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News at 6 on WNUR News – October 8, 2021 Cecilia Vaisman award, NACCA a capella, and the Facebook outage. WNUR News broadcasts live at 6 pm CST on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays on WNUR 89.3 FM
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Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:16 Live from w and you are news. I'm Maria Jima argon. You are listening to six, a news on w N U R 89.3, FM HD one Evanson Chicago it's Friday, October 8th, 2 20 21. Tonight on w N U R news Medel, school of journalism awards and Casa with the Ceia Weisman award, the return of acapella and an international social media power outage coming up tonight On September 30th, Anne, he Casa received the third annual. So Cecilia Weisman award for multimedia journalists. Her work as senior video journalist for BBC has spanned across a variety of issues impacting Latino community Ali Bianca with the story.
Speaker 3 00:01:11 45 years ago, Julio traveled from central Mexico to San Antonio, Texas to chase his dream of being a musician. His love of music storytelling, and his family followed him across the border and into Texas as a mariachi, he told rhythmic tales of the American dream. Like the one you've just listened to on Thursday, September 30th, 2021, Julio CASA's niece, and Hanah Casa was celebrated as the third winner of the SA Cecilia Wiseman award for multimedia journalism. Like her deal. AAS has been dedicating her career to telling the stories of the Latino community with her camera in her speech. At the online ceremony, she held up his photo to her compete, uter screen sharing his story with the participants.
Speaker 6 00:02:09 I was 15 years old when my P my uncle, the strong man who became a father figure to me growing up and who had pioneered his way to the us before anyone else in my family, he started to lose his memory. First. It was forgetting where he was going while driving. Then it was our names. Then it was his relationship to others. And ultimately he forgot his story. I knew at the age of 15, that his story was so powerful. I desperately wanted it to be remembered. So I would tell it to anyone I'd come across. And I still do today.
Speaker 3 00:03:03 The ways of life, they're not what I thought it would be. They're not what I expected says this Colombian VI song by Omar HAES for Kaas, the unexpected twists and turns of her life and her uncle's life are what led her to storytelling and journalism.
Speaker 6 00:03:20 It was then that I fell in love with storytelling as a way for us to learn about each other and about the world. I also began to gain a wholesome admiration for where I come from and the characteristics that make Latinos so resilient. And I fell in love with that too. The combination of those two loves was inside of me. And it still is
Speaker 3 00:03:44 Kaas. Today is a senior video journalist at BBC producing short and mid form stories to her. Being a good journalist is about being a human first and establishing trust with every source
Speaker 6 00:03:58 As journalists, we usually enter people people's lives in these moments when their circumstances become unimaginably heavy, when everything has turned upside down and their journey isn't turning out, like they thought it would when they don't know where to go from here. And that leaves us with a great, great responsibility
Speaker 3 00:04:18 From the stories of children left orphaned during the pandemic to a Texas woman detained by border patrol. After speaking Spanish Kala's camera has seen a wide variety of Latino issues explored through its lens. Among these stories is one close to home for the San Antonio native, the 2019 mass shooting in El Paso that ended several Latino lives.
Speaker 6 00:04:45 How could I ever forget this story? You listen to a heartbreaking rendition of dedicated to the 23 lives lost in the Walmart shooting. The goal of my work is to create empathy, not simply empathy, the capacity within us to truly understand others, whether we agree with them or not. I want people to challenge their perspectives, especially when it comes to Latino communities.
Speaker 3 00:05:20 Casa us recalled how one man told her that the shooting made him question. If he should speak Spanish in public, the idea of Latinos wanting to hide their language and identity reminded Cassas of her high school experiences. When she first started journalism
Speaker 6 00:05:37 Times were very, very different. Then we hadn't coined the term digital video. And my current job was pretty much nonexistent at the time. It was also a stage of life where I didn't feel completely connected to my roots. I avoided speaking Spanish in the hallways of my high school to not bring attention to myself. And because I was ridiculous in thinking that I didn't wanna be associated with the ESL students, most of whom were immigrants or the children of immigrants after all the words or the slang, as some of my classmates would use to describe newcomers. Weren't nice.
Speaker 3 00:06:12 Despite Spanish being her first language Kaas, initially straw with writing in it today, she is proud to be bilingual and accessible to more Latinos in interviewing Latinos and reporting a wide variety of their stories. What GAAS has come to believe is simple. Latino stories are stories about everyone.
Speaker 6 00:06:34 We have to recognize that Latino community, these and really all communities of color are still on the margins of mainstream news coverage. We're not always incorporated into coverage about larger issues like COVID 19 or the education system or criminal justice reform. And when we are incorporated into that coverage, it's predominantly in Spanish media. We also have to direct recognize that it's okay for Latinos to cover Latinos like I do after all, who knows it's better than us. I can no longer dismiss who I am in this profession. If I dismiss that, I'm also dismissing the stories I tell when I report on what's important to me,
Speaker 3 00:07:18 Casa is currently planning to begin a mid form documentary on the citizenship classes being held at her local library. The questions of naturalization of what it means to become an American are what she hopes to uncover in her conversations in his song in Moha reflects on his citizenship dream of obtaining documentation. And finally being part of America.
