My Name In Lights

Re-Thinking Twitter April 26, 2009

About a month ago I wrote an opinion piece for the Hurricane about how I am opposed to Twitter. You can read it on their website. If you do, you will see my laments about how people abuse Twitter and, all along, I received support at home from my best friend. We used to laugh about the ridiculous things you could read on people’s status and were both opposed to the awkwardness of writing about yourself..constantly. And now my BFF has joined the gang of Tweeters. I received the phone call yesterday. She was “breaking the news” that she had given in.

But in defending her weakness in willpower, (the cave-in ) she also described a few of the positive things that she already enjoys about Tweeting. Besides having the ability to stalk anyone, including celebrities, she enjoys how the NYTimes will tweet breaking headlines and provide a link to read the story. Fast forward to the library this morning.. I’m writing a political science paper on how the Republicans can revive their brand and make a comeback. One of my suggestions? Party leaders need to get on Twitter and find out what their “followers” (literally) want.

I betrayed my own words. Not only did my best friend get me to consider because I’m starting to feel like the odd man out, but now I am actually advocating the good qualities of Twitter in a scholarly paper. What’s going on with me? Traitor, traitor, traitor…

But the truth is right now, Twitter is a national phenomenom. Although I wonder just how long it will last before people get tired of it, I have a feeling that I might not be able to last much longer NOT tweeting. Every major news anchor gets on the air every morning and tells all their viewers to tweet. When Oprah’s doing something, you should be doing it too, and now Oprah has sent out her first tweet. Networks have their whole stations tweeting to a merry tune.

Could my first whole-hearted attempt to Tweet come in June when I start at CBS? Will they force me. Will I force myself? Perhaps.

YAY! April 22, 2009

We just got THE most amazing media with Rabbi Mayor Abbramowitz! What an amazing man. He’ll turn 90 this year and he has more youth in him than Josh and I combined and to top it all off..he’s hysterical too! Quite a jokester. He says if I want to convert to Judaism I should let him know… and truthfully, a smart and witty man such as he would be a pretty good reason if I was ever looking for one!
Oh and of course, the kids at TBS Montessori were adorable. Children don’t have a care in the world. Journalists could all learn a thing or two about life if they spent some more time hanging out with kids.

Passover is OVER! Let’s Go to School! April 22, 2009

I’m about to head down to Lenox Ave. with Josh to get a tour and speak to the Directress of the Temple Beth Shmuel Montessori School, which is the original Cuban Hebrew Congregation. I feel like we’ve been waiting to get access to the children and this woman forever because, I got the lead more than two weeks ago and since then the school has had vacation for the Jewish Holiday Passover. But, finally, we will go and give this story its legs for “Millennium Beat”.

This little logistical problem raises concerns in my mind about my future in journalism. I’m just wondering what it will be like in a newsroom when I am not only forced to work a holiday that I would prefer to have off, but everyone else is off too. I’m envisioning Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa as a difficult time to be on a deadline. Or Thanksgiving..New Year’s? Woe is me. What am I getting myself into. Looks like I’ll just have to enjoy my stress-free holidays while they last.

Well I’m off to go meet Josh. Don’t want to keep the kiddies waiting. Seriously, I can’t wait to meet them. I hope we get to play. Until next time…

Apparently at a Loss for Words April 8, 2009

Despite the elated tone of my last post (I was happy about CBS and how well our story on Elza Habif went), I have fallen off the deep end with frustration. First I had a minor breakdown after trying to figure out my schedule for next year and realizing that I can’t take all the broadcast classes I want to take. And if I can’t take those classes, I wondered how I would ever have the chops to make it in the highly competitive world of broadcast journalism. Of course I was ignoring all the experience I get working on UMTV and the fact that I had just landed an internship. This later soothed me.

But now I’m wondering if I have the chops to even be a journalist in general! Story #3 for CNJ445 has been nothing but a pain in the you-know-what since the get-go. Clearly we should have heeded Chris’ warning that this story was going to be tough… Since taking the story on, I have had the most ridiculous time:
(a) talking to sources. (By the way, the Israeli Embassy has been worth absolutely nothing.)
(b) figuring out a way to make the story “news” and make it relevant to today without making it sound like a research paper
(c) ordering my thoughts in a cohesive way so people can attempt to understand how extremely complex this forsaken story is.

I cannot even begin to explain my frustration with myself and the sources and my story. I have submitted three drafts, none of which have been approved, and written countless drafts which no one even saw because I edit myself so many times in the process of writing.

