074: Moving Through Media

Catalyst is a Creative Industries podcast, from Chapman University. Each episode features Chapman students who have completed a Podcasting course through the Center for Creative and Cultural Industries at the university. Students who had no podcasting experience or technical ability in the genre before taking the course were able to contribute all the segments to Catalyst this season with the goal being that they will take this ‘hands-on’ experience and carry it over to the launching of their very own series. Each episode of Season 9 will feature one to two different interviews conducted by CCI students, exploring different aspects of the Creative and Cultural Industries.

Tristan Foster begins our episode this week by interviewing Aaliyah Kashyap, a content creator who is from Mumbai, India. Having grown up in and around Bollywood, with a father who is a director, Aaliyah is no stranger to the power of using audience momentum. She has channeled that firsthand experience into creating her own YouTube channel which boasts over 130,000 subscribers and has curated an Instagram audience of 300,000 followers. She uses the platforms to discuss the reality of life in the spotlight and has also brought the topic of mental health and wellbeing into the conversation, a topic that can be seen as controversial in India. Tristan and Aaliyah discuss Aaliyah’s professional journey from vlogging to social media up to the launch of her jewelry company Athena Jewels.

In this week’s second segment Aneesa Coomer sits down with Jennifer Johnson, a Senior Editor at Storied Media Group to discuss her background and how she broke into the entertainment industry. The two discuss Jennifer’s degree background, and Jennifer gives some insight as to how to make the most of internships by taking a proactive approach. Moving on to her time at Warner Brothers they cover what it is like to really work in such a fast paced and changing industry, especially through the rise of streaming platforms. They move on to what Jennifer thinks about the role of Senior Editor at Storied Media Group and wrap the interview with a discussion of what Jennifer’s passions and plans are as she looks toward the future.