The Catskill Chronicle

Story and photos by Carol Montana

As part of their internship program, 15 interns from Sullivan Renaissance got to meet the media recently. And in a reversal of the usual roles, the interns got to pepper the journalists with questions of their own.

The media panel consisted of Betsy Woolf and Mitch Ellmauer from the WJFF Youth Radio Project, Fritz Mayer, editor of The River Reporter, and Leni Santoro, co-editor of The Catskill Chronicle.

Denise Frangipane, Program Officer for the Gerry Foundation and coordinator of the internship program at Sullivan Renaissance facilitated the seminar, encouraging the students to ask questions of the panel, reminding them, “You are the next generation’s leaders. We’re not waiting for you to arrive. You’re here.”

The students came up with some interesting questions and ideas. They asked about finding story sources, getting grief from a company when you run a story about them, the media’s handling of the swine flu and the recent death of Michael Jackson. 

For their part, the journalists talked about the role of the media. Mayer told the students about keeping an eye on the powerful people in the community “to make sure that they’re behaving the way the rest of us would like them to behave.” And Santoro spoke about having more than one news source in an area. “It’s a gift,” she said, “You can read everybody’s take on the same story. But the important thing is that they’re there for you to make up your mind.”

Woolf and Ellmauer talked about how important it is for everyone to be heard. “I think a lot of young people think their lives are not very interesting or extraordinary and we disagree,” said Woolf. “We encourage you to look at your lives and some of the very small things you do every day can be made into a story.”

Frangipane reminded the students that letters to the editor are a way to challenge the media when you disagree with the way an issue was handled, and Santoro mentioned that you may also be able to write an opinion (or commentary) piece on something you feel strongly about.

Both Mayer and Santoro spoke about  journalism’s future role. “We’re finding that people your age don’t read the newspaper, they read online, but they don’t pick up the local newspaper,” said Mayer. “We’re having to come to terms with that. We’re losing subscriptions – it’s a problem we’re going to have to figure out along with everyone else.”

And Santoro certainly gave the students something to think about when she said. “Every time a newspaper folds, there’s one less voice for democracy. If you guys don’t read them, we wonder why we’re fighting for democracy.”

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Sullivan Renaissance is beautification and community development program. On July 29, 2009, the interns will be involved with a stream clean up in the Town of Thompson.