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L.A. = LITTLE ARMENIA: THE STORY OF THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA IN LOS
ANGELES TODAY
by
Adriana Dermenjian
________________________________________________________________________
A Thesis Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
MASTER OF ARTS
(ONLINE JOURNALISM)
May 2010
Copyright 2010 Adriana Dermenjian
Object Description
| Title | L.A. = Little Armenia: the story of the Armenian diaspora in Los Angeles today |
| Author | Dermenjian, Adriana |
| Author email | adriana_dermenjian@yahoo.com; dermenji@usc.edu |
| Degree | Master of Arts |
| Document type | Thesis |
| Degree program | Journalism (Online Journalism) |
| School | Annenberg School for Communication |
| Date defended/completed | 2010-04-01 |
| Date submitted | 2010 |
| Restricted until | Unrestricted |
| Date published | 2010-05-01 |
| Advisor (committee chair) | Hernandez, Robert |
| Advisor (committee member) |
Dekmejian, Richard H. Tolan, Sandy |
| Abstract | The multimedia website I have created for my Master's Thesis is a professional project, which covers numerous facets of the Armenian American presence in Los Angeles and does so through a multimedia storytelling format. The intention of the project, titled "L.A. = Little Armenia: The Story of the Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles Today" is to give readers a more thorough understanding of the Armenian American experience through the reporting of past events, present struggles and future goals. I chose to specifically report on the Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles, as it is home to the largest Armenian population in all of America, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. What experiences led Armenians to move to America, and specifically Los Angeles, to begin with? What are some local Armenian organizations working on now and how does it contribute to sustaining their Armenian identity? And how does the future look for the L.A. Armenian Diaspora in generations to come? All of these questions are answered throughout the structured layout of the website. In fact, the website has four fundamental sections through which the story is told.; The first section of the website, titled "Motivated Migration" covers the backstory of why Armenians migrated to places like Los Angeles to begin with. Through a visual and interactive timeline that I created with VUVOX, I outline each event in the Middle East that prompted migration elsewhere. Through a mixture of vivid pictures and descriptive captions, the VUVOX timeline illustrates to the viewer the positive correlation between these momentous incidents and the motivation to migrate. The timeline also shows, through statistics gathered from the 2000 U.S. Census, that with each of these events in the Middle East -- be it a massacre, war or revolution -- Armenian demographics in America rose.; Also laid out in this section are the specific Armenian “hubs” within Los Angeles County, where the Armenian population is most prevalent. Through the use of an interactive information graphic, the viewer is able to not only pinpoint the areas in Los Angeles where Armenians thrive but gain knowledge of the specific Armenian population within each city by hovering over the appropriate circled city with their mouse. This interactive map, which I created through the use of Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (DHTML), offers necessary statistics to the reader but does so through an alternative (and hopefully more engaging) multimedia method.; The second section of the website, titled "Historic Resentment" is a more indepth look into what instigated problems for Armenians in the Middle East to begin with. Though the VUVOX timeline in the previous section outlines the events that ultimately led to Armenian migration elsewhere, this section expands on those bullet-points of information and gets to the heart of the problem: why did these problems begin in the first place? And what group was at the core of the matter? By adding this historical context and getting a sense that a resentful relationship between Ottoman Turks and Armenians was at the center of the problem, the reader becomes not only more familiar with the history but also more understanding of how these historical experiences affect the Armenian culture today -- especially with respect to the Armenian Diaspora.; This historical context is told through a "Question and Answer" format with Dr. Richard Dekmejian, a Middle Eastern politics expert and political science professor at USC. My intention for this type of format was to make the content more readable yet still place emphasis on substance. Void of the dreariness that huge blocks of text provoke, the Q&A is still filled with loads of essential information but broken up by simple questions that the reader might ask himself. Because this historical context is necessary to lay the foundation for the overall story of the Armenian Diaspora, an emphasis on content is essential. Each question is integral to the "Armenian story" as a whole -- and spans from momentous events beginning in the 9th century to current campaigns that the Diaspora is involved in today.; The third section of the website, titled "A Proactive Campaign" is a magnified look into one local Armenian American campaign that illustrates unity among much of the Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles. The "Stop the Protocols" campaign started as a preemptive plan to prevent the Armenia-Turkey protocols, a document which would establish diplomatic ties between the two countries, from being signed. Though the protocols were eventually signed by both countries, marking a historic