L.A. = Little Armenia: The story of the Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles today.

摘要

The multimedia website I have created for my Master's Thesis is a professional project, which covers numerous facets of the Armenian American presence in Los Angeles and does so through a multimedia storytelling format. The intention of the project, titled "L.A. = Little Armenia: The Story of the Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles Today," is to give readers a more thorough understanding of the Armenian American experience through the reporting of past events, present struggles and future goals.The first section of the website, titled "Motivated Migration," covers the back-story of why Armenians migrated to places like Los Angeles to begin with. Through a visual and interactive timeline that I created with VUVOX, I outline each event in the Middle East that prompted migration elsewhere. Through a mixture of vivid pictures and descriptive captions, the VUVOX timeline illustrates to the viewer the positive correlation between these momentous incidents and the motivation to migrate. The timeline also shows, through statistics gathered from the 2000 U.S. Census, that with each of these events in the Middle East -- be it a massacre, war or revolution -- Armenian demographics in America rose.The second section of the website, titled "Historic Resentment," is a more in-depth look into what instigated problems for Armenians in the Middle East to begin with. Though the VUVOX timeline in the previous section outlines the events that ultimately led to Armenian migration elsewhere, this section expands on those bullet-points of information and gets to the heart of the problem: why did these problems begin in the first place? And what group was at the core of the matter? By adding this historical context and getting a sense that a resentful relationship between Ottoman Turks and Armenians was at the center of the problem, the reader becomes not only more familiar with the history but also more understanding of how these historical experiences affect the Armenian culture today---especially with respect to the Armenian Diaspora.The third section of the website, titled "A Proactive Campaign," is a magnified look into one local Armenian American campaign that illustrates unity among much of the Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles. The "Stop the Protocols" campaign started as a preemptive plan to prevent the Armenia-Turkey protocols, a document which would establish diplomatic ties between the two countries, from being signed. Though the protocols were eventually signed by both countries, marking a historic attempt from two age-old enemies to coexist, the campaign was successful in showing the strong push among many Armenian Americans in Los Angeles against this idea.The final section of my website, titled "The Future of the Cause," gives viewers a quick taste of the Armenian Diaspora as it stands now, as well as an idea of what's to come in the future. As Armenian Americans across Los Angeles are asked about their thoughts on a number of issues (Armenian identity, staying connected in the city, and the future of the Armenian Diaspora as they see it, etc), the section functions as a sort of open-ended conclusion to the entire piece. How attached to the Armenian culture do these Armenian Americans feel? Does living in Los Angeles make it easier or harder to stay connected? And do they think future generations will be just as connected? By covering a variety of questions like the ones above and through asking a variety of people in the Diaspora -- be it active members of Armenian organizations, residents of highly populated Armenian cities or Armenian history experts---the viewer gets a more well-rounded sense of who makes up this Armenian Diaspora in L.A. and what these people think.Through the amalgamation of all of these separate components, the website tells a complete story of the Armenian Diaspora in Los Angeles from start to finish. It reports on the past experiences of Armenians and their motivation to migrate through coverage of their history, it highlights the current activity of certain members of the Diaspora through shining light on their broadly supported, Armenian American campaign and it offers a forecast of the future through the voice and thoughts of several Armenian Americans in the area. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)