Words from a Reporting Legend

Guest Speaker-  Investigative Reporter, Wayne Barrett

      The Woody Tanger Auditorium was filled with people eagerly waiting to hear from the legend, Wayne Barrett, who can not type a positive word, and admits it’s “his weakness.” Barrett, is an investigative reporter in New York City, who believes, “we investigate the powerful.”  For close to 40 years Barrett was well known at the Village Voice, writing more than 2,000 stories there. He was also the author of five books, two included, Rudy Giuliani, and one Donald Trump.

      Wayne Barrett started his speech with the rising question, “what do we have to fear, adjectives?” He then explains the paradox of Journalism. Editors want us to be the touch guy but also get along with everyone in the newsroom. “Deal with the people you may not want to if they will fill the computer with good stories,” Barrett says.  When Barrett explained his life as an investigative reporter, he states that, “some people lost their way,” to be an investigative reporter is to be powerful all around. When a question was asked, “what is some advice you can give for future investigative reporting, he replies, “doctors, and lawyers tell the truth, but there is something unique about the profession of  Journalism, telling the truth is the point to reporting, “we get paid to tell the truth”. Barrett admitts that some of the best investigative reporting comes from the New York Times.

      When Barrett, wrote his books on Rudy Giuliani, and Donald Trump, he had a point which was that “all should matter.” He wanted to bring out the past. He felt as if “we have no respect for the past.” We can only think of present tense, but the past has shaped everything that is going on today. He asks the question, “what happened in history class?” He seems to think that our generation has cared less about the history of the United States, then his generation did. Journalist’s should always know about the history of the press because it is very important for new journalism.

      Barrett explains that he didn’t always want to be Journalist, he wanted to be a lawyer, but never finished with that commitment, nor attended law school. He was into debates, and winning arguments.  He decided he was going to get into Journalism, but a certain kind of journalism, investigative reporting, “because that was the closet to his original plan.” He loved his occupation for it’s “irresponsible nature,” and “thrill of defaming.” He is not only an investigative reporter, and an author for his five books, he is also a professor at Columbia University.

      Lastly Barrett spoke about internships, and encouraged all young Journalists to take up that opportunity. He says, “Interns learned more about Journalism then they would in a college class. It gives you a certain drive a class can not.” He offered advice, such as if taking an internship, make sure you get a reference if you are doing well, or to be in touch with that organization for future job opportunity.” Barrett is in touch with 75% of interns. A student at Brooklyn College, Barry Shifrim, is currently interning with him. As Barrett was pressed for time, he ends the speech, by saying he will always be a “New York Guy.”

Opinion Piece

Based on the editoral in the New York Times "Unpaid Interns - Rewarded or Exploited?", by  Maria Campo there seems to be some controversy over paid or unpaid Internships. Campo argues that the economy is too bad for interns to be paid, and that the students should just take it as experience gained. She mentions "Given that there are people with years of work experience who are currently unemployed and taking volunteer positions in the hopes of securing a paid job, college students can hardly expect their internship to be more than the apprenticeship and foot-in-the-door opportunity that it is." Basically she is saying that interns should not be paid because there are people who have even more experience then the students who are unemployed, so interns should come last, and just take it as an opportunity to learn more about that specific field.

When students take these internships the company may not be aware of the time these students are wasting. If the internship is as strict as any job would be, and is taking up their time, where they can not work at another job, why shouldn't an internship be paid? How can a person live after having so many loans to pay off from school and with the cost of text books etc. Some internships are five times a week for four or five hours or even more. Let alone finding another job that is paid,  internships are to be given while still enrolled as a student, so how can a student make a schedule for school, if the internship takes up all that time? It is understandable that people with more experience then interns can not even find jobs but maybe the reason is because they never took advantage of internships in the first place, and the people that actually do should be rewarded.

The other way I can see an internship not being paid is for the following reasons:

• It is a manditory college credit, and it is needed to graduate. If this is the case then it should be only one-two times a week for a few hours, this way a student can still take their other classes and work another job that pays.
• You are guarteened a job after. Lets be real most students take internships in hope that their work will be recognized and they can eventually make a career out of it after graduation

Some majors require an internship which could be worth 4 credits. This internship would have to be improved by the professor. In that situation, I can understand why it wouldn't be paid, because it's almost like either way you need it to graduate, so you would do it regardless. Also, if a student is guarenteed a job right after graduation it makes it easier to stay at an unpaid internship because even if you are not getting paid you know that you will eventually be making money to support yourself so its not a big deal. Although most internships are not paid I think they should be. Even $100 a week is a reasonable price for college interns. Atleast this way they can have some extra pocket money.

