Lillian Ross: The Passion of Reporting

By Jessica Mizzi

Lillian Ross, the legendary New Yorker feature writer, has very definite views on how she believes a reporter should act during interviews and writing their articles.  She believes that the “fly on the wall” technique is not to be used, because “a reporter doing a story can’t pretend to be invisible… he or she is seen and heard and responded to by the people he or she is writing about.”  In other words, Lillian argues in Reporting (1964) and in Reporting Back: Notes on Journalism (2002) that reporters should be highly involved in the stories that they cover; they should demonstrate passion towards the people, situations, and events that appeal to them.           

Ross follows these guidelines in her work, adhering to her belief in only writing about things that she likes as “clearly and simply and straightforwardly as possible.”  She trusts her initial response to any person she interviews, and builds her story from there, which I believe to be a very critical aspect of journalism.  In my opinion, reporting is meant to be based on raw, gut feelings, because as Lillian explains, “the first experience--of anything, to me--is the most significant and the most memorable.”   This idea of following your first instinct again contributes to the concept that passion should be involved in reporting.  In addition, she believes that financial reasons should never be the motivation for writing assignments because this limits a writer, disallowing them to pursue what they really want to write about.

Perhaps the most important aspect of reporting that Lillian Ross suggests is listening to the person being interviewed.  She says, “I try to listen while I write, and if I can’t do both simultaneously, my listening takes priority.  Listening is the quintessential word.”  I agree with Lillian that truly listening is the key to writing a well developed story.  Paying attention to details during interviews, and being able to convey important messages and themes in writing is essential to being a successful reporter.

Cecily Strong Speaks Truth Through Jokes at White House Correspondents' Dinner

By Lila Ench

The White House Correspondents’ Dinner on April 26 was shaken up by Saturday Night Live’s take on the news, delivered by Cecily Strong. Many of her jokes had the audience laughing hysterically or sneering hysterically.

“Since I’m only a comedian,” she said to the roomful of Washington elected officials and political journalists, “I’m not going to try and tell you politicians how to do politics or whatever. That’s not my job. That would be like you guys telling me what to do with my body. I mean, can you even imagine?”

She spoke the truth in a way that was light-hearted so even the darkest words could get a laugh.

Cecily Strong is a cast member of Saturday Night Live, who joined as a feature player in 2012. She does a range of impressions, from Colombian-American actress Sofia Vergara to Canadian-American singer Alanis Morrissette. She has also been featured on the comedy program’s Weekend Update, which is probably why she was asked to the host the correspondents’ dinner at the Washington Hilton.

Weekend Update is a satirical segment where two correspondents discuss the news. This type of program is what is necessary for the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, where there needs to be jokes but also moments of genuine critique of President Obama and those who work for him.

Cecily Strong did an incredible job and her jokes hit hard, especially in a time where they need to be heard. Just hours away, Baltimore was experiencing protests due to the death of Freddie Gray, whose spine was nearly severed when he was taken into custody by city police.

“Let’s give it up for the Secret Service,” she said in a commentary on a seemingly national culture of police conduct in targeting African-Americans. “I don’t want to be too hard on those guys, because they’re the only law enforcement agency in the country that will get in trouble if a black man gets shot.”

These comments may be small but they make people think. That is the point of satirical comedy shows, and Cecily did a great job at expressing that. It’s why people watch Saturday Night Live, because they can handle the heavy topics but also allow people to laugh through it.

Cecily Strong is doing a great job not only for Saturday Night Live but for women in general. She is strong, funny, and powerful. There is hope that her presence will open a door for other women who want to speak about hard-hitting topics.

For more information:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH5XAeKdrjM

The Internet: An Idea that Grew to Span the World

By Erin McCarthy

The Internet has transformed the communications world like nothing else has ever before. The Internet is a worldwide mechanism for information broadcasting, and a medium for partnership and interaction between individuals and their computers. The Internet stands for one of the world’s most beneficial ways to research and develop information. The government and the industry have been partners in creating this amazing feature within technology.

This extensive information system is due to of what is called the National Information Infrastructure. The history behind the Internet is extremely complicated and involves many features. These features consist of technological, community and organizational characteristics. The technical fields of computer communications made the influence that the Internet has possible. 