attempt from two age-old enemies to coexist, the campaign was successful in showing the strong push among many Armenian Americans in Los Angeles against this idea.; I chose to tell this story through a profile of one of the campaign’s major leaders, Caspar Jivalagian. Though I made sure to include other members of the Armenian Diaspora in the piece, I thought it important to keep the predominant voice on one person: a symbol for the campaign, Caspar. By following Caspar through rallies in which he spoke to getting more intimate, one-on-one interviews with him at home, I was able to get inside the thrust of the campaign through getting inside of Caspar’s mind. I feel this method of execution is most effective for the purposes of my thesis because the intent is to shine light on this one specific campaign, showcasing its core beliefs and how it relates to the bigger notion of Armenian identity. By getting such an intimate look inside of Caspar and his activism, you intrinsically become more familiar with the campaign he works so hard for every day.; The final section of my website, titled "The Future of the Cause" gives viewers a quick taste of the Armenian Diaspora as it stands now, as well as an idea of what's to come in the future. As Armenian Americans across Los Angeles are asked about their thoughts on a number of issues (Armenian identity, staying connected in the city, and the future of the Armenian Diaspora as they see it, etc), the section functions as a sort of open-ended conclusion to the entire piece. How attached to the Armenian culture do these Armenian Americans feel? Does living in Los Angeles make it easier or harder to stay connected? And do they think future generations will be just as connected? By covering a variety of questions like the ones above and through asking a variety of people in the Diaspora -- be it active members of Armenian organizations, residents of highly populated Armenian cities or Armenian history experts -- the viewer gets a more wellrounded sense of who makes up this Armenian Diaspora in L.A. and what these people think.; This compilation of thoughts is shown by way of video, which I believe to be the most effective platform for this coverage, as it allows for a more personal connection to form between the viewer and the people in the video. As viewers see and hear these Armenian Americans make their points, they feel as if they are getting to know them. Rather than a collection of facts, figures and information that was prevalent in other sections of the website, this final portion humanizes the central subject of my thesis: the Armenian Diaspora in L.A. It ends the project on a subjective and open-ended note.; Through the amalgamation of all of these separate components, the website tells a complete story of the Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles from start to finish. It reports on the past experiences of Armenians and their motivation to migrate through coverage of their history, it highlights the current activity of certain members of the Diaspora through shining light on their broadly supported, Armenian American campaign and it offers a forecast of the future through the voice and thoughts of several Armenian Americans in the area.; The intention behind this project was to cover a subject that is often underrepresented in mainstream media and make it more accessible and understandable to people who are curious about the ethnicity. Rather than getting bits and pieces of this information elsewhere, the viewer can come to the "L.A. = Little Armenia" website and get the whole story – from why the Armenian Diaspora migrated to the city of Angels to what some are doing to remain active in its Armenian community. The variety of multimedia elements used throughout the website is intended to make the story easily understandable and more compelling than the standard text format.; But, above all, the multimedia project is a story of how the past can reinforce the present -- and perhaps even the future. It highlights a Diaspora that is continually invested in maintaining its Armenian identity, partly due to their collective history and unique past experiences. |
| Keyword | Armenian diaspora; Armenian Americans; Los Angeles; migration; anti-protocols campaign; Armenian genocide; identity; culture |
| Geographic subject (county) | Los Angeles |
| Geographic subject (state) | California |
| Geographic subject (country) | Armenia |
| Language | English |
| Part of collection | University of Southern California dissertations and theses |
| Publisher (of the original version) | University of Southern California |
| Place of publication (of the original version) | Los Angeles, California |
| Publisher (of the digital version) | University of Southern California. Libraries |
| Provenance | Electronically uploaded by the author |
| Type | texts |
| Legacy record ID | usctheses-m2952 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Rights | Dermenjian, Adriana |
| Repository name | Libraries, University of Southern California |
| Repository address | Los Angeles, California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Filename | etd-Dermenjian-3698 |
| Archival file | uscthesesreloadpub_Volume26/etd-Dermenjian-3698.pdf |
Description
| Title | Page 1 |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Repository email | cisadmin@dots.usc.edu |
| Full text | L.A. = LITTLE ARMENIA: THE STORY OF THE ARMENIAN DIASPORA IN LOS ANGELES TODAY by Adriana Dermenjian ________________________________________________________________________ A Thesis Presented to the FACULTY OF THE USC GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree MASTER OF ARTS (ONLINE JOURNALISM) May 2010 Copyright 2010 Adriana Dermenjian |
