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Video monitoring assignment

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 21:18:00 -0400

I have chosen to follow ESPN Video for the daily assignment. The website uses different types of forms for footage. When the website shows highlight footage of games it uses video illustration. Highlight footage is video illustration because it consists of one or two shots totaling 30 seconds or less that compliments or illustrates a text story. Typically highlights are shown embedded in a story and only a few significant or memorable plays are shown.

The deadline video package is used when there is a breaking news story that has a short deadline. You can see these kinds of videos when there is breaking news in sports such as a significant trade or injury that needs to be reported as soon as possible and the deadline is approaching quickly.

Documentary video is used usually when doing a special feature piece such as a biography of a player or event. It usually consists of multiple different kinds of shots (interview, playing footage, montage of pictures or significant plays) and is typically around 10 minutes (even though the minimum is five).

According to the Basic Rules of Videography it’s about emotion, tell a story and it’s visual. A lot of the time in sports there is little emotion. The only time you really see emotion is when it is in a documentary video. All of the different types of video tell a story. The highlights tell a story of the game, the deadline video tells a story of breaking news and the documentary video tells a story of a biography of a person or a story of an event. All of the video footage definitely is visual. Even when interviewing they do a good job of keeping it interesting.

It also uses Can you hear me now? feature because ESPN uses great professional equipment so that the viewer can hear people extremely well.

I am not sure how they plan where and what they shoot but they seem to follow all of the Tips for Success. ESPN seems to plan what they are shooting even when they have a short deadline in their breaking news. They also seem to Interview consciously because all of the questions they seem to ask are well thought out and are pertinent in information. When you record you can’t see the microphone that they are using because it is an overhanging microphone. They do not talk when the other person is speaking and they do not use fillers such as “uh huh”. The subject always seems to tell the tale because they always answer their questions in depth and do not simply answer “yes” or “no”. They always also do a great job of adding in a pause so they do not step on the audio. They also record carefully because they make sure there is never any background, distracting noise. ESPN shoots with discipline because you can tell that the video isn’t over edited or choppy. They also shoot for variety and get details, especially when doing highlights and documentary pieces. ESPN doesn’t really need to focus on framing the story and capturing attention fast because since what they are filming is full of action the story brings the action in itself.

Everyone playing with their new bloggies in Com 497! Exciting...

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:09:31 -0400

Everyone playing with their new bloggies in Com 497! Exciting day :0)

Com 497!

Mon, 19 Mar 2012 14:08:44 -0400

Everyone playing with their new bloggies in Com 497! It’s an exciting day :0)

Chicago Bears' Facebook Page

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 11:09:00 -0500

For a week I monitored the Chicago Bears’ Facebook page. During the duration of the week the page posted many different types of posts. Some days there would be a picture or a news article, but other days they would post a question or fill in the blank and want people to respond. Such as “When the Bears aren’t playing on the weekend I do __” or “My favorite Bears object I own is ____”. According to Four Ways Social Media is Changing Business it demonstrates From “Trying to Sell” to “Making Connections”. Getting fans involved is a great way to keep them thinking of the franchise, especially during the off season. And a lot of fans responded to it because some posts received over a thousand comments or likes.

It also goes along with the idea of being “From ‘Hard to Reach’ to ‘Available Everythwere’”. This idea is that before social media the only source of Bears information or interaction was through newspapers. Now, because of Facebook and Twitter, you can access Chicago Bears’ stories, pictures and interactive materials easily. Especially now with the capabilites of smart phones you can reach the Chicago Bears in some way, shape or form at any time. This helps the franchise out a great deal, especially during the off season when interest typically tends to be low.

I would check back in on the Facebook page every other day to every day. The intended audience was obviously Bears fans or even people who aren’t necessarily Bears fans, but football fans in general, may appreciate the Facebook page. It was interesting to read people’s posts because they were very interactive and loved commenting on the photos and responding to fill in the blank questions that were posted. The volume of people how have “liked” the page and have responded to hte items on the page shows that the Bears’ page definitely has a lot of traffic.

From the article, Four Ways Journalists Can Use Facebook, the Bears page goes along with the second way, “Facebook is a great source of special interest groups”. Even though the Bears are an NFL team, the page itself is a special interest group because being a fan of the team is indeed a special interest. It also goes along with the thrid idea of being a news source. The group does post links to other news articles about the Bears. It is a good way to get information out to people who may not check ESPN or the news regularly.