There, it’s out-my rant is over. Hopefully my most recent draft will be closer to approval than the last three. If I’m not getting some journalistic chops with this one, then I don’t think I ever will…

Broke and Happy at CBS! April 2, 2009

So I haven’t posted in a while, partially due to much needed spring break and partially due to the fact that I’ve been so busy since getting back from break. But here I am and I have an announcement to make… I am officially a CBS-News NY intern! Yay! So I guess it’s time to back track to the last most important thing that happened to me and get back up to speed.

I actually found out just after interviewing a woman named Elza Habif for my class CNJ 445. Habif’s story will be posted on the webpage our class is building, called Millennium Beat, very soon. (Can’t wait for us to launch the site sometime next week. ) Anyway back to finding out about CBS. So Josh and I interview this woman, Elza, who now operates a jewelry store in downtown Miami that sells just about every kind of “lucky eye” jewelry imaginable. If you don’t know what a lucky eye is, it is a Turkish/Greek symbol of the open eye that is meant to prevent you from harm. (Again for more details check out our story on Millennium Beat.com) We learn the whole background story of the “eyes”, how they’re supposed to bring you luck and protect you from evil and we get an amazing interview.

When I get home, I decide to check my mailbox which never has anything in it just for fun. But this time when I open the box, there is a huge white envelope inside containing my acceptance to the CBS News Internship Program. I jump up and down for like five minutes with my roommate.

Now I’m back in my dorm, already sifting through the paperwork CBS gives you, reading the contract, and I have one of Oprah’s “Aha Moments”. What is staring right at me from the top of the CBS letterhead and the front of that big white envelope? What is the CBS trademark and symbol???? The eye, the lucky eye.

I have to believe my getting the internship and learning about the lucky eye that day three weeks ago is a sign from the universe that CBS is where I’m supposed to be this summer. I’m also grateful that I heard back from CBS pretty quickly because a lot of my friends at school are still waiting to hear and the whole process is extremely nerve-wracking to be drawn out for such a long time.

The internship will be unpaid and 40 hours a week and the bus tickets into the city from my home in NJ just increased so my wallet will definitely take a hit this summer. Some people look at this as a negative, but I’m Ok with it. I will earn credit towards my major and I actually never expected to get a paid internship. Plus I plan on countering any hit I might take by teaching spin classes at the New York Sports Club.

I look at an unpaid internship as CBS doing me a favor by taking me in and giving me this opportunity to learn the CBS tricks of the trade. The way I see it, the value of the experience I will gain this summer is worth way more to me than any amount of mula. So cheers to being broke and happy summer 2009!

Thoughts on… “Defending the News” in American Carnival by Neil Henry March 11, 2009

I very much enjoyed reading Neil Henry’s fifth chapter in the book where he discusses journalism in the age of new media. Although he was slightly long-winded, Henry wrote clearly in very real language. He made me think a lot about the industry and about my future in a new age of journalism. I could see myself reading more of his book. Throughout the chapter, I found myself, at times, agreeing with Henry, and at other times, outright opposing him. I’d like to address one issue that was an overall tone in this chapter:

Henry discusses, or rather, complains at length about the effect of “new media” on aspiring journalists in the age of blogging. He seems to believe that the new generation of journalists- bloggers and citizen journalists, etc. – are too worried about their own opinions and commentary of news events, rather than the news itself. Henry says that the media industry is becoming flashier, and more openly opinionated than in the past. He seems to prefer curiosity-driven objectivity as the basis of reporting.

But Henry also talks about giving the people what they want. (According to him, this is why his university offers so many digital classes and added a new school on citizen reporting.) And I believe that people do want color and commentary in their news today. With so many outlets for news, they look for something to entertain them or stand out from the pack. How else would they ever be able to choose?

As one who loves to write opinion and commentary, I disagree with Henry when he keeps referring to my generation as a generation who simply reacts to the news in their writing and blogging. Rather, I constantly choose to present my material differently, because that is what catches people’s attention. This does not mean that I haven’t been a witness to the event, a careful observer, or any of the things that make a diligent reporter. It just means that I, along with many others in my generation, choose to descriptively report the event. We are not trying to over dramatize it. It means that I choose to bring my audience to the event itself through my words, my media, and my images. We are over the simple presentation of news to our audience. I also choose to explain why people should care about these things I have seen and found out. I choose to objectively explain my feelings on issues that normal citizens don’t have the time or means to have feelings about.

Henry was more on-point when he acknowledged that objectivity was always the guise for subtle subjectivity… and I don’t believe that subjectivity hurts anyone. If every reporter is just a little subjective, there will be a fresh perspective on every issue and the news will never be taken over by “new media”. The blogs, the social networks, the whatever-they all add to the intrigue of the real news. In my opinion, they do not dilute the news. These new mediums-with all their flashiness of opinion- engage people in dialogue and inspire them to think outside the box.

