Voice of OC Reporter Brandon Pho is taking on a leadership position in the Orange County media space as vice president of the OC Press Club board of directors.
Pho was elected by his peers on the press club board to serve as vice president in the same year that he first joined the club’s board of directors.
Pho is an ambitious young reporter who became a full-time reporter with Voice of OC in 2020 thanks to the vital support of the Report for America national program. Previously, he was senior editor at his college newspaper, The Daily Titan at Cal State Fullerton.
Pho’s work has won top honors across state, southern California and Orange County journalism contests for investigations, hard news reporting and news features.
While running for the press club board seat, Pho wrote this of why he wants to step up on the press club board:
“As one of the region’s first full-time reporters from the Gen-Z age group, I’m keenly aware of how our industry is going through its transformation. Change is hard but inevitable. The more-or-less dated, institutional ideas which shape our line of work’s agenda are being increasingly re-examined by people my age through a more critical lens.
That includes not just reexamining newsroom — or Press Club — diversity, but also traditional notions of bias, our treatment of government information as unquestionable fact, and the constant reassessment of writing and reporting habits which could cause unnecessary harm to communities historically harmed by the U.S. media landscape.
To some, this might sound earnest coming from a kid who’s still got years of experience to live and much to learn. Or even worse, to others, this perspective may sound like activism. It’s not. And I’m certainly no activist. I’m simply a mechanic checking under the hood of an old car, advising its owner (you all) that much restoration and modern upgrading lies ahead.”
Pho joins Sonya Quick, Voice of OC digital editor, on the press club board. Quick is serving her second term on the board of directors.
Previously, Voice of OC Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Norberto Santana, Jr. served several terms on the press club board before stepping away to serve as president of CalAware, one of the state’s leading First Amendment watchdogs.