What became the Internet was projected in a series of memos that were the first recorded descriptions of social interactions through computer networking. J.C.R. Licklider, who worked on developing information technology at MIT, wrote these memos in April 1963. In his memos he imagined a globally organized set of computers through which everyone could quickly access data and programs from any site.

This concept was very much like the Internet we have today. He was the head of the computer program at what became the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). While working at this job he convinced his fellow workers abut the importance of this networking system.

The Internet has changed so much over the two decades in which it came into existence for every day use. The Internet was conceived in an era or time-sharing on massive machines and continued to survive into the era of personnel computers. The most important fact is that the Internet started as a creation of a small band of dedicated researchers. The Internet has since grown to be a commercial success with billions of dollars of yearly revenue.
       
For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._C._R._Licklider


Erin McCarthy is a freshman at St. Thomas Aquinas College majoring in Communication Arts. A member of STAC’s softball team, she is extremely interested in sports media.

Lady Spartans Sweep Softball Double-Header

By Erin McCarthy

 The Lady Spartans softball team swept Dowling College with two wins on April 14. To start the game for STAC, Samantha McDonald, the first batter, hit a single to right field. This was a great start to the beginning of the game. After the first inning the score was 0-0. Continuing into the top of the third inning, it was still a scoreless game.   

Then in the third inning McDonald hit a single to left field, scoring the team’s first RBI of the day. The score was now 1-0 and the Lady Spartans had the lead. Brittany Malloy then hit a single to right field and the Lady’s scored again. This was just the beginning of a very successful first game that day for the St. Thomas Aquinas softball team, which won 7-1.

In total for the first game, Samantha McDonald went 3 for 4 with a run and a RBI. Erin McCarthy went 2 for 4 with a run and a RBI also.  Julie Sosnicki earned the win on the mound with 5 strikeouts while going 2-for-1 with 2 RBI.

In the second game of the day, Brittany Mangan's RBI sacrifice fly scored McCarthy to tie the game at 1-up in the top of the fifth inning. Next, Colleen Pagnani walked to lead off the 6th and McDonald homered in the next at bat to give STAC a 3-2 lead. McCarthy added an RBI single to advance the lead. Pitcher Brittany Malloy finished the game with a 4-3 win over Dowling College.

STAC Track Takes 4th in ECC Championship Meet; Winslow Dorsainvil Set Record in 100 Meter Dash

By Dylan Bestler

On April 17, all seven East Coast Conference teams gathered at Roberts Wesleyan University in Rochester, New York to compete in the championship track and field meet. The seven teams (both men and women) are Daemen College, University of District of Columbia (women only), LIU Post University, Molloy College, Queens College, Roberts Wesleyan University, and St. Thomas Aquinas College.

For STAC and several other teams, it was a more than five hour bus ride to Rochester; this is why the teams arrived a day early. The actual meet was the day after, on April 18.

Roberts Wesleyan took the ECC championship on both the men and women’s side. The men’s team scored 233 points, trouncing all of the other teams. Second place went to last year’s champions, Queens College with 161 points. The women’s team for Roberts Wesleyan scored 187 points, outscoring District of Columbia, which came in second with 139 points.

In a dramatic improvement from indoor track standings, STAC’s men and women’s teams placed 4th in the outdoor event.

Here are the standings from the meet:

Men’s                            
1.  Roberts Wesleyan               
2.  Queens               
3.  Molloy                   
4.  St. Thomas Aquinas           
5.  LIU Post               
6.  Daemen

Women’s
1.  Roberts Wesleyan
2.  District of Columbia
3.  Molloy
4.  St. Thomas Aquinas
5.  Queens
6.  Daemen
7.  LIU Post

Roberts Wesleyan men were led by Gabe Rivera, who was the ECC indoor athlete of the year this past season. He gave the team 36 points just by himself, winning in the high jump, coming in second in both the 100 meter dash and 200 meter dash, third in long jump and fourth in pole vault. He was also on the 4x100 meter relay and the 4x400 meter relay, coming in fourth and second respectively, giving him a total of 48 points.

Daemen College as a whole scored 48 points. Other big performers for Roberts Wesleyan were Thomas Rodger who won the 800 and 1500 meter run, Kevin Brown won the 5k, Justin Bender won the 3,000 meter steeplechase, Malcom Shaw won the javelin throw, and Aaron Mcginnis won the long and triple jump and got third in high jump and pole vault.

