Ware on the Air

Within minutes of meeting junior Matthew Ware you may see him make quotation marks with his fingers when discussing the latest cover of Newsweek, “Muslim Rage,” or hear him start off a conversation by discussing the critical flaws in Samo’s expulsion and suspension policies. Ware’s understanding of the influence a student’s voice can make, especially when it comes to today’s groundbreaking stories, has led him to become the face of “The World This Week." "The World This Week" is an online news outlet that he and his long time friend, junior Alana Feldman, created. The show provides a bi-monthly space for Ware to bring forth a new point of view on the topics in the news from that week.“There are issues that students have opinions about,” Ware said. “But the existing student media doesn’t provide a way for students to express those opinions.”Ware’s belief that student media is too narrow, and doesn’t focus enough on political, national and foreign affairs prompted him to create the show.The first episode of “The World This Week” was posted on Sept. 19 on the show’s website as well as on YouTube. The episode covered topics from the death of American Ambassador Chris Stevens to the negotiations of Prop 8 in the Supreme Court. According to Ware, the broadcasts will interest any student that is curious about foreign or national affairs. He would like to have Samo film students and other peers involved in the project.“I hope that students can come in, be interviewed and tape their own segments,” Ware said. “My hope is that students will feel free to express their opinions and comment on what we discussed in the last project. That would be great.”Along with student perspectives, Ware draws his material from a bevy of popular news sources and said that the show has much to expand on in the future.“The goal is to make [the news] more accessible and interesting,” Feldman said. “The first [broadcast] was very straightforward but we do want to make it more visually interesting so that it won’t be just the static single shot.”Since the concept of the show is to add a student’s perspective to the week’s current events, Ware said the show is not completely objective.“I don’t think news and opinion should be separated,” Ware said. “Shows that have a strong opinion like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are the best and are a great way to get involved in what’s going on.”Along with creating a show from the ground up, Ware is also a member of the Human Rights Watch Student Task Force, an internationally based organization that fights to maintain the rights of people around the world. He said that balancing school, clubs and the show can be difficult, but that school always comes first.“I love to see what my students do outside of class and [the show] is very cool,” Ware’s U.S. history teacher Robert Alvarado said. “This is very much like Matthew, I always rely on him to share current events whenever I ask the class.”Ware’s mother, Andrea Ware, said that her son has always been interested in politics and the news.“When Matthew was eight years old he started his own newspaper in our home; only relatives were subscribed,” Andrea Ware said. “Matthew’s a force of nature, he find what he wants and figures out how to get it. He always has big ideas and big plans and somehow manages to make that happen.”But in regards to Matthew Ware’s future, he has no desire to become the next Anderson Cooper.“My real career ambition is to run for office someday, but I have great respect for journalists and what they do,” Matthew Ware said. “In a time when the facts depend on which cable channel you watch, it might come as a surprise that some of the best we’ve known are working right now. I care about the relationship between the media and politics because when I do run for office, I’d much prefer to see an informed debate about the ideas I’ll propose than division, false equivalences and hyperbolic spin.”nmunasinghe@thesamohi.com