Department of Journalism and Mass Communication: Journalism and Careers Day

April 24, 2013

Schedule

9:30 a.m. Keynote: Geoff Boucher of Entertainment Weekly

Presentation Title: “Best of Times: Don’t Believe Everything you Read About Writing Careers”

10:45 a.m. Panel: “How I Got That Job”

Recent Graduates Talk About Opportunities in Journalism and Public Relations

  • Jill Cowan, reporter, Los Angeles Times Community News
  • Robert Meeks, online editor, Los Angeles Newspaper Group
  • Jennifer Newton, partner, Ideations in Long Beach

Moderator: Geoff Boucher

12:15 p.m. Lunch and Student Awards

An ongoing portfolio review, where professionals give one-on-one advice to students, will take  place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. (Students will need to have signed in beforehand.)

For more information, contact the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at (562) 985-4981.

NEWS RELEASE — Geoff Boucher of Entertainment Weekly to Speak at Journalism and Careers Day

by Katherine Carson

The written word is not dead, says Entertainment Weekly’s Geoff Boucher. It moves too fast and is seen by too many. He says that can mean more jobs for young writers.

“Writers have never been read faster, wider or with more personalized branding than they are today,” said Boucher. “The churn in contemporary communications is just as much an opportunity as it is a problem.”

His presentation, titled “Best of Times: Don’t Believe What you Read About Writing Careers,” will be the keynote at CSULB’s Journalism Day on April 30th, 2013. Boucher will also moderate a panel of young media and public relations professionals called “How I Got That Job.”

The event begins in the USU ballrooms at 9:15 a.m.

A self-proclaimed “man of few words,” Boucher is anything but. His journalism career began in middle school, writing for the school newspaper, and hasn’t stopped. During his 21-year career at the Los Angeles Times and recent move to Entertainment Weekly’s Movies Team as a senior writer, Boucher evolved as a writer and has written on a variety of beats from crime to transportation to rock and roll and video gaming.

His love for journalism hasn’t dimmed one bit.

“Where else can you work but a newspaper where there are a bunch of people working on hundreds of different topics and are all united through it,” Boucher said.

With the Internet revolutionizing journalism, Boucher found new opportunities to write about things he loves. He created the blog “Hero Complex” at the L.A. Times in 2008, after realizing he could gain access to Comic-Con International in San Diego with press credentials. He posted a blog about the experience. “Hero Complex” soon became the go-to blog for fans of all things pop culture to read reviews and discuss releases with fellow fans.

“The Internet hardwires the world together,” Boucher said, “bringing together fans of every genre and joining them into a community—it’s awesome.”

Boucher has interviewed celebrities and political figures, including Brad Pitt, Bruce Springsteen, and Dick Cheney. But he gets more excited about meeting great writers.

“Through writing, something magical happens between writer and reader,” Boucher said. “We can learn a lot about ourselves through the expression of others.”