Third 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.
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I lived in the Morrisania neighborhood geographically located in the southwestern Bronx for about eight years and commonly known as the South Bronx. It has the highest premature deaths than any other in the city, according to the city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
The primary cause of premature deaths in Morrisania is HIV/AIDS, whereas the overall cause of deaths in the Bronx and the city is cancer. The percentage of residents living under the poverty level is higher than the percentage overall in the Bronx, according to department statistics. Having a personal doctor or health care provider and a “regular place of care” other than an emergency room is an important factor of good health. However, the residents in Morrisania are more likely to go emergency rooms when they are sick or need health advice. In Morrisania, 26 percent of residents do not have a regular doctor. Although, the overall death rate in the city has decreased in the past decade it continues to be consistently higher in Morrisania, according to the City health department. Homicides are a pox on my neighborhood.
“Angie shot Victor,” said Santana as she sat on her rocking chair watching her prerecorded Spanish soap operas. “He was sleeping with her sister. I hear her mother is taking care of their son now. ” She started to suck on her coconut flavored Frozen Fruit ice cream and said, “Did you hear that the bodega was robbed again?”
I am one of an estimated 4.5 million commuters who rely on New York City’s trains and buses to get to work, school, and back home again. Thus, I prefer sources that are easily accessible. I pay attention to news about mass transportation. For news on public transportation, I usually watch signs along the bus routes and signs along the subway platforms. For days of inclement weather I watch NY1 for updates.
During rush hour, subway trains are jam-packed and every minute can become crucial to arriving at my destination on time. I rarely have time to stop at a newsstand and pick up a paper. However, I always take a copy of AM New York or Metro handed out as I enter or exit the subway. They are free and convenient sources of information. I usually grab a one being handed out as I exit the Hunter campus subway station to attend morning classes. I skim the pages for information that appear entertaining, and I read them to bypass the time I spend on the subway. I do not believe in horoscopes but I always read the ones in the papers. If the horoscopes rate my day at anything less than an eight, I throw the paper in the garbage.
I have been involved in theater for the past 10 years and I first started reading the weekly Back Stage when I was accepted as a drama major at Fiorella H. LaGuardia High School for Music & Art and Performing Arts.
News on the theater industry is important to me. Back Stage offers career advice and job opportunities. Film majors use the paper to announce that they are holding an open call for actors to be featured in their student films. Although, student films tend to be non-paying, they offer actors experience and an opportunity to build up their resumes. Back Stage can give good insight into the theater business. It reviews on-Broadway and off-Broadway shows. It also publishes interviews it has with actors and directors who are currently working in the business.
My closest friends are involved in the arts and they keep me up to date on the newest movies and shows. When it comes to fashion I am completely lost. My friend, Lyz Mancini, writes for the StylesCaster website, and I follow her weekly blogs that discuss pop culture, current events and fashion news. Her job supplies her with V.I.P. passes to high fashion runway shows and to the grand openings of clothing stores. She tells me what I should and what I should not wear.
Since taking a media and politics class this semester, I have been more interested in national and international news. I now watch CNN three to four times a week. My biggest concerns are health care, the recession and the war in Afghanistan. When I don‘t have time for CNN, I get a quick fix on current events from online. I search a topic that I am concerned with and I read the articles that interest me. YouTube is a good source for wide ranging information. I first learned of the significance of the Iranian revolt after watching a video on YouTube of a young Iranian woman, Neda Soltan, being shot and then dying on video. After watching that video my eyes were glued to CNN for a week.
I don’t know enough about the issues our government is facing or about the issues that other nations are most concerned about. I have become more knowledgeable with current events but I need to make it habit to read a newspaper everyday. “You can never do enough reading,” said my dad. “If I was the president every elementary school student would be required to read a paper every day.”
In Clark Hoyt’s online article “Bad News, and More Bad News,” the New York Times Public Editor said that newspapers are overemphasizing the negative effects of the economy which is prolonging the recession. In his comment, Gord Ellenson of Whitby, Ontario, said, “The media outlets are not helping the situation by this entire scare mongering. It’s got to the point where people like me (are) turning off the news and refusing to read the paper.”The constant negative imagea the media portrayed of my neighborhood contributed to my loss of confidence in my neighborhood every improving. I was embarrassed to say that I lived in the South Bronx because of the continued negative cliché image the media portrayed.
In his article Hoyt discussed the imbalances in newspapers. If newspapers only focused on the negative and not the positive then the readers will only think of the negative. I ignored what the media had to say about my neighborhood because there was more to it than homicide and poverty; I learned more from living my everyday life.