Yesterday, Councilmember Dan Hall joined our journalism class at the Santa Monica Police Activities League to help our students prepare for interviews with some of the city council candidates running in this fall’s local elections.
Back in July, Santa Monica Next announced what we’re calling Next 3.0, an effort to re-brand our news outlet to return to its original mission to elevate the voices of young and aspiring journalists. The first step in that effort is teaching this class at the PAL, with future plans for collaboration with students at Samohi and SMC.
Later today, on behalf of the students, I’ll be reaching out to several of the candidates for on-camera interviews. I wish we could interview every candidate, but with a handful of students in our inaugural class and the clock ticking to election day, we’re doing the best we can. Next week, the class will finalize a questionnaire for all the candidates, regardless of whether or not we’re interviewing them. Responses and videos will all be available here and on our social media channels.
Last, it’s important to know that the questions were written by the students, with only minor edits from me for clarity. After the interviews are over in a couple of weeks, I’ll share the questions with all of you as we prepare the videos for ‘casting.
