Multimedia Reporting – Spring 2014

In my endeavor to bring out my creative side and apply principles and skills learned from my international business minor and participation in the Global Student Certificate Program, I am hoping to make the most of being fortunate enough to be in one of the most dynamic cities of the world. I am interested in diversity, culture, and immigration. With these three topics, it would be easy to jump from one topic to the other as they all complement each other well.

New York City holds an immense amount of diversity and the extent of globalization is far-reaching. Although I am a native New Yorker and have grown up in a multicultural environment, I cannot help but notice immense differences in culture and environments in other states and countries. New York’s cultural richness and diverse population intrigues me, making it so unique in comparison to the rest of the world. I was in disbelief the first time I traveled outside of NYC, finding it difficult to accept that the rest of the world did not have such a diverse population and fast-paced, constantly changing lifestyle. When I traveled to India for the first time, I was in even more shock, never knowing that the world could even be so different. Now I realize how far NYC has come, carving out its own truly distinct environment from all the different people and cultures present.

While most immigrants retain their culture, or at least some of it, it undoubtedly blends in to the American culture, and here, to the “New York culture”, and becomes something unique. Many different communities have formed, in which niches of cultures can be found, with people of the same race or religion living close to each other. The elements of different communities blend, allowing for integration of customs, foods, ideologies, and traditions. After all, NYC has been and still is known the melting pot. Being so open to everyone, there couldn’t be an easier and better way to retain ones culture while being an American, than living in NYC.

Although this is a broad topic, I hope to narrow it down by project, and then tie everything together in the end in a way that is coherent and effective. I am looking forward to exploring the diversity of the city and capturing precious moments and clips that will come together to form a beautiful story.

–Shalika Mugrai

For my potential topics I would like to choose basketball and food.

Ever since I was a kid I have followed the sport of basketball and used it wherever I went. Living in the Mecca of basketball where there isn’t much space for parks and open fields, there are basketball courts everywhere. I have grown up with a passion for the sport and its surrounding media, my aspiration is to be a sports writer or work in anything related to the game. Some people may view it as a sport, but I see it as a part of me and who I am, and the game itself has taught me many things about life.

I also have a passion for cooking and food and the New York City restaurant scene. It is hard to find as much access to great chefs and as many famous, excellent restaurants in one city. I am glad that I live in a city where there are trendy, creative, and profound culinary artists all around me. I am also a student of cooking as well, although still an amateur, I believe if we are going to live another oh lets say another 50 years on this planet, why not learn how to cook great food and enjoy life through each bite. Food is more than just nutrition, it encompasses all that make us human and gives us lasting bonds and memories that nothing else in the world can replace. Food can be beautiful if given the right perspective and I wouldn’t mind using media devices and photography to show that it is more than what is on the plate, it is everything from where it came from, to who prepared it, to the passion it was cooked with, finally to the person who is eating it. With all things in life, the more love that is put into it, the better the outcome.

It is just too easy to sit on the couch and stare at the television, slowly but surely turning into a zombie. This is why I plan on engrossing myself in the arts and entertainment this semester. We are lucky enough to live in a city where there is always something to do. Many of us have lived here our whole lives and unfortunately do not take advantage of what this amazing city has to offer. In fact, I can’t recall ever going to the Empire State Building; I know, blasphemy. Nevertheless, there are also many other places not well known to us that I plan on showcasing this semester. Now, I wish I could give you examples or a roadmap of where I’m going to lead you but to be honest I have no idea, perhaps that’s the exciting part. Its always thrilling finding little gems tucked away in small little streets like bars in alphabet city, weird museums scattered around the five boroughs, or a restaurant that has the best lobster mac and cheese you’d ever taste.

With the vast amount of galleries, museums, shows, restaurants, bars, and other activities I have yet to uncover, I think this beat is one that anyone would want to cover. Perhaps I am being a little broad in my pick and might encounter some issues. For instance, how to pick something specific to cover, but for the time being I am excited to tackle the task.

I think most of us are still a little unsure as to what exactly to expect from this class. However, we can not forget that we are all in a great position to find sources, what better place to find them than in our class where stories will overflow from one beat to the next. Hopefully we’ll have fun; when we are done with our studies of course.

