-and-after photo shoot.

Patterson, who is a member of the Women of Color Breast Cancer Support Group in Inglewood, said the planning process for the event took about two-and-a-half months, after first conceiving the idea back in July.

She collaborated with Keith Carmody, the store manager of Beauty 360 in Manhattan Beach, who helped bring her idea to life.

“We are all about catering to women and their causes,” Carmody said. “It’s just something to give back to the community, a day of pampering, something for the women and survivors to have a good time and spend a few hours with us.”

This is the store’s third breast cancer awareness event since its opening in February, Carmody said.

In addition to pampering services, another strong incentive for the event was to increase breast cancer

awareness in the African-American community, Patterson said.

“Unfortunately, as African Americans we are dying the fastest,” she said. “We have the highest rate of dying for breast cancer.”

Patterson said she attended a breast cancer research conference in Oakland in September, where she learned that African-Americans severely lack participation in clinical trials that may be essential to finding a cure for the disease.

So the event also urged both African-American survivors and non-survivors to sign up with Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation for Breast Cancer, Patterson said.

“Studies show that we are not being included in these trials, so when we’re getting treated, they don’t have studies to compare how to treat us for breast cancer,” she said. “Women feel that because of the Tuskegee incident where the guys were injected with syphilis, they feel like if they participated in these clinical trials, they may die.”

According to Columbia University Medical Center, breast cancer is less common in African American women than white women; however, breast cancer death rate in African Americans is 37 percent higher than whites. This discrepancy is partially socioeconomic, according to the press release.

“Because of economics, they don’t go to the doctor, and even if they do, they’re in denial, so they don’t

follow up with their appointments,” said Charlene Ingram, a nine-year survivor and another member of the Women of Color Breast Cancer Support Group in Inglewood. “Sometimes their tumors are biologically more aggressive.”

The event also raised funds for breast cancer research initiatives by accepting donations and selling raffle tickets. Raffle prizes included donated gift cards from Costco, Sam's Club and Ralph's, Patterson said.

Jeri Hawkins, a volunteer and Patterson’s co-worker at Catalina Express, said being a part of this event helped her realize the ubiquity of breast cancer.

“I think there’s a lot for everybody here,” said Hawkins, 56. “I know many survivors, a lot of friends who are very close to me, and this has given me much more cause to think about that. Breast cancer affects all of those so close to us who we don’t think about until we do something like this.”

Using social media to find leads on my story

For my story on a breast cancer awareness event last week in Manhattan Beach, I was hoping to gain more insight on other similar events in the LA/OC area. So I called out for help to my dear Facebook community:

This status update went unnoticed in hundreds of news feeds. Even after an entire day, I didn't receive a single response. So I decided it was time to try something new. Facebook's new Question application has been around for a few weeks now, and I thought there was no better time to test it out than now:

I got this response from a UCLA student within a few hours of posting the question. She proceeded to inform me about a rally that will be held this Thursday at UCLA.


I also tested out my Twitter community, but without much luck. Because I don't actively use my account, I don't have many followers, and even with the hash tag, my tweet got lost among the bunch.


So instead, I decided to branch out and try using twitter's relatively new feature that allow me to search mentions of a specific topic in my local area. I thought that was really helpful.

Tracking news outlets and their usage of social media

For this week's assignment, I followed Yahoo News's Facebook page, CNN Breaking News's Twitter account and the LA Times City Desk Twitter account.

Yahoo: After tracking Yahoo News's activity on Facebook for a week, I gained a better understanding of Anna Robertson's presentation last week in class. Yahoo publishes about three posts a day, and they all tend to be light and interesting reads specifically catered toward regular Facebook users. And as the ages 18-29 demographic actively uses Facebook more than any other age group, these posts reflect their general interests. Anna said Yahoo tends to filter out the heavier news stories for more attractive, light-hearted pieces that would garner more clicks. For instance, there were few mentions of hard and dry political affairs this past week, but the page provided a link to a story about President Obama making a guest appearance on Mythbusters. I initially didn't quite understand why this has to be the case, as a great majority of Facebook users are well-educated, intelligent and up-to-date with current affairs. However, as Sarah said, there is a clear line between the content you think you'd like to read and what you actually choose to read. Yahoo News uses its Facebook page to lure the young readers with quirky stories and brings them into its Website. Its Facebook page also provides an effective platform for user interaction. In addition to Giveaways and quizzes for the users, Yahoo can gauge the popularity of a story by looking at the number of "likes." This would contribute to a greater trend, which can help Yahoo in their future endeavors.

