Building a content strategy for your news team:
GIFS for Journalists

This session will take you beyond viral cat GIFs and show you how you can use GIFs as a journalist effectively in stories and on social.

Amara Aguilar

Amara Aguilar is a digital journalism associate professor at USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. She teaches journalism for mobile/emerging platforms, social media, visual journalism, and interactive design, among other courses. Amara has written for the Los Angeles Times, CNN and other outlets.

She has worked as a designer, visual journalist, reporter, social media engagement producer and consultant. She’s conducted social media, data, and digital journalism training for the Associated Press, ABC News, the National Football League and more.

Amara was named a TOW Knight Disruptive Educator for innovation in 2018, MediaShift’s top innovative journalism educator in 2018, a Scripps Howard Foundation-AEJMC visiting social media fellow in 2017, and is an Apple Distinguished Educator.

She is completing her doctorate at USC’s Rossier School of Education in Organizational Change and Leadership, where her research focuses on diversity and converged newsrooms.  She is a JACC alumni from Cerritos College. She has also taught at CSULB, Pierce College, Cerritos College, and was previously the journalism department chair at Saddleback College.