On the women’s side for Roberts Wesleyan the top performers were Rachel Brush and Katy Perry. Brush won the 3,000 meter steeplechase, got second in the 800 meter run, third in the 1500 and was on both the 4x400 meter relay and the 4x800 meter relay, coming in third in both. Katy Perry scored in all the throwing events, winning the discus, second in the hammer, third in the shot put and sixth in the javelin. Other winners for Roberts Wesleyan were April Sablan who won the 5k, Brianna Calderon who won the 400 meter hurdles, Kasey Semmler won the pole vault and Victoria Houser won the hammer throw.

Spartan Runners Won Several Events

The men and women teams for the Spartans of St. Thomas Aquinas improved from the indoor season, when the men’s team was last place and women were second to last. Outdoors, both teams got fourth place; men scoring 61 points and the women scoring 88.

The STAC men were led by Winslow Dorsainvil, who won all of his events and set school and meet records in them. He won the 100 meter dash with a time of 10.52, which is a new meet record and a new school record. He then won the 200 meter dash with a time of 21.94. He was also the second leg in his 4x100 meter relay team that placed first. That team consisted of Travis Volpe, Dorsainvil, Ricardo Reid and Lloyd Smalling.  Reid also placed fourth in the 400 meter dash and helped the 4x400 meter team get fourth place.

Other top performers for the men were Dylan Bestler, Tristan Holmgen and Jamer Linares. Bestler won the 400 meter hurdles and was on the 4x400 meter relay team. Holmgen, who was competing in his first meet of the season due to injury, placed second in the high jump. Linares placed fourth in the 10k and sixth in the 5k.

The Lady Spartans had a lot of top performers. Kristen Boriello and Katie O’Grady won their events, the 1500 meter and 10k, respectively. Kelsey Barnes, Gabby Sloezen, Gina Funaro and Sam Gabriel had good days as well. Barnes placed third in the discus and fifth in the shot put. Sloezen placed third in the 400 meter dash, sixth in the 200 meter dash and helped both of her relays (4x100 and 4x400) place fourth. Funaro, only having run the event one other time, placed second in the 400 meter hurdles and was also on the 4x400 meter team. Gabriel placed fourth in the triple jump and sixth in long jump.

The 4x800 meter team of Meaghan Ventarola, Kristen Boriello, Patricia Nersten and Allison Boriello placed second. Ventarola also placed second in the 3,000 meter steeplechase and A. Boriello placed fourth in the open 800.Other Spartans who contributed to the meet were Cecilia Pfleging and Tara Hansen. Pfleging placed third in the 3,000 meter steeplechase and Hansen placed fifth in the 100 meter hurdles.

Although the Spartans did not win the meet, they have to be proud of the progress they have made throughout the season. They also had many first and second team all-conference runners.

1st Team All-Conference               
Winslow Dorsainvil     100, 200, 4x100       
Dylan Bestler         400 Hurdles           
Lloyd Smalling               4x100               
Ricardo Reid                  4x100               
Travis Volpe                   4x100               
Tristan Holmgen     High Jump           
Kristen Borriello           1500               
Gina Funaro         400 Hurdles           
Katie O'Grady               10,000               
Meaghan Ventarola    3,000 Steeplechase       

2nd Team All-Conference
Ricardo Reid        400
Jamer Linares         10,000
Gabby Sloezen        400
Allison Boriello    800
Cecelia Pfleging    3,000 Steeplechase
Meaghan Ventarola    4x800
Patricia Nersten    4x800
Kristen Boriello    4x800
Kelsey Barnes        Discus
Sam Gabriel        High Jump, Long Jump

The Spartans are looking forward to the future with a number of recruits coming in. With more bodies and hard work, the Spartans will have their eyes set on gaining an ECC championship next year.


Dylan Bestler is a freshman at St. Thomas Aquinas College. He is from Williston Park, New York in Nassau County, Long Island. He went to Mineola High School and he is majoring in Communications/Journalism. He is on the STAC track team and wants to be a sports writer/anchor in the future.

Snapchat: Fun, Fast and Sometimes Too Revealing

By Dylan Bestler

In today’s age, there are many ways of getting in contact with people even when you’re not around them. You can call them, text message, face time, Skype, direct message on social media, and since 2011, Snapchat has become a big source of contacting people.

