Feature Writing

For generations, the media and the celebrities that are broadcasted have had a direct impact on our society. In today’s world, everyone wants to be “perfect”. Everyone wants to look like the model that they just saw all over the department store that they just left. However, this “perfection” is a mere mirage. The media wants to feed to everyone through photographs and out outlets that Males have to have big arms and a six pack to be handsome. For females, the media shoves down pictures of small waisted models down every single one of there throats. A picture is really worth a thousand words, well at least in these terms. Though there advice should not be listened to, most of the time it is listened to. People begin to feel more and more insecure about themselves every time a new magazine cover comes out. This “perfection” that most people are obsessed with? what is it really? How can we attack the root of the problem?

Seeing as though body image in prevalent to this “perfection”. My study will take place in a few different gyms. I will ask men and women what is the perfection they seek and why? Does it have anything to do with media and society at all or is it all for their personal benefit. I will also try and speak with managers of the respective gyms pertaining to the business side of this study.

The main point I’m trying to explore is that society tells us all to be ourselves.. and yet society is the first one to judge us.. Why is that?

Everyone has some variation of a smart phone that can take relatively ‘good’ photos. Photography has become something of a commonality and is difficult to find a niche to make photography work for you as a profession. I want to explore what it’s like for someone to make a name for themselves and set themselves apart from everyone else who can take a cool picture on their phone. I want to see how it is still possible to be a successful photographer with such grave competition.

I don’t know exactly what my angle is. One idea I have is below:

I know a photographer who just graduated last semester and landed a job working for a magazine, who is one person I could focus on. He is from the Bronx and went to Baruch, not a school known for photography at all, and has now landed this job. This angle could be a story about how is is, in fact, still possible to make it in the photography world, even when you did grow up in the twenty-first century and don’t know anyone in the industry.

Alternatively, I know a middle-aged man who worked as a business man his whole life, and a couple of years ago began taking photographs (he has actually been featured in a few newspapers and recently had a show at Pratt Manhattan’s photography gallery).

The relevance of this piece will stem from the upcoming week-long photography festival in Brooklyn Bridge Park (at the end of September). The location of this festival also makes it a local interest story.

I will interview the main photographer who I choose (his friends and family as well to find out more about the person and what led them to photography). I will also interview photography students to get their viewpoint about their hopes/dreams for being a photographer and also what challenges they expect to face in the real world. I want to know what these students have in mind as a kind of ‘game plan’ for making it in the real world.

Although most of the performances at the 2016 MTV Video Music Awards were performed inside the arena, Madison Square Garden, one performance that stuck out was Nick Jonas’ and Ty Dolla Signs’ ‘Bacon’ in this diner called “Tick Tock Diner” located on 481 8th Ave, New York, NY 10001 near the Garden. As a Madison Square Garden employee, me and other tour guides had never heard of this diner located outside of the Garden until the VMAs on August 28th, so I would like to explore that, interview the customers and workers at the diner to see if the VMAs helped the Diner grow customers. I would also like to know how the idea came about. The song Nick Jonas performed was called Bacon so I’m sure it has something to do with that. I interviewed some Madison Square Garden employees and mostly none have been to the diner nor heard of it.

2nd pitch: (possibly)

Players and social activism

A lot of people have been talking about Colin Kaepernick sitting down during the national anthem and bringing attention to police brutality. I want to focus a story on Carmelo Anthony who is very vocal on these social issues. I’m interested in interviewing security guards at Madison Square Garden, some of them former cops, and get their take on Carmelo Anthony bringing light to this subject during Knicks games this upcoming season. I also want to interview fans of the Knicks and get their take. I do have the access to make the story interesting but the only way the story would work is if I can get the interviews with the security guards which could be tough.

The legendary Rose Bar, in the Gramercy Park Hotel has been apart of curating a scene every year during New York Fashion Week. Within the exclusive after parties there is lots of networking happening between high profile people in the fashion industry. Year after year, the allure to be apart of these parties is still as high as ever. To see what these parties really offer to the guests, I will speak with the general manager of the bar Dane Assermely. To supplement the perspective of Mr. Assermely, I will be speaking with and model and waitress, Natalia Henry. She will be able to give a different perspective, working on both ends of the parties.

The question being investigated is whether or not the “hype” of fashion week after parties, is worth the effort to work your way into.

In recent years, more and more attention and effort is dedicated to online education. It has grown into a major branch in the entire educational system. Baruch College is also working on offering more quality online education to its students to fit various needs. However, the definition of the “quality” is open for discussion. From the college’s point of view, the quality of education will not decrease because they are working on a new technology that will track students’ performance history, figure out what students don’t understand, then set study plans for students to absorb all the course materials. On the other end, many believe that online education does not offer the same quality as the traditional in class education. I plan to interview my hybrid class professor and classmates regarding this issue.