Speaker 6 00:07:46 He was so hard working. Most of us, Latinos are his story is a classic story of the realization of the American dream of how Latinos and immigrants can truly accomplish anything. When given the
Speaker 3 00:08:02 45 years later, Casa will be helping others share their American dream, documenting their stories so that we may never forget them.
Speaker 6 00:08:11 Yeah. I just always get emotional, like thinking about how people just let me into their lives to tell their stories. Um, and I like, I wanna do it well of them. Um, you know, people always say like, how do you do this? Work of them must be so also traumatic if you're, you know, I reported on, you know, mass shootings on immigration, on, you know, a pandemic, like a lot of things that people are struggling with. I'm there to ask some questions. Um, but I it's always so rewarding. The then whenever you publish a story and people are watching it and it's, you know, getting their stories, getting the attention that it deserves, we need to tell the stories of Latinos so that the world better understands us and all of our complexities
Speaker 3 00:08:59 For w N U news I'm Ali Bianco.
Speaker 1 00:09:05 More to come after the break
Speaker 9 00:09:22 Has difficult memories. They can be overwhelming with the veterans crisis line. I know where turn, when we need support.
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Speaker 1 00:10:10 Welcome back to w N U R news. It's 6:17 PM. Central time. A new year means a new opportunity for students to join clubs across campus, including the ever present and thriving acapella scene. As a legend goes, Northwestern played an important role in inspiring the movie pitch. Perfect reporter Ella galy with at the scoop
Speaker 13 00:10:43 Northwestern's vibrant acapella scene is back in full force this year. After over 18 months of zoom rehearsals and restrict did opportunities to meet
Speaker 10 00:10:51 Last year, everything was virtual. It was a really difficult time for everyone for
Speaker 13 00:10:56 This interview. I spoke with senior Claire qu Quan is the president of THK, acapella and NACA. For those who don't know, NACA is the Northwestern acapella community Alliance. The group that oversees acapella auditions in the fall and works to foster a sense of community across all 14 of Northwestern's acapella groups. I asked Quan a few questions about what acapella was really like last year in the thick of COVID restrictions.
Speaker 10 00:11:20 Um, so it was very sporadic. It was difficult because we were all kind of in a bad place mentally, but a lot of us in the group wanted to continue knew having meetings and trying to record stuff for our album, because this was a really important community to us on campus. I know for other groups, as well as th we felt really strongly about that, um, about providing new students, a community, a stable community, when it really felt like the world was, was like totally falling apart. And that school was not real
Speaker 13 00:11:54 Taquan working to keep acapella afloat was doubly hard as a result of the pandemic related mental health decline that many students experienced last year.
Speaker 10 00:12:02 You know, it was difficult. Didn't really have a plan because I think we were all kind of in a pandemic mentality. We didn't really know what was going on. And also it was very tough overall to organize things. Um, because you know, there was a lack of motivation just overall. Um, mental health was really struggling.
Speaker 13 00:12:19 So Quan took on extra work to ensure that acapella stayed alive. In some capacity,
Speaker 10 00:12:24 I got really excited and I was like, all right, this is how we're I was throwing out all these ideas, trying to see what would stick. And we had meetings, um, about how to run virtual auditions and how to spread the word. And also I felt really passionate about the fact that acapella, it does offer such a great sense of community for new, um, students who are coming in and just starting their college career, especially during the
Speaker 13 00:12:46 Pandemic. And though qu took on much of the workload. She was not alone in her efforts.
Speaker 10 00:12:50 I've had people, you know, a team who was helping me, um, that includes Steven new Craig, Carol, who really kind of acted as my right hand in like the past week, Michael Sanko, Liam WINZ. And before he graduated Connor burette was the only one who had been on NACA before the pandemic.
Speaker 13 00:13:12 This year auditions were, are held in person, but were spread out around campus more than they normally would be due to capacity restrictions created in response to COVID 19.
Speaker 10 00:13:21 In past years, you'd walk by Kresge and loci during auditions week, um, and callback week. And you would see the building like swarming with people like, so, so many people just like packed in a, and obviously we couldn't do that in COVID times.
Speaker 13 00:13:36 Thankfully this did not deter students from auditioning Quan estimates that upwards of 150 Wildcats came out to audition and has a message to share with these students.
Speaker 10 00:13:46 Thank you to everyone who auditioned, um, those who are called back, those who got into groups, those who didn't like, we are really grateful overall. And, um, if you DIDNT get into an acapella group that really doesn't mean anything about you. I just encourage highly encourage, especially if you're first year or even a second year, you can like audition next year. Um, and yeah, my hope is to just like really expand that feeling of community outside of just acapella groups and not make it so exclusive, because I think it has felt like exclusive and competitive in the PA asked my hope is to really just try to open those things up. And, um, yeah, and to, to promote that sense of community overall,
Speaker 13 00:14:23 For information regarding upcoming acapella events on campus, follow the NACA Facebook page, or look for your favorite acapella groups on Instagram for w N U R news. I'm Ella Gatlin,
Speaker 14 00:14:35 Oh, call between your love and a hard place.
