Welcome to Off The Freeway
[ Scroll down and flip through our stories ]
A river runs
Known for its identity crisis, which is in itself the city’s identity, L.A. is divided by a 51-mile waterway that also suffers from a crisis of identity. The L.A. River is unlike any other, as it so closely resembles the metropolitan area it resides in. Both the city and the river are cast in concrete. Both the city and the river have a shaky past, a complicated present. Both have an uncertain future.
Read the story
Raising the bar
Pole Art is a fairly recent fitness craze that is gaining popularity across America. It is already an established sport in other countries with numerous national and international championships, while America still continues to fight the battle of proving that pole dancing is not only stripping. Many of these athletes and artists have never had the thought of going that direction with their hobby. Pole fitness is a great full body workout and is currently being thought of as a contender for the 2020 Olympics.
Read the story
Shred sisters
Skating is not a crime... especially when you're the mom.
Read the story
The venue chronicles
Music is synonymous with Los Angeles, with several infamous music venues across the city. If their walls could talk, here's what they would say.
Read the story
About Us
Off The Freeway is a project produced by the Spring 2014 Advanced Multimedia Storytelling course offered at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism. The goal for this course, taught by Prof. Robert Hernandez, is to use emerging technology, including coding, to tell journalistic stories in a more engaging way. The worked in teams to produce different multimedia stories on LA River, Pole Art, Shred Sisters and LA Music Venues.
While the skill levels at the start of the class varied per student, most had little to no Web development experience. That said, the class taught each student to report, design and produce these stories from scratch, pushing and advancing their individual skill level. All these pages were hand coded ... no content management systems were used.
This class is a sandbox for journalism, technology and creativity. We hope you enjoy our pieces.
The students are:
Pole Art
Anna Escher
Danielle Gray
Angie Fiedler Sutton
Music Venues
Jory Carver
Amy Lopez
Stefanie Martinez
Heather Navarro