This July, Geoffrey Cowan and the team at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership & Policy (CCLP) arranged for a small, select group of USC student journalists to attend and report from both the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, OH and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, PA. The trip was organized in partnership with Professors David Eisenhower and Marjorie Margolies of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School, who have taken Penn students to the conventions since 2000.
Six USC Annenberg students had a front-row seat to history while reporting each day for USC Annenberg Media, one of the top student media outlets in the country. The experience included a number of private meetings and interviews with politicians and journalists including Ohio Gov. Kasich (who appeared in Annenberg Media’s Snapchat story), Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson, UK politician and Brexit leader Nigel Farage, TX Rep. Pete Sessions, FEC Commissioner Ann M. Ravel, the Bernie Sanders campaign’s General Counsel Brad Deutsch, late-night host Samantha Bee, and many more.
Highlights from the trip are collected on Medium, including a rundown of student work produced at the conventions.