The eleventh of several stories by Hunter students describing their communities and especially focusing on their methods and strategies for getting important news information that could effect their lives. The project was inspired by the reported death of newspapers around the country followed by future obits about the demise of the news print industry. Requiescant in Pace.
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Growing up in the era in when the birth of new media was witnessed, my experiences with gathering information include multitudinous old and new technologies. Without forgetting how the American library was the American Express of gathering information for academic and personal reasons, we now consider the Internet our gold cards to be use anytime of the day.
Now, nothing is wrong with using technologies such as the Net and Twitter as means of gathering information, however, using multiple sources from technology past and present can only boost or enhance one’s benefits in this present day media situation.
First and foremost, we must understand that just because technology is forever evolving at a rapid pace, our current communities may not see the effects of these great advancements due to a great many multitudes of reasons which we won’t get into at this present time. However, regarding my neighborhood, I learned some interesting facts about its demographics. Residing in the Hunts Point/Mott Haven section of the Bronx, which is directly above the east side of Harlem and Astoria, Queens, all three are separated by the East River, I found my neighborhood to have the highest proportion of adults with diabetes in the city at 17 percent.
HIV has decreased some in the past few years in my community, but it still ranks the third highest in HIV related deaths in the city. Residents here seem to experience more barriers to accessing health care than those in the city overall, with more than one-third of the residents without a regular family doctor. That reality may explain why residents here suffer from some of the highest rates of asthma affecting children, adult dependency on drugs and alcohol as well as cancer deaths.
With a population of 122,900, nearly all Hunts Point residents are either black or Hispanic with 73 percent Hispanic and 24 percent black. About half are living below the poverty line which is double that of New York City as a whole, according to TK. The numbers are 21 percent for New York City and 45 percent for Hunts Points. Residents here tend to be younger overall than those of the Bronx and city, and residents here 25 and older have competed fewer years of education than those in the Bronx and the city overall which may provide insight to my community’s high crime rate. The city average is 4.52 percent per 1,000 residents while the Bronx is at a staggering high of 9.80 percent with violent crimes such as murder, robbery, and assaults leading the way followed by property crimes, such as burglary, contributing to the Bronx number of 27.73 percent crime rate per 1,000 residents.
My choice in this subject matter of type of news information I prefer is pretty much whatever medium I can sink my teeth into, whether it be CNN or its website or Fox News or MSN.com or the New York Daily News. I really like the New York Daily News because it’s a local daily news paper publication that pretty much covers local, national and the worldly issues in a format I llike. In addition, it has the best comics of any newspaper I read. This is one of my favorite publications to use as a source of information, though a form of older technology, but during the school semester I may only read it once or twice a week because my college professors keep me busy with enough reading assignments.
However, during the summer I read it everyday except weekends.
I also gather information from the Internet. The Net is my main source of information gathering because my neighborhood or community more or less revolves around the social networking scene, so sites such as Facebook.com and MySpace.com are very useful to me because of my association with the New York City night life and club scene. I actually grew up with a number of relatively local and well known New York City deejays, so I check up on the latest Hip Hop, R&B, Reggae and Reggaeton music news and the latest fashions.
NY1 is another favorite that allows me to keep up with most of the local city and state news that effects my life and the city, such as traffic and public transportation information since I have the option of driving or taking the train into the city. It also gives great weather news so I can decide what’s best to wear for the day and its community board events, which I believe is the only television news network that gives community information through out the city.
It also gives me good information on the local and national issues that deeply affect my everyday life, such as events in Iraq and Afghanistan. I served in the military fighting this senseless, capitalist occupation in the Middle East, thus, it is an important issue in my life. NY1 also gives me information on the economy, a huge issue for me because I am a laid off college student and a veteran and depending on how the economy goes, my life could very well be affected by the slumping economy by effecting my veteran benefits and school tuition costs, so this is a big concern in my life.
Now some may wonder that if these national issues regarding veteran benefits and the war are so important to me why don’t I watch CNN or Fox and the reason is that, in my opinion, these news operations seem to be way too politically biased and motivated for my taste and the reality of what is happening just losses its originality from the original story which is my primary issue with mainstream media. I wish for nothing more than just straight news information and facts on the topic at hand.
Daniel Okrent’s article on The New York Times initial coverage on the Weapons of Mass Destruction attempts to answer the public’s concern as to why now this issue is no longer front page news. From the time of September, 2003, to June, 2004, the Times reported that Saddam Hussein had or was acquiring WMD’s up till that time of the war but no WMD’s were ever found before, during or after the war. After 5 years the Times finally addressed the issue but received some flack from its readers and some Times insiders, such as Daniel Okrent, for burying the story and not making it front page news as it once did before the United States invaded Iraq.
Okrent believes that this was not an individual problem but an institutional one due to a hunger for scoops, the front-page syndrome, hit and run journalism, coddling sources and end run editing as the culprits. He believes that it was this dysfunctional system that enabled some reporters operating out of Washington and Baghdad to work outside the lines of bureau management to assist in the sensationalism that was created prewar which in turn may have swayed public opinion to side initially with the government to invade Iraq and get rid of Saddam Hussein.