And if it takes a little edge now-a-days to differentiate your news from someone else’s news, I don’t think there is any harm. I think Henry should have given Applicant X, trying to gain admission into his prestigious journalism school, a little more credit for her opinions and her risk in expressing opinion. Maybe Henry or alumni interviewer should have done a little more in-depth reporter on Applicant X. Because I thought that Ms. “Admit” seemed sweet and curious enough. But from what Henry divulged, her essay was more of the same predictable material people write to get into grad school. Rather, it is those with an edge (those like Applicant X) who are the next generation of successful reporters.

Temple First-Timer February 28, 2009

As I have said before, I have never been to temple or a bar mitzvah or anything. So attending synagogue at the Cuban Jewish-founded Temple Moses this morning with Ruth Behar and Josh was my first experience with the religion’s practices…

My point is that I was an outsider to begin with… but I was seriously an outsider today – not Jewish, not Cuban, not even a Spanish speaker ! Therefore, I will be forever gracious that Ruth accompanied us and that I had the pleasure of sitting next to her. Ruth introduced me to many lovely older women sitting towards the back of the room (her aunt, whom she hadn’t expected to run into, among them) as an “estudiante,” and so they all smiled at me and asked “Como estas?”…and then “Hello” when they realized that my Spanish vocabulary does not extend past “Muy bien, gracias. Y tu?” Ruth also kept me in the loop during the whole service, which was actually a bar mitzvah service for the son of the Rabbi. She explained that the older women sitting around us had all come from Cuba, and that all of their parents had immigrated to Cuba from Turkey in the 20s. (This is a crucial component in their Sephardic Jewish heritage as Sephardic Jews are the Jews of Spain, the Middle East, Portugal and North Africa. They are different from Ashkenazic Jews who are the Jews of France, Germany, Eastern Europe and their descendants.)

Josh, however, was not as lucky as I to have a translator and narrator (Ruth) sitting next to him. Temple Moses has men and women sit separately in the temple- women sat to the left of a beige lace and gold piped barrier that ran down the center of the room and was about 4 1/2 feet high; men sat on the right. But, this made me equally as unlucky because he actually got to see what was happening during the service. Since, it was a boy’s bar mitzvah, almost all of the recitation of the Torah and all of the men’s chanting happened on the other side of the fence-like separator. When we stayed seated, the women could see nothing. I actually stood with Ruth once or twice to try to catch a glimpse of what was going on, but most of the time I sat observing and listening to a variety of different Spanish conversations occurring around me. In fact, the women, who seemed unaffected by their lack of involvement and poor visibility, spent most of the time socializing with each other. Although I didn’t understand any of the women’s Spanish conversations, gossip is a universal language among women and by the end of the service I knew who was who, who was related to whom, whose granddaughter had just married, who the outspoken women were, who the pillars of the congregation were, etc. etc. Observation (and a little help from Ruth throughout the service) go a long way. Josh was impressed when I filled him in on everyone’s details just before we left.

But of course, just because I got some scoop and the ladies smiled at me, I was still recognized as the outsider I came in as. Just before Josh and I made a discreet exit from the temple, we noticed that our presence was the secretive topic of one group’s conversation! We’ll probably have to start getting used to that. And since we’re going to be on this beat all semester, everyone in the community is going to have to get used to us, too!

Anticipating an Extraordinary Interview February 18, 2009

I enjoyed reading an article by Carl Shrag written for Hadassah Magazine called “Two-Hyphen Identity: Letter from Miami,” very much.  It brings the Cuban-Jewish perspective a little closer to home.  Check it out just below.

http://www.hadassah.org/news/content/per_hadassah/archive/2004/04_JAN/ltr-miami.htm

It is one of the many readings from Ruth Behar’s syllabus, an anthropologist who studies Cuban Jews.  She is working at the University of Miami for the Spring 2009 semester, but calls a different UM, University of Michigan, her home.  I have begun reading some of the works assigned to UMiami class “Cuban Jews: Diaspora, Identity, and the Search for Home”.

Josh and I are set to interview her next Monday.  Behar, herself, has written extensively on her topic of lifelong interest.  I can’t wait to meet her…and although I haven’t yet, Behar has already begun to inspire me.  Just when I began to think that our beat community was, as Carl Shrag called it, a “minority within a minority”, I receive a huge syllabus filled with books and articles and website and temples, all teeming with Jewish Cuban history.  Just the course description alone has shown me how much she knows about such a specific topic in my eyes.  

Behar is proof that where there is a will, there is definitely a way.  I certainly have the will to tell the untold stories of Cuban Jews living in contemporary America, and I believe Ruth Behar will lead the way for us, opening doors and providing hidden passages.  She is a “source” that journalists dream about when covering a topic.  As I stare at this syllabus, I just feel it.  Until next time and until I meet her…