Beat Blogging

For a Journalism class in Brooklyn College, I am taking Beat Reporting. Beat Reporting consists of reporting and writing, just like any other Journalism class but focuses on one specific theme. Being that technology interests me the most as a topic to write about, I chose to focus my beat on technology within the youth. People may or may not be aware of how technology has been increasing over the most recent years.

• Facebook: This is the key topic in most articles within my beat. In a recent article, posted today, by Elissa Gootman, "If Youth Can Post Its Facebook Status, Age Can, Too" mentions how a class of mid-age men and women were being taught how to use facebook to keep up with today's society. Parents and grandparents in the class were using the lesson as a way to see what they're children and grand children are up to.
• Video Games: Elissa Gootman's article, also mentions the impact of video games, when it was quoted, "Their assessment of me is I’m a dinosaur, so to speak,” he said. “My granddaughter had to teach me how to properly use a cellphone. I had a 6-year-old grandchild tell me how to set up PlayStation because I didn’t know how to do it. It’s embarrassing!” Basically because of these new technological items, people older than the newest generation are lacking, in a whole new world they are not even aware of.
• Smartphones: Smartphones, can be a benetifical thing or it could be the complete opposite. Many teenagers, or people in their early 20's often are placed in the age group of owning smartphones. Older age groups are still using their modern flip phones. People are not aware how much of an impact these phones have made in society today. An article, by Nick Bilton, "Smartphone Market Expected to Sour in 2011" In this article, it says that "smartphones makers are expected to ship more than 450 million smartphones in 2011 compared to the 303.4 million units shipped in 2010." Also the idea of texting is another large factor in Smartphones because of how easy the markets have made texting be. These are all ceritified examples of how much smartphones are impacting the world today.

I wrote my first article, on facebook, which is ironic because it is one of the most recognized issue in technology as I researched, most articles were pertaining to that. The second article I wrote about was the toy industry decreasing because of video games. Although I didn't see any articles on the same issue, I still feel like it is very important  in my beat. I just saw an article relating to how the video game systems are not understood to the older generations, but nothing about why, and how the world is changing because of it. Being that I work at a toy store, I find it to be very devastating. Toy stores are going out of business all around New York City, and I thought there would be more articles on that. I do not have any plan for my third article, but I may focus it on smartphones only because it seems to have a large impact on society, after reading some articles on my beat.

Smartphones can go a long way with really digging in deep, if I were to choose to write about that.  For example students have been caught cheating on tests because it is easy to Google a question from the test. Smartphones are able to access online shopping, facebook, dating websites etc. in a more convenient way. Texting is made more easier as well, since there are keypads made for texting, the majority of people text. Texting while walking the street, not paying attention, being anti-social are all ways that smartphones can play in affect. In an article by Jan Hoffman, "A Girl's Nude Photo, and Altered Lives". This article was about two 8th graders who dated, there names were Margarite and Isaiah. Margarite obviously felt that she trusted her boyfriend Isaiah, and sent him a naked picture of her on her cellphone. They broke up and he forwarded it to another 8th grader, who used to be friends with Margarite. The ex-friend then forwarded the picture to everyone in her phonebook and titled the picture "ho alert". Eventually Margarite found out what was going on and it destroyed her mentally and emotionally. Text messages have a huge impact on society, now more than ever because of how accessible it is.

Technology has a whole has been increasing daily, and it is very interesting to write articles on this topic because compared to years ago, it has changed dramatically.

People born 2009 and up are now experiencing new zodiac signs?

It appears, in Time Magazine that the zodiacs have been changed according to the way the sun moves through certain constellations at certain times. The zodiac allows astronomers to plot the movement of the sun, but the dates can vary, and since 2009, they have. But who would of thought a zodiac sign can mean so much to a person?

Zodiacs are known to fit a person's personality. I am a Capricorn, born on January 10th, it now shows that I would be a Saggitarius. I'm so a Capricorn it's not even funny! I am a goal oriented person, and independent, and I like my sign. I will not believe this. Hopefully it's accurate, when it says it's only for people born 2009 and later.