BCLA | American journalism has been in turmoil for a while, as a business and in the eyes of the general public. In response to those challenges, and to meet rising requests from students, Loyola Marymount University is inaugurating a journalism major this semester. And a major figure in Los Angeles journalism is coming to campus to help the program get off to a roaring start.
Steve Lopez, longtime journalist for the Los Angeles Times, whose influential column is a must-read to gain a sense of the city and region, is going to speak in the Life Sciences Building at 2 p.m. on Sept. 27, 2018. His remarks will be followed by a conversation and Q&A session moderated by CNN/HLN anchor Carol Costello.
“Journalism is a cornerstone of our republic, needed now more than ever,” said Evelyn McDonnell, associate professor and director of the journalism program. “We are excited to be giving LMU students the chance to pursue a degree in journalism, and thrilled that they will be able to hear from two esteemed, experienced practitioners of the form.” The Journalism Program is housed in the English Department in the Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts.
Lopez is a California native who has been an L.A. Times columnist since 2001. He has won more than a dozen national journalism awards for his reporting and column writing at seven newspapers and four news magazines, and is a three-time Pulitzer finalist for commentary – in 2012, for his columns on elder care; in 2016, for his columns on income inequality in California; and in 2018, for his columns on housing and homelessness.
He is the author of three novels, two collections of columns and a nonfiction work called “The Soloist,” which was a Los Angeles Times and New York Times best-seller, winner of the PEN USA Literary Award for Non-Fiction, and the subject of a DreamWorks movie by the same title. Lopez’s television reporting for public station KCET has won three local news Emmys, three Golden Mike awards and a share of the Columbia University DuPont Award.
Lopez writes in the tradition of newspaper columnists who have become the voice of their city, such as Mike Royko of Chicago, Herb Caen in San Francisco and Jimmy Breslin in New York. In that role, he has initiated necessary public discussions on important matters, such as public access to beaches, and has entertained readers with the foibles of the rich and powerful.
Costello is an award-winning journalist and host of HLN’s “Across America with Carol Costello.” She has interviewed four former U.S. presidents, covered the 2016 political campaign for CNN, and covered the terrorist shootings in San Bernardino and Orlando. Costello was an investigative reporter before she joined the anchor desk. She is also first lady of LMU.
