Before flying to Los Angeles, I couldn’t have told you who Jimmy Kimmel was. When I imagined working for a media magazine, I pictured celebrities walking red carpets, reporters chasing famous people, and glamorous events filled with luxury brands. In my mind, “media” meant documenting exciting moments for other people to watch. I also assumed an internship would be fairly relaxed—a chance to observe, help out here and there, and add another experience to my college applications. I could not have been more wrong.
From the moment I arrived at Style & Society Magazine, I realized I had stepped into a world where every detail mattered. During my first week, my supervisor, Kinya Claiborne, carefully reviewed every Instagram post before it went live. Sometimes she asked me to move a line of text. Other times she wanted me to change an emoji, add a space between emojis, or choose a different photo.
I’ll admit that, at first, I didn’t understand. Does anyone actually care whether an emoji has a space after it? In my mind, if the information was correct, wasn’t that enough? Only later did I realize I had been asking the wrong question. Media isn’t simply about sharing information. It’s about shaping how people experience information. That lesson became the theme of my entire internship.
Before this internship, I had almost no experience with photography. I usually took pictures casually without thinking much about composition or lighting. During my first assignments, I even forgot to take both horizontal and vertical photos because I was focused on simply capturing the moment. Slowly, I began noticing details I had never considered before—the direction of light, distracting backgrounds, camera angles, facial expressions, and timing.
Photography was no longer about recording what happened. It became about deciding how a story should be told. The same event could feel energetic, emotional, or elegant depending on the photo someone chose to publish. For the first time, I understood that photographers don’t simply capture stories—they help shape them.
Working entirely in English was another challenge. Because English is my second language, I sometimes worried about making mistakes or not expressing myself clearly. Over time, however, I stopped focusing on speaking perfectly and started focusing on communicating sincerely. That change gave me confidence far beyond this internship. As I became more comfortable communicating in English, I also becamemore confident creating content for the magazine.
I experienced the same realization while creating Instagram posts. Before coming to Los Angeles, Instagram was simply a place where I shared moments with friends. Working for a magazine completely changed that perspective. Every caption had a purpose. Every photo represented the publication. Every hashtag helped reach a different audience. Even the smallest formatting choices mattered because together they created an impression of professionalism. I eventually understood why Kinya cared so much about the details I had originally dismissed. A missing emoji wasn’t really about an emoji. It represented something much larger—the discipline of respecting both your audience and your work.
One experience completely changed the way I thought about media. Before visiting Jimmy Kimmel Live!, I didn’t even know who Jimmy Kimmel was. As someone who grew up in China, American late-night television simply wasn’t part of my daily life. I expected to see celebrities, cameras, and television magic. Instead, what impressed me most wasn’t what happened on stage—it was everything happening behind it. Dozens of people quietly coordinated lights, cameras, stage equipment, sound, timing, and production schedules. Every person understood their role, and everyone depended on one another. The audience only saw one smooth television show. Behind that one hour of entertainment were countless hours of invisible preparation.
As a bass player, I was naturally drawn to the house band. Hearing them perform Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love” using slap bass completely changed the way I heard a song I thought I already knew. Watching them perform also made me realize something else: musicians don’t only belong on concert stages. They contribute to television, entertainment, production, and storytelling in ways I had never considered.
For the first time, I realized that creative industries don’t exist separately—they thrive by working together. That idea became even clearer during the Lucid Motors media event. Although I wasn’t old enough to participate in the test drive, simply observing the event taught me something that has stayed with me ever since. I expected Lucid to convince people by talking about horsepower, battery range, or technology. Instead, they invited journalists to drive along California’s beautiful Highway 1, enjoy lunch at Calamigos Ranch, spend time with one another, and experience the vehicle naturally over the course of the day. At that moment, I realized they weren’t trying to sell a car. They were designing an experience. Rather than telling people what to think, they trusted people to form their own opinions after living the experience themselves.
Looking back, I realized that great media works in exactly the same way. The most effective stories rarely force an opinion onto their audience. Instead, they invite people into an experience and allow the audience to arrive at their own conclusions. Ironically, that is exactly what I hope this reflection does.
That perspective helped me appreciate every event we covered. At the same time, I gained a much deeper appreciation for the power of the media. I was fortunate enough to attend an early screening of Disney’s Moana as well as the final season preview of All American at Warner Bros. Studios. In the past, I was just an ordinary audience member, experiencing movies and TV shows only after they were officially released. This time, however, I was grateful for the opportunity to experience these productions before their public release through the eyes of a member of the media. Seeing how these premieres were organized also showed me how media builds excitement and shapes public anticipation long before audiences ever see the final product.
Whether it was the Concern Foundation Block Party raising money for cancer research, a media tasting at Khan Saab Restaurant, or community events throughout Los Angeles, I began paying attention to something I had overlooked before. Media wasn’t just documenting events. It was helping audiences feel connected to people they had never met. Every photograph, interview, article, and Instagram post became part of building that connection.
Outside of assignments, I also discovered something unexpected about professional life. Some of my favorite memories weren’t from covering events but from spending time with the team outside the office. Visiting Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, and creating fluid art Labubus together at Shot of Art allowed me to see another side of the people I worked with. As a first-time intern, I originally thought professionalism meant simply completing assignments efficiently. Instead, I learned that strong teams are built on trust, respect, and genuine relationships. Watching Kinya intentionally create opportunities for the team to connect showed me that company culture doesn’t happen by accident. Like good media, meaningful relationships are also designed with care.
Visiting USC with Professor JaBari Brown was another meaningful experience during my internship. Exploring programs related to communications, music, art, and sports allowed me to see how different creative fields connect with each other. As someone interested in music and the entertainment industry, this visit helped me think more seriously about my future education and showed me the possibilities of combining different passions into one career path.
Kinya knew that I had a strong passion for music, so she tried her best to arrange some music-related experiences for me whenever possible. During my internship, we attended the ICYOLA concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall, experienced the Rock Band Game at Zero Lounge, and participated in Jazz at LACMA. These experiences became some of my favorite memories of the internship because they allowed me to explore different forms of music in different environments. I am especially grateful to Kinya for noticing my interests and creating these opportunities for me.
When I first arrived in Los Angeles, I thought this internship would simply become another activity on my college application. Instead, it completely changed the way I think about communication. I arrived believing media was mostly about celebrities, luxury brands, and entertainment. I left with deep respect for the editors, photographers, writers, producers, designers, musicians, and countless people whose names audiences rarely know.
Their work isn’t simply creating content. It’s creating experiences. Whether through a carefully chosen photograph, a perfectly timed television production, an Instagram caption, or a drive along Highway 1, they understand that people rarely remember every fact they were told. They remember how an experience made them feel. That lesson reaches far beyond media.
Whether I eventually study economics, music, business, or communications, I hope to create work that does more than simply deliver information. I hope to create experiences that allow people to think, connect, and discover something for themselves. Three weeks ago, I thought media was about telling stories. Now I understand that the best storytellers don’t simply tell stories. They create experiences that let others become part of the story themselves.
By Andy Gai, Style & Society
Photo Credit: Amari Dixon, Marselle Washington, Neo Williams
