When two massive fires erupted in Los Angeles in early January, there were few people who were not touched in some way by the tragedy. Tens of thousands of residents were displaced when the Jan. 7 blazes tore through Pacific Palisades and Altadena.
Weeks later, it was still what people were talking about when they ran into each other: How did you fare? Did you have to evacuate? Are you OK? Did you see how bad it was?
I live in L.A., and like many, I know people who lost their homes, who had to evacuate but were lucky enough to return to their houses, who are still coping with the shared trauma of the deadly destruction that razed over 10,000 homes and killed 29 people.
Our work at NEWSWELL includes innovative and collaborative ways to tell the news in the communities we serve, and who better to help tell that news than the people who lived through it?
One of NEWSWELL’s strategic partners is Arizona State University, which houses two campuses in downtown L.A.
Professors and students in ASU’s Narrative and Emerging Media Program, a joint program between the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and the Sidney Poitier New American Film School, set out to document the aftermath of the fires in a unique way. They videotaped scores of locations, took hundreds of photographs and created videos that can be manipulated to provide a before-and-after 360-degree view of the areas that burned.
But all of their amazing work was not being showcased.
I worked with Nonny de la Peña, the program director of the Narrative and Emerging Media Program at ASU, to get the content into a format that could be published across NEWSWELL’s sites and shared with a wider audience. The collaboration included graduate student Ashley Buschhorn, who shot all of the videos, de la Peña, professor Mary Matheson and learning technology specialist Jet Olaño. The resulting story showcases haunting before-and-after images that show the utter devastation of the California fires.
The collaboration is just one example of NEWSWELL’s mission of innovation and education while offering comprehensive wraparound services to local newsrooms. NEWSWELL believes in lifelong learning – and those who follow local news learn with every story.
NEWSWELL doesn’t just operate local newsrooms. We’re working to solve local journalism’s biggest problems and accelerate its future by partnering with the researchers, faculty and students of ASU.
This update originally appeared in our Feb. 18, 2025, newsletter, which came from B.J. Terhune, NEWSWELL managing editor for California. This version has been lightly edited for clarity.