I remember being a little girl sitting at my desk and all I would do was write. I would make short stories and small books that made no sense what so ever, because I enjoyed it. Over time I stopped writing and reading as much. I was lost for a long time I didn’t even have a major, I was so confused on what I wanted to do and whom I wanted to become. I soon found myself coming back to writing and reading and realizing that this is such a huge part of who I am and I couldn’t understand why I didn’t realize it sooner. I believe that everyone has a passion or something that they are destined to do, some sort of path that we are all supposed to be on, but some of us just have no idea. The topic I came up with was young adults in their 20’s whom are faced with confusion/ pressure to succeed and are lost after college or even during college. From the moment I graduated high-school until now I have discovered that I am not the only one that has felt this way, a majority of my close friends have felt a sense of confusion even at 22 post college with amazing jobs. Not everyone knows what they want to do for the rest of their lives, and its possibly one of the scariest feelings ever. I have yet to decide how I am going to go about my topic, I’m still trying to figure out what will work best with it, to grasp all the emotions and feelings to make it feel real to everyone. I think this will be a great topic for me to pursue because I have been going on this journey for such a long time and would really like to make light to the fact that we don’t have to have all the answers right away. That maybe life will figure itself out in due time and we shouldn’t be so stressed over the future and what ifs. I know I still have a lot to think about but I want this to be my topic.

– Carolina Cabezas

JENNA BAGCAL

For this semester in multimedia reporting, I have two particular areas of interest. The first of these interests is music. In the future, I definitely see myself as a music journalist, attending various festivals and concerts, talking to up-and-coming musicians about their various projects, and hopefully writing for Rolling Stone. Personally, I know many young artists who are trying to pursue music as a career, so one idea that I had would be to interview some of them and write musician profiles. I would ask them about how they started getting interested in music, their musical influences, the gigs that they’ve played, and their overall experience as aspiring musicians. For this particular project, I like the idea of doing a mini magazine or possibly video profiles in order to incorporate samples of their music into the project.

Aside from music, the other facet of journalism that I am interested in is food journalism. I am a self proclaimed foodie and enjoy everything about the culinary world. Food journalism to me is very much about being visually appealing, as well as being extremely descriptive, so as to entice people to want to eat particular foods or go to a restaurant. If I were to pursue this option, I would probably do some kind of photography project about food. I am not sure how to expand on this idea, but I could possibly do some kind of project tying food and Instagram together. Food is one of the most popular topics that people post about on Instagram (myself included), so I think that would be an interesting approach to take.

For this semester, I plan to focus my writing on my personal interests.  I feel that by doing so, I will be able to generate productive material that is not only rich in quality, but rewarding for us all as a class.

Like the majority, I will base my writings on both music and sports.  These are both passions of mine that I have shared for most of my life.  I grew up in a home where music and sports were held in very high regard.  This remained to be true as I developed and formed my own sense of identity instead of relying on the likes my parents.

Currently, I have a number of resources throughout the city, such as professional recording studios and engineers, who I can use to help aide in my reporting.  I am also a songwriter and musician myself, having played piano for the past 9 years.  I play in different bands at local venues and events in the New York underground music scene.  I also plan to incorporate a few of my fellow bandmates and eclectic artists who we back for in my reporting as well.  Not only will this provide them a platform to showcase their work, but it was also help me complete my assignments with a unique and interesting touch.

My interest in journalism, specifically in the field of sports, began after many hours spent memorizing the stat lines of my favorite athletes and their respective games.  I am an avid fan of all sports and scour for the latest news and rumors.  To aide in my reporting on sports related topics for this semester, I plan on attending a number of sporting events and speaking with other fans in attendance.  I also hope to contact a particular sports blog that I frequently visit and propose a request for an interview.

All in all, I am very excited to begin realizing some of the ideas that I have conceptualized for this semester. I also hope to touch on a few current events in my local neighborhood. Although these topics are subject to change as I begin to work on my reporting, I am very optimistic about the semester.