Overall I believe that the Bears have done an excellent job of keeping the Facebook page interesting and interactive. I will be definitely visiting it in the future.

Photo

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:40:24 -0500

Photo

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 10:33:00 -0500

Facebook post with map

Facebook post with URL

Using Social Media

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:46:23 -0500

When putting out a tweet for ideas for my blog some ideas that people had were about history of teams, venues and personal information about players. These were all great ideas and give me the opportunity to find something “unique” to contribute to my blog.

An event that people in Lafayette were tweeting about was when someone drove into the wall of the Subway on Chauncy Hill. A lot of people were noting on what the odds were that someone would drive into the Subway wall shortly after someone had driven into the wall at Jake’s. A good portion of the tweets were not appropriate, but were rather hilarious!

On Twitter there was a tweet about Bulls’ Coach Thibodeau addressing the media live. In the tweet it contained the provided link: http://t.co/07wsKpAU

I liked the Chicago Bears’ fan page on Facebook. There were two interesting posts that I found. One was a poll asking what people thought about the Bears’ roster pre-draft. I think it would be fun if one week I put a poll into my blog. Another post was a quote by George Halas, “Nobody who ever gave his best regretted it.” I think it would be interesting if I were to put a quote in as a post every now in then with my thoughts on the quote.

Preview and Interview

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:52:45 -0500

I am not sure what event I want to preview so that is something I will need to consult Professor Natt about.

As far as interviews I thought it would be interesting to interview multiple people who are Chicago sports fans that are living in Indiana. I would ask them different questions about what it is like to attended a school in Indiana where the majority of the people are fans of opposing teams. I would also ask them where they go to watch their games since a lot of the games are not televised.

Videographer vs. Purdue Police

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 12:47:03 -0500

I believe that the videographer acted inappropriately when it came to the incident with the police. Yes it was in a public space where technically he could film but when it comes to someone’s safety the media cannot interfere. If he were to continue voting the people out of the way it would be one thing, but he tried to follow the view of the medics and did not try to leave the area or change sides of the room.

If anything he made it harder for the police officer to do his job. Instead of making sure everything else was okay in the area he had to spend his time making sure the guy from the Exponenet wasn’t filming. In an emergency the priority is making sure the person needing medical attention to is attended to in a timely manner and can be transported to a hospital as soon as possible if needed.

Overall I believe that the journalist was in the wrong. People need to remember that people’s safety come before news.

Following a journalist and companies on Twitter

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:19:09 -0500

For a week I followed a few accounts related to my blog. I followed infamous Chicago Bulls reporter Stacey King, the verified Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago Bulls and Chicago Bears. There were many things I learned not to do and to do when tweeting about sports.

The pros: The Chicago Bears twitter did a really good job about tweeting headlines with links that not only pertained to the team, but about things that were relevant to the players’ lives. Today they tweeted about former DT Tommie Harris’s wife passing away. I like that they don’t just focus on team news but player news. The Chicago Blackhawks twitter is similar to the Bears in a sense that they tweet about anything related to the teams and players.

The cons: The Chicago Bulls do tweet about news and player information but during game time they are a pretty obnoxious account to follow. It is important to tweet about what is going on during the game, especially because many people may not be able to watch the game, but it is extremely excessive. It blows up my twitter feed to the point where I do not read every single one. My suggestion is that they give score updates and only tweet about a play when it is a significant one.

The other con I found was with Stacey King’s twitter. He spends most of his time replying to tweets that mentioned him. It is unprofessional especially because you cannot see what most people have said to him. If he were to spend his time tweeting similar to how he announces during the Bulls games his twitter would be a lot more entertaining.

Overall these twitter accounts did a good job of going from “hard to reach” to ”available everywhere” (#4 on four ways social media is changing business). The other three ways are not really applicable to the type of accounts I am following.

Background for Event

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:56:26 -0500

My event is the Bulls vs. Celtics game on February 16, 2012. Since the event is not for a week there is not a lot of preview information yet, but as the game approaches there are a few spots I will be looking for information:

http://espn.go.com/nba/preview?gameId=320216004

http://espn.go.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/chi/chicago-bulls

http://espn.go.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/bos/boston-celtics

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bulls

https://twitter.com/#!/chicagobulls

https://twitter.com/#!/Sky21King

HA!

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:30:20 -0500

HA!

Weather.com features Indy!!!

