Gideon Yago, a former news correspondent of MTV News, spoke about his travels to the Middle East, his active role in inspiring young people to vote and his first hand accounts of 9/11 last night to Quick Center audience of faculty, community members and students.
“I was hired by MTV as one of six students hired to cover the election in 2000. I was on my college campus when I saw an MTV card table that said ‘like politics, like MTV?’ and I went over and signed up,” Yago told a Quick Center audience of students, faculty and community members last night.
Students enjoyed listening to Yago’s experiences.
“I thought he was informative and knowledgeable,” said Samantha Wipner ’09. “Because of his age we he was able to communicate and be inspiration with getting his message out there.”
Columbia University graduate Yago said his experience with MTV news was a failure because it promised to bring coverage the network could not keep but said it was a success at informing young people of the world’s issues and changes while bringing people together at the same time.
Currently, MTV news does not exist, according to Yago who was a leader of MTV’s Choose or Lose campaign, which encouraged young people to vote because he said 18 to 24-year-olds, one in four Americans, make up the largest age group of voters.
“We figured if we can’t make politics cool, we will make it real,” he said in reference to issues that directly effect young people such as the war in Iraq.
During the 9/11 attacks, Yago said he was stuck on the number four subway, but once he got off, he walked to the nearby Stevenson High School and began informing young people of the recent events.
“I was a bit hung-over, yes I know it was a Tuesday, but when I got to work a plane had just hit the second tower, and we sent our coverage over to CBS, our parent company,” Yago said, realizing that most of MTV’s viewers did not know Osama Bin Laden and Donald Rumsfield.
Dr. David Gudelunas, a professor of the communication department, questioned Yago after his speech about covering the news for different networks such as MTV and CBS or CNN.
“We have to explain things, we have to say here is Iraq, it’s a country, its capital is Bagdad, we were at war with them when you were three,” Yago said.
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