Journalism students Katie Kim, Richie Duchon and Chris Nelson will cover Barack Obama's presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C. for broadcast, radio and digital media, respectively.
The trio earned USC Annenberg Directors Awards to help cover the expense of their trip. Kim (B.A. Broadcast 
"This inauguration is a gigantic story that will be covered by every major news operation in the world," Duchon (pictured, right) said. "I hope to capture all the emotions and events I can through sound and images and really just to point my ears and eyes where other reporters might not."
"This was an historic election and it will be an incredibly historic day for President Elect Barack Obama and our country as a whole," Kim said. "This is the type of story that journalists dream to one day cover, so to have the privilege to do it now, I am more grateful than I could ever express in words."
Said ATVN director Serena Cha: "Katie excelled as a live shot reporter on election night, covering the Obama victory at the Obama gathering in Century City. ATVN selected Katie Kim for the Directors Award because of her strong reporting skills, and her excellent work and leadership."
Nelson (pictured, right), who covered the 2008 Democratic Convention for PopandPolitics.com, said his overall goals while there are to create a photographic chronology of everything he encounters while reporting about as many different people as possible.
"The amount of people traveling to DC to partake in that will create an unbelievable and palpable buzz that I can feed off of as a reporter," Nelson said. "I want to capture the entire picture through as many poignant vignettes as possible, sort of like those images composed of thousands of smaller images. The fact that I will have been on the floor at Invesco Field, a mere 50 feet away from Obama as he accepted the nomination, covering the event for Pop + Politics, and now am on my way to DC to cover his inauguration for Annenberg Digital News speaks volumes as to the opportunities Annenberg presents its students."