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:17:07 -0500

Weather.com features Indy!!!

Reblog: Five key issues awaiting a new GM Emery

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 15:45:13 -0500

By Jeff Dickerson courtesy of the ESPN Chicago Bears Blog

1. The upcoming NFL Draft: The Bears’ failure to draft enough impact players, especially in the years following the 2006 Super Bowl berth, ultimately proved to be Jerry Angelo’s undoing. Currently holding four picks in the first three rounds, it’s critical for the Bears to hit on at least two impact players who can step in, stay healthy and potentially start. There are to be no more redshirt seasons. The Bears can no longer afford to draft the likes of Jarron Gilbert, Juaquin Iglesias, Dan Bazuin, Marcus Harrison and Michael Okwo in the earlier rounds. Emery was hired, partly, because of his extensive college scouting background. The quickest way to get a franchise back on the track is to draft well. The quickest way to destroy a franchise is to draft poorly. More than anything, Emery’s tenure as Bears general manager will be defined by his draft record in the month of April.

Even though there are four other issues Emery will have to deal with upon starting his new position with the Bears, I believe that this is the most important issue at hand. The Bears are in desperate need of good draft picks with an ailing offense and aging defense. It will not be until the draft that we see if this was the right pick or not.

For the rest of the article:

Five key issues awaiting a new GM Emery

Daily Assignment #2

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:57:00 -0500

1. http://espn.go.com/chicago/

2. http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bears

3. http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/blackhawks

4. http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/bulls

5. http://sportsfixchicago.com/

6. http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs

7. http://www.tremendousupsidepotential.com/

8. http://www.csnchicago.com/

9. http://www.chicitysports.com/

10. http://chicago.sbnation.com/

Daily Assignment #4

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:39:24 -0500

This week I followed the Chicago Bears Blog. The Chicago Bears Blog is a blog that is a branch off of ESPN, and is written by two contributors: Jeff Dickerson and Michael C. Wright. When comparing the blog to the reading assignment “Blog uses for mass media” I found that there were many aspects of the blog that followed what the reading had said.

1. Post items that don’t fit in regular news newspaper. The Chicago Bears blog does an excellent job of posting items that would not be covered in a regular article on ESPN. They discuss more topics and go more in depth with their discussion of topics. For example the blog has been constantly covering the Chicago Bears’ search for a new General Manager.

2. Post items you don’t have room for in a regular newspaper. As previously stated the blog does a great job of getting better coverage on events that typically would not be covered as much by ESPN. There are a lot of people that care about the events that are going on with the team who want to be kept up to date. This blog is a great way to get information out to the public.

3. Post item before a newspaper comes out or even incremental updates. This can be seen especially in the Bears’ search for a new GM. There are not daily articles listed on ESPN about who is being interviewed and what the addition of the individual person would mean for the team. The blog does a great job of keeping people in the know about who is specifically being interviewed and what their employment could mean for the Bears’ future.

4. Become more transparent. The blog enables personal contact because it allows viewers to comment on posts that are made. This enables the blogger to get direct feedback on his post. The blog also gives viewers the opportunity to retweet the post on Twitter or recommend it on Facebook. By allowing there to be more direct contact between the blogger and the reader it enables more personal and immediate contact.

5. Informality. Even though the blog is not written in an entirely conversational format there is still an abundant amount of informality to it. The posts are written in a similar format to a news story but it is appropriate given that it is a blog branched off of ESPN. Posts do not completely parallel a news story because a lot of them do not contain leads or follow the inverted pyramid format.

6. Offering their thoughts/opinions. The blog has certain posts called Four Downs where they will get four various sports reporter’s views on four topics at hand based on a statement that is made. For example one of the downs was Fact of Fiction: Forte should skip the Pro Bowl. From there each of the four reporters answered “fact” or “fiction” and then gave his or her opinion.

7. Many reporters/editors mentioned getting story leads/sources from comments on the blogs or through private communication initiated via the blog. This is the one aspect of the blog that does not apply to this statement. Given the material the blog covers and the sources of information that are acceptable the bloggers cannot rely on information given to them through simple users. There would be a lot at stake for publishing false information because they are writing on behalf of ESPN.

8. The story doesn’t end. The blog is always following up on previous stories. This week alone they had followed up on the Bears’ search for a GM, the futures of current offensive coordinator Mike Tice and special teams coordinator Dave Toub, and the pending trial of Sam Hurd.