There are 11 million undocumented immigrants in the US and Donald Trump promises if he is elected President of the United States of America he will “make America Great again!” One way he plans on accomplishing this is by deporting the majority back of the 11 million undocumented immigrants to their respective countries. Not to anyone’s surprise, many people agree with Mr. Trump.
On your way to school tomorrow take some time take and look around you. Whether you are taking the MTA, driving, riding your bike, or walking, surely one of the people your eyes happen to land on is an undocumented immigrant. When you arrive to school, take a look around and I guarantee you the same thing will happen.

My goal is to interview undocumented students studying and DREAMERS at Baruch and undocumented workers in NYC and share their opinionsregarding Donald Trump’s policies on immigration.

For this news pitch, I wanted to talk about gender neutral bathrooms in Baruch. With the nationwide push to let transgender students access bathrooms of their choice and a New York-wide ad campaign promoting uninhibited bathroom access, the LGBTQ community at Baruch pushed to have a gender neutral bathroom on the third floor.

According to members of G.L.A.S.S.—short for Gender, Love and Sexuality Spectrum—last year’s executive board of the club pushed for an effort to create a gender neutral bathroom at Baruch, but the college’s administration blocked their efforts because of various technical factors and what G.L.A.S.S. members described as “bigoted ideology.”

For this interview, I have reached out to Gabe Roman, the current president of G.L.A.S.S. They served as the club’s creative director when the push for gender neutral bathroom took place. I am currently scheduling an interview with them, and later plan to speak to other members of the administration mentioned in their interview.

Junior Martinez
News Feature Pitch

As, we are close to the 15th Anniversary of September 11, just recently the new World Trade Center Hub opened, last year Brookfield place as well. They have opened major brand stores like Cole Hann, Apple, Forever 21, Gucci and etc, that are inside the Hub and brookfield. Businesses are booming again in that section lower Manhattan.

The local angle is how do long time businesses owners and residents feel about the revival of that section of lower Manhattan. Does it affect the small businesses that have been there for many years?

I will interview residents, local businesses owners, who have lived or were there before 9/11, and try to talk to a Westfield and Brookfield rep.

Compost me!

A week ago, during a lunch break, I stopped at Starbucks that is across the street from Baruch College. The huge line of nearly 40 inpatient students amused me. It is a second coffee chain on that street and there are thousands of others that never cease to fail in sales during breakfast or lunch traffic.

Almost every morning I make myself a cup of coffee. I never feel guilty about it. All my coffee grinds get composed and my favorite coffee mug gets washed – zero waste, literally. I made series of attempts to prologue my zero waste contribution by bringing a reusable coffee cup to work. However, after 40 min in a subway, my coffee would get too warm. An attempt to carry the cup, apparently Starbucks gives its customers a discount if they bring a reusable cup, also failed because sometimes I just wanted to have a little purse that unfortunately cannot hold a giant metallic mug.

Yet, every time when I would buy a cup of coffee from a street vendor or everyone’s beloved Starbucks I could not help but experience a sensation of guilt. Guilt began from the moment my lips touched a plastic lid. How many of those lids are used daily? Are they end up in our landfills? Do people understand that 5 minutes of caffeine or any other type of liquid pleasure in a plastic container covered with a plastic lid will stay on this Earth with our future generation for 500 or even 1000 years?

I began to wonder if there are any coffee chains or maybe perhaps a local coffee shop that pays attention to the small eco detail such as, well at least, a plastic lid. Last week I stumbled upon a coffee chain called Blue Bottle Coffee near Bryan Park. When I was ready to make my guilty sip from a plastic lid, I’ve noticed a few words on it “Compost me!” Apparently, aside from having cozy French patisserie style interior and delicious coffee, this 15 years old coffee chain based in California, is one of the leading eco-friendly coffee chain in the world. They use not only compostable plastic lids but also compostable straws and paper cups.

In this article, I would like to explore what are eco-friendly plastic lids and paper cups.  The founder of Blue Bottle lives in California, I will contact him by email and in the meanwhile will interview employees.  Also, I want to speak to their customers and see if that little sentence “Compost me!” contributes to their devotional support. In addition, I want to use data from www.nyc.gov, www.recyvlingadvocates.org to educate a reader about waste statistics that are based on scientific research.

http://www.cityofboston.gov/publicworks/wastereduction/?hootPostID=a20fed3dd729672033e3833e33a00b54#!rc-cpage=39022

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/16/takeaway-coffee-cups-recycle-environment-waste

http://www.recyclingadvocates.org/single-use-coffee-cup-reduction/