From left to right: Matthew Zheng, Aureliano Morales and Sadie Fox, members of Manhattan Media Network. AURELIANO MORALES / COURTESY
Brooke Della Rocco, News Editor
Manhattan Media Network (MMN) surprised viewers last week when they posted the first episodes of both “Boro Bits” and “On The One” series via their Instagram page.
While both segments are continuations of the “Sidequest Summer” series, “Boro Bits” is a short-form episode series, taking students through each of the boroughs of New York City and showcasing the diverse events the city has to offer. The series proves to be very spontaneous, aligning with the major interests of the student population at Manhattan University.
The first episode covered the Ashtin Martin F1 car event located in Grand Central Terminal, featuring Liam Zaglauer as host.
“On The One,” explores a more specific series of events, happening along the 1-train subway line that cuts directly through Manhattan, with the last stop being MU’s campus. The first episode showcased Avelia Liberty, or Acela II, a new train that launched service between Washington, D.C. and Boston this past week. The train passed through Penn Station while MMN documented it, collaborating with MU’s Train Club to make the field trip possible.
Sophomore Mathew Zheng, creator of both shows, and host of the first episode of “On The One,” described how he originally thought up the concepts.
“I realized with a lot of university social media pages, they’re really only centered on the campus or the general area [around campus],” Zheng said. “They don’t expand further beyond that. Because of how accessible the city is and that there’s always events going on, I thought it’d be great to showcase some of it. We can achieve this by having a series that gives us more freedom as creators, to go out and do more than just what’s around Riverdale.”
Zheng mentioned how spontaneous his ideas are, aligning with the major interests of the student population at Manhattan University. The Ashton Martin F1 car event was actually discovered, planned, organized and shot all on the same day.
The concept of the videos is derived from “Street Talk,” a form of qualitative research accomplished by interviewing people in public spaces and sharing on social media.
Manhattan Media Network producing one of their many series.
AURELIANO MORALES / COURTESY
“With social media, you need to be out there, you need to be engaging,” Zheng said. “I’ve seen that that model works really well.”
Liam Zaglauer, host of “Boro Bits,” expanded upon his experience and how important Zheng’s commitment has been.
“I had a great experience hosting Boro Bits,” Zaglauer wrote in an email to The Quadrangle. “I would like to thank Mathew Zheng for the ideas, the location and the camera work and editing. Without him, Boro Bits would have never happened. He has been the man behind all of the Sidequest Summer videos this summer and a bunch of other Manhattan Media Network videos.”
Vice President of MMN, Aureliano Morales, explored how these series align with the club’s greater purpose.
“From a leadership perspective, it was important to show off more places in NYC, especially [with] being named Manhattan University,” Morales wrote in an email to The Quadrangle. “I think [it’s important], showing the school that there is stuff out there that you can go to with just a subway ride away, and have fun while you are here at Manhattan.”
In the future, Zheng hopes to collaborate with more groups around NYC in order to foster greater relationships with outside communities.
Morales elaborated on the future of the series and the club.
“We can show the small businesses and the true side of New York through these series,” Morales wrote. “I think New Yorkers deserve to be in the spotlight and show off what they bring to the city. They are what makes New York City special. The audience should expect bigger and crazier vids coming soon.”