Speaker 1 00:14:45 On Monday, October 4th, something happened to Facebook that hasn't happened in nearly a decade, a six hour outage that had Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp offline. Is it a deeper sign of trouble for both the company and society? Zach McCreary with the story
Speaker 15 00:15:03 On Monday this week, the world, as we know it was business as usual, but then the absolutely unimaginable happened. Facebook went dark
Speaker 15 00:15:16 The social media site, as well as its other properties were completely inaccesible for about six hours. For those unaware. This also includes not just Facebook messenger, but also Instagram, WhatsApp, and even Oculus, imagine playing some VR game and it just kicks you out. You have to be constantly connected to your Facebook account in order to even play anything. Herein lies the problem with Facebook, a problem that many people have been complaining about for years at this point, it's constant want to know what you're doing, what you're watching, what you're looking to buy, what you're interested in, who your friends and family are. It's probably to mining and it's most efficient and most opaque, But we'll get back to that in a bit. What even caused the blackout in the first place.
Speaker 15 00:16:10 According to multiple Facebook, internal memos outage was caused by configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between data centers, which ended up causing a massive ripple throughout all of Facebook's products. Inside Facebook, even employees were impeded in communicating with each other during the sites outage, according to Alex, Heath of the verge employees, quote resorted to talking either work provided outlook email accounts, rather than their internal Facebook dependent messaging system. And couldn't send or receive emails from external addresses beyond internal breakdown. Many people rely on Facebook, both as a means of selling goods and services. And as a way of communication, WhatsApp alone has over 2 billion users. Many of whom as their primary messaging app in countries where SMS messaging is very costly using cellular data to send messages is likely much cheaper. That phenomenon allows apps like WhatsApp to become a viable alternative it's free and it's reliable, right? Apparently not. If in October of last year, 100 billion messages were sent every day. That would mean an outage of six hours would prevent about 25 billion messages from being sent. It's a massive CLO in the international information, super highway. So many people depend on Facebook to constantly be available, to keep up with their social life and day to day business. With that much daily attention, Facebook has the potential to influence and directly control what information we see daily, what products and brands we see and who has more visibility on the internet, but Facebook could never abuse that power, right?
Speaker 15 00:17:56 Amid claims by whistleblower and former Facebook employee Francis Hagan, the social media site is facing backlash over profiting off of children and teenagers. Despite studies showing that the use of its products, exacerbates rates of suicidal thoughts and eating disorders and teenage girls specifically congressmen across the aisle are now agreeing on one thing Facebook's market share and sheer power should be reigned in. But for now we live in this world that depends on the internet for the constant exchange of information. And Facebook just so happens to be the one company that is likely the number one facilitator of that exchange. What would life be like without it now for a brief moment on Monday, we found out for w Nur news. I'm Zach McCreary.
Speaker 1 00:18:52 After the break, a quick weather and news update,
Speaker 16 00:18:57 Keeping your kids safe on the way to school is a bus driver's responsibility. When that driver is behind the wheel, they should be focused. And when you are driving, you should be focused too texting while being on Illinois, roads is illegal and deadly Drive. Now text later, you can't do both. This message brought to you by the Illinois to state police department of transportation, secretary of state, and AAA.
Speaker 17 00:19:29 You need to travel for medical reasons, but don't are you abused? Mother who needs to escape to protection of family angel flight believes should be denied medical care or other help cause they can't afford to travel. Angel flight has volunteer pilot standing by contact angel flight. They call toll two, one seven, go angel. This message brought to you by angel flight.
Speaker 1 00:20:01 Welcome back to w R news. It's 6:26 PM central time. Now look at the weather for tonight. Expect a low of 63 degrees here in Evanston. Tomorrow will be a little bit nicer with temperatures reaching 75 degrees, partly cloudy skies. Sunday might just feel a little bit. It like summer with 80 degrees and cloud skies and look out for storms on Monday now for a news update on Friday journalist Maria, I saw the Philippines and Dimitri Muta of Russia won the 2021 Nobel pee prize for their fight for freedom of expression. President Joe Biden issued the first ever presidential prop of indigenous people's day to be recognized on October 11th next week and tomorrow, October 9th, ano productions will host artists Willow and Rava at the Walsh shrine arena for their annual blowout. That's all for w N R news at 6:00 PM. For more news updates and reports. Follow us on Twitter at w N R news. You can listen to these and other stories of the day on our Spotify, Google podcast, and SoundCloud. And you can also find us on our brand new website. W you N U r.news. Our, our producer today is Sarah Kora. Our reporters are Ali BCO, Gatlin, and Zach McCreary from all of us here at w N news. I'm Maria Huma Agon. Thanks for listening. And we'll see you back here Monday. Same time, same place now back to schedule programming.
