Draft Holiday...

One of the biggest days in the sports covering year in my opinion is draft day and the week or two leading up to the draft. Al four of the major sports (NHL, NBA, NFL, and MLB) have drafts throughout the year to bring in new talent but the ones that get the best coverage is the NBA and the NFL. I don't think the reason is solely due to the popularity of the sports because MLB is still, in many people's eyes, America's game or at least second behind football.

I think that it has to do with the popularity of the draft itself. The NFL's and the NBA's drafts are both highly covered by major sports media outlets such as ESPN.com all the way down to smaller websites such as RealGM.com or a NBA draft site called NBADraft.net that gives year round coverage of the NBA draft every year.

Even the leagues sites (NBA.com has their own section up right now) itself provide in-depth coverage from real-time analysis of each pick that takes place exactly when the pick happens, to live blogs, to having their own columns and news stories when the stories break out.

I feel that when the draft comes around it is really equal to the coverage that is provided on television. The questions comes into play whether or not you want up to the minuet news that is provided online or the entertaining element that is provided when watching the event on television. Sports sites such as ESPN.com can provide both and it leaves you wondering sometimes whats the point of watching the draft on television.

Its amazing to me how popular the NFL and NBA drafts are because if someone asked me or many other people I know who was draft first in the MLB or NHL draft I wouldn't be able to tell you. But I can tell you that Jake Long was selected first in the NFL draft by the Miami Dolphins and that tonight, Derrick Rose has a great chance of being picked by the Chicago Bulls in the NBA draft.

The popularity of the NFL and NBA drafts have grown so much over the years that now we have shows and television specials on the lottery (the NBA performs a lotter for the 14 teams with losing records to determine the order in which they pick) or the NFL draft order. The popularity of these drafts also leads to more press time for the players that will participate in the draft and helps the teams sell more jerseys and hats.

They even have interactive games fans can play that allows them to predict the order in which players get selected in hopes to win prizes. With all of the news and events going on it makes the draft seem like a national sports holiday. And to think, when in the days of Magic Johnson and Larry Bird in the NBA or Johnny Unitas in the NFL the draft was longer with less coverage and not many people knew about it.

Now its as popular as the NBA Championship or the NFL Superbowl.

PBS documentary opens VCU’s students’ eyes on Health Disparities

This is a story I did for my Online Journalism class at VCU. It is a story on how VCU is planning to educate students on health disparities through PBS's Unnatural Causes documentary series. A trailer of this series can be viewed below.



Racial and ethnic health disparities are a popular topic on Virginia Commonwealth University’s medical campus. As a result of this VCU faculty members Yolanda Jackson and Shannon Jones have planned to further educate students through PBS’s “Unnatural Causes” documentary series.

The film series will be shown throughout the summer at Hunton Student Center on the MCV Campus and deals with the topic of racial and health disparities which are currently a problem in the Richmond area. The film also introduces new ways of thinking about how patients can get ill and become vulnerable to illnesses simply by experiencing stress, and negative racial and ethnic experiences (racism, sexism, etc.)

Jackson, an Interim Assistant Director for VCU’s Medical Campus Programs, brought the documentary series to students in order to “make them aware of different circumstances and illnesses.”

Jones, who works at Tompkins-McCaw Library, added that through the film “students will be aware of the issues around health disparities when engaging with patients and” will be able “to keep in mind that there are resources available to learn about health disparities” outside of the film that is being shown to them.

Larry Adelman and Llewellyn M. Smith are the producers and creators of the documentary series that is being shown on campus. Adelman states that one of the main reasons why they created this film was that they were amazed at the research they found which stated that “our lived experiences (racism, social, job related, etc.) could get under the skin and disrupt our biology in terms of germs and viruses.” He discovered that “the big killers in American is not guns, it is a lifetime of wear and tear on the body that leaves the body more venerable to diseases.” He concluded that his partner and he “were mind blown that none of this work got to the heads of the policy makers. Health doesn't solely rely on personal choice” like many health officials lead us to believe.

Jackson believes that it will depend on what students bring to the films in terms of their own experiences as far as determining whether or not they will gain something from it. Jones believes that medical students and other VCU students should be able to gain something from viewing the films because of the mere fact that “All of us are health care consumers. Richmond has significant number of health disparity patients.”

In addition to what Jackson said, Wally Smith M.D., chair of VCU’s Division of Quality Health Care, once stated that “More than 800,000 people lost their lives due to racial and ethnic health disparities in the past 10 years.” This is a problem because “America is becoming increasingly diverse and” minorities will quickly become the majority in the years to come.

