The U-Wire Top 100 Young Journalists

As someone who's seen plenty of kids come through the UF journalism ranks over the years, I'd have to disagree with you. He's not the best Alligator reporter I've ever seen, but he's very good. Spewing bile toward him here isn't likely to help you get wherever you hope to go.

 

Despite what people think of the list, I was not happy to see only a handful of minorities on the list. Just looking at headshot, only 4 African/Black Americans and I did not see any Hispanic last names. But there were a couple of Arab/Indian people and a couple of Asians.

 

You're right. I got the two mixed up.

 

SF Express,

I quote this post in an attempt to send a topspin lob back to your side of the court.

Regards,

Double Down

 

I'm just bummed because the kid I nominated didn't get selected. Damn, man, he shoulda been on the list.

Eh, he's got a pretty damn gig anyway.

 

Should have gone the [/michaelscott] route. No offense intended. Carry on.

 

I thought it was great.

"It's whomever when it's used as an object."
"Ryan used me as an object."

 

DDown--putting aside nitwit anonymous potshots on a message board, I find that the recognition boosts confidence more than it creates self-doubt and angst. If there's going to be a list, I sure as hell would rather be on it than looking at the people who made it ahead of me.
I think the navel-gazers are going to gaze regardless...that kind of pressure is self-inflicted, no?

 

I love The Office, but just haven't memorized every line. Moving on ...

 

God forbid they actually pick people for the list based on their work and not their faces. Do we really need to entertain the thought of racial quotas for something like this? These kids will have plenty of time to get caught up in the quotas game; we don't need to start 'em this young.

 

Unavailable for comment:

 

I don't have as much a problem with the list as I do with it being taken seriously as a recruiting device.

Lots of editors talk a good game about the need to be unconventional. And then it's, "Who made the list?" Or "Who won the contest?" Those editors will let other people think for them, same as ever. Well, most of the people who made the list are from name-brand campus dailies (which are pretty damned conventional). You see only a handful of kids from smaller schools and large schools' underground/alternative press. None from a campus magazine that I saw, except maybe that king of all media from Harvard. Even almost all the online kids are from -- surprise! -- the school daily's Web site, not something independent and inventive and naughty.

Not to mention the J-students who are busting their ass working for the local paper 24 hours a week instead of writing for the campus daily. You don't see them.

There's nothing wrong with the list except that it's conventional and arbitrary. What's wrong is that the kind of people who mindlessly mouth every buzzword equivalent for "think outside the box" then proceed to revisit the same old boxes as ever. And this doesn't really help.