I  definitely would like for my beat to be music for the purposes of this class and also in the future.  I am journalism major with a minor in music. I have a lot of experience in this area for many reasons. One reason being that I have been playing music since I was eight years old. Furthermore I constantly keep up on what is going on in the music industry and pay attention to up and coming artists. I could see myself writing concert reviews as well as reviewing albums. Here in New York music is everywhere and the music scene is very present and prevalent, whether it be the underground or mainstream music scene. Everywhere you turn there is a club or venue that is showcasing musicians whether they are well known or just starting out. Another aspect of the music scene I could see myself covering is artists that are on the rise and essentially bring attention to new talent. As a music journalists I would like to bring attention to any music that is fresh and different that could potentially change the music scene. I know that by being a music journalist in New York there are an abundance of stories and opportunities floating around that I can take advantage of.

I am not entirely sure of what I would like to cover for the duration of the semester but one idea that popped into my head is the fact that the Roseland Ballroom is closing down. This venue has been home to concerts performed by an eclectic array of artists. Some of these artists have been very well known including Beyoncé and others have been up and coming artists at the time including Panic at The Disco. Lorde in particular has been blowing up over the last few months and she is playing three consecutive nights at the Roseland Ballroom in March followed by Lady Gaga before the iconic venue closes. I feel like these could potentially be a great story considering the impact it will have on the music scene here in New York.

I wanted to focus on different forms of the music industry in the city. As a city where many come to “make it,” there are so many events, players and processes that could be reported on.

One idea would be to do a report on a studio that cater to artists at different level of the industry and their career. I would love to chronicle a couple of days at the studio, interviewing the engineers and vast types of artists that come through. I would want to find a studio with some history or has some type of interesting story behind it as so I’m not just randomly interviewing people.

Another idea that I had was to do a story on street musicians. I would be really interested in doing a piece on either the many that performers that are in and around Union Square or focusing on one of those artists and doing a sort of “day in the life”. In both instances I would focus on how these artists financially survive, and how music effects other aspects of their lives. I feel like there MUST be a lot of stories between the negative and positive aspects of being a street performer.

On the flip side of interviewing artists struggling to be recognized for their music, I would also be interested in doing a piece on artists who have made it. Since it would be particularly hard to garner the attention of major artists, I would want to focus on the people who cater to these artists. I think it would be interesting to do a story on people who cater to artists through various forms such as night life, fashion, make up, public relations etc. These people are much more accessible and will have as much, if not more information than the artists will about the details of their day.

I am interested in writing about makeup artists. I currently work as a artist freelancing and part time at Sephora. Apart from painting faces, I have came across a lot of talented artists, who also have a creative side to them.

Artists have to have soft skills in order to engage with clientele. That sometimes entitles listening to other peoples problems, lending an ear and sometimes just making them feel good about themselves by enhancing their beauty. I have recently met some amazing artists who are entrepreneurs trying to establish their own businesses in the media. They are trying to build a reputation for themselves in the world. I think they all have a story to tell because of their struggle, the competition out there and the skills they have to offer. Interviews can vary from hair stylist and makeup artist.

I remember researching makeup artists and there was not much on them online which made it difficult for me to learn anything about them. Hopefully my research and reporting will be a gateway for someone else interested in learning more about makeup artistry.

I have two topics that I would like to write about for this class, one would include arts and culture.  New York City offers various stories about different cultures since this is a diverse city. I would write about communities or neighborhoods that are unfamiliar to New York residents.Many groups live in several neighborhoods in the city that originate from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe. However, I have always wondered if there is even a Brazilian or Paraguayan neighborhood here since many who reside here are of Mexican, Dominican, Puerto Rican, Ecuadorian, Argentinian or other backgrounds.For the arts, I would write about interesting museums, events or plays that are important to New York residents or people who are involved in the arts that have interesting stories to tell the world.

Regarding choosing multimedia elements, for culture I would choose photos and probably videos, only if there is some movement occurring or something unordinary. For the arts, perhaps photos or a podcast if I would to write a story about a play or a museum. If I were to write about an artist or someone in the arts field, I would include a video.

The second topic I would write about would either be about the environment or about animals. I love animals and I think animal cruelty is a big issue, at least for me it is. Poor animals are used for experiments and I think it’s unfair for them.  Also, stories about the environment involving global warming and the use of fossil fuels never seems to get old and surprisingly as the years pass by, the idea of global warming sounds more logical and real. If I were to use some of the multimedia elements for animal cruelty, it would be a podcast and for the environment, video or photos.