Media Writing #1
January 22nd, 2009 by Alexandra received No Comments »
Sheifali Bhatnagar is more than happy to tell you about her college experience. Originally a Biology/Pre-Med major, she came to terms with the fact that she was naturally driven to write. She was discouraged by her classmates’ focus on recommendations for medical school rather than science and took a two-year break from college. In that period, she became drawn to slam poetry, a spoken-word medium used by many urban youths to express their political views. She toured with a poetry troupe and competed in various tournaments, and ended up developing her favorite piece, “Mindfuck,” in the process. She describes her poem as a “marriage of sex and politics,” a way to turn you on and tune her in.
Bhatnagar’s hands start moving wildly and she speaks much more eloquently as she begins to talk about a paranoid government and an uncaring youth. She says journalists will be the ones to stand up and start a revolution, to pass the torch of knowledge, to inform and call others to act. “They will redefine patriotism,” she says, almost excitedly. “They will redefine the American dream.”
Bhatnagar realized she was a journalist, especially when she came up with the idea for a magazine called IMpassion, pronounced i-AM-passion, to give the younger generation a voice to speak for what they believe in. Without it, she believes there is far too much apathy: “I think too many people are waiting around for another Martin Luther King, instead of standing up.” As she continues to explain her ideas and beliefs, you can tell that her lost passion for biology has found a new home: “Journalism was kind of a crazy that stuck with me,” she says, reflecting on her decision to switch her major. If that’s a kind of crazy, she may have landed in a funny farm.
Tags: class exercise, media writing
Posted under: Media Writing Class