Snapchat was started by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown, who were then students at Stanford University. The app, originally called “Picaboo,” can be used to send pictures, videos, text and drawings to other people. These pictures/videos/etc. are known as “snaps” and the person receiving it can only view it for a maximum of ten seconds. This got pretty big and as of May 2014, over 700 million snaps were being sent per day.

Since the app was created, a lot of new features have been added to it. In October 2013, Snapchat added “Snapchat Stories.” These “stories” can be viewed by all of the user’s contacts for 24 hours before disappearing. Since May 2014, users can now chat with each other through text. Like snapchats, the texts can only be seen for a limited time. The second you leave the chat screen, the text goes away.

In November 2014, Snapchat launched its new feature, “Snapcash,” which allows users to send money to their contacts if they setup Snapchat with their debit/credit card number. On January 27, Snapchat added a “Discover” page. If you swipe all the way to the right on the app, you can view videos from channels such as Comedy Central, ESPN, food network, People magazine, CNN, Yahoo and some other channels.

With this update, Snapchat deleted its “Best Friends” feature. Before this update, users could view their contact’s “best friends” or the three people they snapchat the most. It was removed because it was a problem for some relationships. If a girl saw that her boyfriend was snapchatting another girl more than her, it has caused problems, which is why they removed that feature. A user can still see their own best friends listed but it is no longer open to the public.

The last added feature to snapchat was the “emoji update,” which was added on April 6. Now there are emojis (or digital icons used to express an idea or emotion) next to your contact’s names and each emoji means something. A heart emoji means that both contacts are each other’s number one best friend; a smirking face means that person is on your best friends list but you are not on theirs; a smiley face means that both you and that contact are “best friends” (in the top seven most snapchatted); a grimace face means that both contacts have the same number one best friend (they both snap the same person the most); a face with sunglasses means that one of their best friends is also one of your best friends; and the fire emoji means that you have snapchatted the person multiple days in a row and the number next to it will increase.

Although Snapchat has many great features to it, the app has gotten many complaints. Snapchat has gotten in trouble with the Federal Trade Commission due to privacy standards.

Snapchat was meant so the user can control how long he/she wants his/her image to be seen by his/her contacts, but there is a way to view that image longer; it’s called the screenshot. A screenshot is when a user takes a picture of what’s on his/her screen, which means the picture can be saved forever. This has led to problems in the field of “sexting” or sending people sexual pictures or messages via cell phone. When girls or boys send these pictures and the others screenshot them, the person who took a screenshot can blackmail the other person because that picture can go viral and embarrass the one who sent it.

There isn’t as much privacy on Snapchat as most people think. Snapchat will notify the sender when someone took a screenshot of their photo, but you still have to be very careful sending out pictures on Snapchat.  

Despite the few negative effects of this app, Snapchat is an easy and fun way of communicating and sharing your experience with your friends. As long as you are careful, Snapchat is an app that everyone should download.

For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snapchat

Instagram: Way to Go

By Kristin McGrath

There are tons of different types of social media in today’s world. One social media site that is fairly new within the past couple of years is Instagram. What is Instagram? What is its importance?

Instagram is an app that lets you post pictures and videos. There are millions of users posting pictures of everything from everywhere in the world. Fascinating, right?

Say you have never been to the Grand Canyon, but you would like to see pictures of it other than what you get on Google Images. You can type in instagram #grandcanyon, and thousands of people’s personal pictures from their adventure at the Grand Canyon will show up! This idea of looking up any where in the world is an amazing one.

Posting pictures is fun too; they offer a bunch of different editing settings. Black and White, Amaro, and Mayfair are some of the different filters to choose from. You can adjust the lighting, shadows, and sharpness of a photo, as well. Basically, you can make a regular looking picture look like a professional took it!

There are many different types of accounts on Instagram: Workout guide accounts, healthy eating accounts, home decoration accounts, traveling accounts, and many more! Instagram has opened my eyes to the idea of traveling more often. I’ve been traveling since before I could even walk, but now thanks to Instagram I know of more interesting places to visit than I ever could imagine!

Instagram is great for anyone, and it’s very simple to set up your own account. If I could recommend any social media site, Instagram is the way to go.