Reporter addresses students
New York Times reporter Matt Wald spoke to USU students Tuesday morning about his experience in journalism and environmental energy, which is his area of expertise. Wald spoke in Old Main to a classroom filled with sociology and public relations students. He encouraged all students to read The New York Times and promote the usage of newspapers.
Wald’s presentation was set up in a question and answer format with students. With the freedom to ask anything they wanted, students touched on important topics such as the upcoming presidential election, renewable energies and Wald’s personal experiences with the journalism industry.
Wald spoke to students about the way news is evolving and becoming more of an instant source of what’s happening in the world.
“The definition of news is changing, especially if you’re applying toxic ink to dead trees when everybody else is on the Web,” Wald said. “We, of course, are on the Web as well, but if you pick up a front page story of a newspaper in today’s world you already know a chunk of what’s in that story.”
Wald said The New York Times tries to focus more on things that weren’t shown on television the night before, but that are still relevant to the public. As a journalist writing about environmental energy, Wald said he finds himself writing stories about broader topics versus specific current events. He said he goes deeper into environmental issues where he can find more sources, information and background about what is really happening. Wald said he only writes about events when they happen. Otherwise, he said, most of his stories involve a perspective on an issue.
One student asked Wald how he felt about presidential nominee Barack Obama’s stance on investing more renewable energy and other clean fuels. He said he thought Obama was sincere about these things and really does want them, but maybe doesn’t fully understand them. Wald said most reusable energy techniques in America don’t lack money and funding, but they lack the work and market acceptability they require.
“It is not possible for the United States to be energy self sufficient on oil. We can never produce as much as we consume,” he said.
Wald also spoke about both presidential candidates and how their energy strategies would play out in America if either was elected. He said the plans they have for reducing energy usage and emissions are unreachable with the time frame they have set up.
“You don’t wave a magic wand and cut our energy emissions by 60 or 80 percent within the mid-century like McCain and Obama want to do,” Wald said. “Even President Bush recently said we could cut emissions down by 50 percent, and that is not obtainable within that amount of time.”
Public relations students also asked Wald about his relationship with members of PR and the media. He said with all the information that is out there, so much of it has to be refined and filtered. Wald said most PR people he deals with are just trying to get their boss or CEO’s name in the paper, and he has to find a way to tell them to go away. Wald said turning PR and media information into actual news is like “turning noise into music.”
–nicholas.peterson@aggiemail.usu.edu