DAVID GORDON
Print Journalism

Many of his friends and professors would refer to David Gordon, a senior print journalism major, as a jack-of-all-trades. David is the entertainment editor of the Hofstra Chronicle, an editor of NassauNewsLive.com and an active member of both the Spectrum Players and Masquerade Musical Theater Company – both drama organizations on campus.

Why do you think your peers suggested you for a student profile?

Most people I know in the journalism department limit themselves to just that field, just those classes. I love the history of theater just as much as I love writing so I critique plays in New York and the University’s drama department for the Chronicle. Though I am not a drama major I would consider myself to be just as much a member of the drama department as I am the journalism department. I’ve edited the Chronicle, edited NassauNewsLive.com, peer taught for an online journalism class, and directed a full-length one act play as part of the drama department’s directing seminar.

Why Hofstra?

We have a long family history with Hofstra. My mother worked for Alumni Affairs for a long time, my Uncle, now the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Walt Disney Internet Group, received his MBA at Hofstra and my father’s cousin was a Fine Arts Professor with New College.
Hofstra and the School of Communication had everything I wanted in a major. The faculty has strong, professional experience in their fields; I have taken two classes with editors of Newsday, the publisher of a group of community newspapers, and a former music critic. I couldn’t ask for anything more!

How has the School of Communication and Hofstra helped you grow throughout your time here?

I really came into my own this year with the Presidential Debate on October 15, 2008. I had no idea I would get to work on the debate coverage in the capacity that I did. I served as editor for NassaNews.org fact-checking and information department while the debate was in process. I had a team of 10-12 people working for me and whenever the two candidates would discuss a topic we would jump in and search or all the information that they were referring to and then instant message to our live blogging team. It was a huge turning point for me at the University. I gained significant leadership skills working on the coverage. In the span of a few months, thanks to the University, I was able to hear George Stephanopoulos, Ari Fleisher, Dee Dee Myers, and Anderson Cooper. It was a tremendous opportunity that I never figured I would be able to experience in a million years.

What is your edge?

I am, above all, a perfectionist. Obsessively. I won’t stop until everything is perfectly done. That serves an editor, such as myself, well.

What is the thing you will miss most when you are no longer a student at Hofstra?

Hard to say – the professors who I go to for five minute questions that turn into hour long discussions, the friends I’ve made, the stability of having classes to wake up to? But really, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.