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Posts tagged ‘new york times’

Oct 10

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NY Times Multimedia Reporter Sarah Kramer to speak in BiHall tomorrow

The Meet the Press lecture series brings yet another amazing speaker to campus: New York Times reporter and multimedia producer Sarah Kramer ’96.5. She will come to BiHall 220 tomorrow at 4:30PM to talk about “personal narratives in the digital age.” For those of you who are fan of the “How Did You Get Here?” multimedia pieces on Middlebury’s home page, you are going to be very excited about Kramer. She produced two of the most innovative multimedia journalism projects to date for the New York Times: “One in 8 Million,” which captures the stories of ordinary people who live in New York City and “Coming Out,” where teenagers throughout the country speak about their struggles coming out as gay or lesbian.

Meet the Press, which brought NPR producer Jay Allison to Middlebury last Fall, was started by Middlebury Scholar-in-Residence and author Sue Halpern. She started it “to bring newsmakers – reporters, editors, critics, photojournalists, bloggers and editorialists – to the Middlebury campus.”

Not to miss for anyone interested in journalism, storytelling, or multimedia.

 

Sep 12

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Pulitzer Prize-Winner Isabel Wilkerson to Speak at McCullough

Kicking off a new year of speakers, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and journalist Isabel Wilkerson will give a talk tomorrow night (Thursday, September 13) at 7:30PM at the McCullough Social Space. She has a pretty incredible resume that includes the first Pulitzer Prize ever given to an African-American woman, a stint as the New York Times Chicago Bureau Chief and a National Book Critics Circle Award-winning book, The Warmth of Other Suns. The latter examines the mass black migration from the South to the North and the West during the 20th century, focusing on three personal stories. To get a better idea of Wilkerson and her book, here is an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air with Wilkerson.

This should be a phenomenal lecture, be sure not to miss it.

Apr 17

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Life after NYT.com: News Alternatives

Letter to the Editor /via choiresicha.com

A smart Midd student once got up in front of a class of incoming freshmen and gave this advice: “Set your homepage to a news site — that way you’re forced to read about what’s going on outside the Middlebury bubble.” It’s pretty good advice, if you ask me, but it also became a little harder this month when NYTimes.com went under a “paywall.” I’m going to take a wild guess and say that some of you read a lot of the New York Times. And not everyone can grab one of the precious paper copies in the dining halls…

Admittedly, I am a little biased toward another newspaper, but last month I read 43 NYT articles and I’ve already hit my “legal limit” for this month. I’m not a digital subscriber and yet there are plenty of ways around the 20 article limit. But I wanted to recommend some other places to get your news that are still free-as-in-beer:

Go British: Our international population already knows the wonders of the BBC, even if they too have been hit by some funding cuts. They have a great mix of timely and deep news on a customizable homepage, but you may miss some of the buzz-worthy American news. I’m told it’s snooty, but The Economist has always been my favourite newsweekly in print and their website gives most of the best content from the magazine away for free. But this is not the place for breaking news — Economist goes deep with some of the smartest and well-researched pieces that you can bring up in your PoliSci classes. But if you’re not going to spend the time actually reading some of the lengthier articles, it’s probably not the best one-stop news site. The Guardian has some of the best multimedia and interactive coverage, if you’re missing the NYT infographics. Check out their SxSW coverage, for instance. Read more

Oct 15

Dean of Admissions Bob Clagett on the SAT

SAT guides abound

Dean of Admissions Bob Clagett’s post today on the New York Times‘ “The Choice” blog adds some useful perspective to our discussion last week of SAT scores and educational evaluation.  From the blog:

Too many prospective applicants obsess far too much about the role of their SAT or ACT scores in the admissions process. In fact, those scores are seldom a deal maker or breaker.

…Test scores fundamentally provide colleges with the roughest possible measure of your potential for academic success in college, and their predictive value usually declines over time. But they don’t tell us much about your intellectual “fire in the belly,” and that’s what our faculties want in their classrooms. That’s why your high school grades, and the rigor of the academic program in which they are achieved, are a much better long-term predictor of your potential for academic success.

As I’ve said before, I’m very happy to have chosen a college that has an admissions process guided by this approach.  Feel free to comment if you disagree or have more information to contribute to this discussion.

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