Southern California beyond the chaos

LOS ANGELES -- The West Coast’s largest city is known by many names: “La-La Land,” “Tinseltown,” “The Big Orange,” and mainly, “The City of Angels,” in a state only half-jokingly called “The Land of Fruits and Nuts.” But it will soon also become known as the home of Al Jazeera America’s bustling western bureau where veteran network journalists tell Americans stories rarely covered from this region.
 
For decades, network news has largely been East Coast-centric. Typically, any news Americans see coming out of Southern California is about weather disasters, celebrity disasters, or some other form of chaos. Al Jazeera America’s L.A. team plans to change that perception. For us journalists who have had our eyes and hearts open to the myriad stories that take place every day in our region, this network's mandate to show viewers stories that no one else is seeing is a refreshing change. It opens the door for all of us to see parts of our vast and lively country in a new light, with renewed depth. And with the old adage “as goes California, so goes the rest of the country,” the stories we cover may even provide us glimpses into the future.
 
While based in Los Angeles, this team will cover a wider region that includes all of Southern California, into the Inland Empire, and Central Coast. We will also cover Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Hawaii, and the area of Baja Mexico.
 
Much of the region is desert-like, but the variety of stories we cover is anything but dry.

First, California itself is the world’s ninth-largest economy, and the L.A. basin is the world’s 16th largest. The Los Angeles area alone is home to continually changing and complex industries such as entertainment, aerospace and technology, and rebounding real estate.  The stories we will dive into are ones that are particularly embedded in our coverage region, and yet have a major impact on the entire country: immigration, homeless veterans, the poverty divide, innovations in medicine and technology, gay marriage, prison reform, natural resource management, Native American issues, new forms and outlets of mass entertainment. And, Of course, America’s most successful export: Hollywood. And that’s just off the top of our heads.
 
Just as the world has gotten smaller because of globalization, our country is also more connected than ever. So it only makes sense that Al Jazeera America's L.A. team will play a critical role in telling the stories of our time with depth, breadth, humanity and fact-based journalism that is the hallmark of the bureau's award-winning staff.

-- Dina Demetrius,
Al Jazeera America L.A. bureau producer