CNN Breaking News: I started following their twitter page since the day I opened my account. Throughout the day, they post a flood of links to international and national breaking news stories and videos featured on the main CNN news site. Although I find the sheer number of posts often overwhelming, it's definitely a great way to stay updated. Also, because Twitter only allows 180 characters per post, the tweets to be very straightforward (ex. "Two U.S. hikers to stand trial next month, Iran media reports (link)") Their use of this social media platform is nothing interesting or creative, but judging by their 3.5 million followers, their conciseness is key to their effectiveness.

LA Times City Desk: Contrary to CNN Breaking News's twitter, I found their over-frequent updates to be way too burdensome. The tweets are concise and straightforward as the CNN account; however, as the city desk account, the updates are mostly made up of local headlines, which do not have as many pressing and interesting breaking news as CNN. The updates come at least three times an hour, and while CNN incorporates videos and photos as well, the LA Times City Desk is a lot more limited in this aspect. It would be helpful to incorporate more links to feature pieces and interactive pieces and limit the number of hard news headlines.

Meet "Apostle Smith": Street Musician and Self-Proclaimed Pastor of Westwood

I was walking around aimlessly in Westwood one Friday night when I heard melodies. I went around the block and followed the sound. It belonged to a man who called himself "Apostle Smith."



BBC Shots:




One-minute Interview:





Completed Video:

Brandon's Biggest Influence is His Sister

Photos taken by Esther Kang
Courtesy photos from Brandon Chang

Sushi Truck Rolls into LA's Food Truck Scene in Hot Weather

By Esther Kang

On a typical morning, Yatta-! co-owners Jun Hua and Hiro Igarashi wake up at 5 a.m. to make an early trip to the fish market in downtown Los Angeles.

Then, for the next four hours, the twosome wash, scale and cut, preparing the freshest of ingredients for a full day of business. They head out the door at 10 a.m. with plenty of time to hit the lunch hours.

Yatta-!, one of three sushi-themed food trucks in the Los Angeles County, hopped onto the recent wave of the street-food phenomenon in June. However, the business has recently faced more challenges than the other local food trucks due to high temperatures.

“On a hot summer day, raw fish served on a food truck doesn’t necessarily sound tempting,” Hua, 24, said. “[Also],

people generally don’t want to wait outside in line when it’s hot.”

Especially on days like Monday, which saw a record-breaking high of 113 degrees Fahrenheit in Los Angeles, Hua said he has experienced one too many unsuccessful attempts to draw in cautious passer-biers.

But Hua said he guarantees the ingredients are fresh, which is why he is not worried about the new regulation that requires food trucks to carry their letter grades.

The team makes sure to keep the refrigerator compressor running in the truck, and by the end of the night, they throw out all the unused fish without a second thought, he said.

“We aim to sell out, and we’ve learned to never over prepare,” he said. “This way, we keep the waste minimal. Freshness is key.”

Several years ago, Hua and chef Igarashi, 25, met through mutual friends at their alma mater, University of California, Riverside. It was only a matter of time before they realized their shared vision of revolutionizing the concept of sushi in modern-day America.

“Generally speaking, sushi is exclusively served in fancy restaurants,” Hua said. “So we came up with the idea of serving sushi in a manner as convenient as a McDonald’s drive-thru.”

After graduating in 2008, the two business partners toiled separately for a year to save up for their new venture—Hua at a E-Commerce company and Igarashi at a Japanese restaurant as the head chef.

After much preparation and logistical proceedings, such as acquiring the proper licensing to vend their food product in the L.A. County and Santa Monica, they were good to go.

The truck makes regular stops at FIDM’s Los Angeles campus, offices in downtown and streets in Santa Monica. One of their favorite stops, Igarashi said, is the USC area.

“[College students] are most open about trying new types of food,” he said. “So we try to make experimental rolls that they might like.”

The Japanese-fusion truck serves six types of sushi rolls. The menu also features Igarashi’s “All-American” roll, which, with ground beef and melted cheese with rice and seaweed, is “like a Japanese cheeseburger,” he said.

Janet Anderson, a USC grad student studying linguistics, said she initially had reservations about eating sushi from a food truck but ended up buying a roll.

“I guess I just trust that they use fresh ingredients,” Anderson said. “I just had to try it because what we generally see around here are mostly taco food trucks. I’d never seen a sushi food truck before.”

Lois Reid, a worker at the USC School of Dentistry, said she found their unusual method of vending sushi accessible and convenient.

“It’s my mom’s 96th birthday today, and she wanted sushi," Reid said. “Unfortunately I didn’t have time to shop, but this way I can just grab it on the go. She’s gonna love it.”

Audio Interview

with my good friend Brandon Chang, on the biggest influence in his life.


Listen to the edited version.

Listen to the full interview.