In order to further educate students about health disparities VCU has made available other resources which can be found at VCU’s Health Disparity Center or online through Irene Lubker’s, a librarian, health disparity resource guide online. A copy of the documentary series will also be available at the library.

Through this film and other resources students will have the opportunity to learn something that Adelman learned while creating the film. “What becomes clear is social policy and equality policy is health policy. There is more to it than just gene research,” Adelman said. To help with the health problems in America one must also “invest in schools, rewarding jobs, clean and happier neighborhoods, and equality.”

Covering The Celtics Championship

As I watched the Boston Celtics win the NBA Championship, other than the pure joy of knowing that the team I wanted to win actually won, I also amazed at the media in terms of the coverage of the event online and on television.

On ESPN and ABC you had the typical coverage as far as the press conference and the post-game analysis of how the Celtics played and how the Lakers got blown out. What made me laugh was how emotional the Celtic players were when they were getting interviewed by the ESPN reporters, especially when it came to Kevin Garnett. It was funny when ESPN reporter Michele Tafoya asked him a question and instead of answering it he just expressed how happy he was about winning the championship. Then he commented her on how good she looked.



Another thing that amazed me was the fact that even though ESPN had a lot of coverage on television, they really didn't have that much online. In fact, the day after the page was updated with a big picture of Tiger Woods and immediately switched to the story of Woods having to miss the rest of the golf season due to needing surgery on his leg.

Columnists were also late posting stories about the NBA Finals. One of my favorite ESPN columnists, Bill Simmons, got his story up the day after the Celtics won. When I looked for other columns or blogs on ESPN to have comments on the Celtics win sooner I couldn't find any. Scoop Jackson and J.A. Adande, two other ESPN columnists both had their stories up the day after also (Jackson's story and Adande's story).

The best coverage online went to NBA.com. They had a flash video, a blog, a photo gallery, and a link to where you could go and buy Celtic gear that the players wore that night. The other thing that I liked about their coverage was that it was fast and they even showed the front page of the Boston Globe's front page which had a good picture of the Celtics celebrating their championship.

Overall I think that the NBA and maybe even other sports leagues provide the best coverage when it comes to their own special events and championships. However, when it comes to columns being entertaining and interesting to read ESPN and other news media sites still have them beat.

Even though NBA.com had the news I was looking for it was mainly appealing just because of the pictures, videos, and other interactive things that they had on the site. I still went to ESPN.com to read the columns because NBA.com's columns were just factual, not interesting like the columns on ESPN.com were.

I think the reason that the coverage was less on ESPN.com and more on NBA.com was because of the fact that the NBA.com only has one league to cover while ESPN.com had to cover the Finals and the breaking news that Tiger Woods would be out for the rest of the golf season.

I didn't realize this reason until watching the coverage of the Celtics winning the championship.

The WWE Syndrome...

The more I watch ESPN the more I start to realize that it isn't about just reporting the facts anymore but its more about how the person says those facts and what style they use to express them in front of the camera.

If you don't do this then you either don't get as much air time or are just called upon to bring in the exclusive and breaking news.

I feel that sports journalism in terms of on television and also in online and print articles have strayed away from being just facts and news and more towards including the presentation of it and making the news entertaining to those watching and reading.

I would like to compare sports journalism to professional wrestling. Older fans of wrestling remember when you had wrestlers who focused more on skills and between the hero vs. villain aspect. Now its more geared towards entertainment and skills. The same can be said about sports journalism, especially on television.

If sports fans aren't entertained or interested when they watch sports reporters on television presenting the news then they are likely going to turn it off or not even read it and go for just quick updates on the internet. This has led to the popular reporters having to come up with something that sets them a part from the rest just so that they will get more airtime and more popularity.

Steven A. Smith just doesn't analyze teams but presents an attitude that suggests that he will tell you the truth even if it hurts. Most of the time I find myself watching him not because of the information he will tell me but just to hear who he will say "sucks" or is "soft". Even his headlines are entertaining. Here is one he did for ESPN magazine for example: So the NBA is getting whiter? I've got no problem with that.

Another example of this can be seen when he ripped Kwame Brown after Brown was traded to the Grizzlies for Pau Gasol.



Bill Simmons, ESPN columnist, is another writer that I feel adds entertainment value into his articles in addition to the facts that he presents. This has led him to getting a segment in ESPN's show 360. One he did recently was about Game 4 where he reported everything he felt at the hour during the game in a humorous manner (From exasperation to exclamation in 170 minutes).

Making it in sports journalism no longer about the abundance of facts you know but is now more focused on how you present those facts and whether or not it will interest the reader or viewer. Thats the only way you'll be able to separate yourself from others.

For more entertaining, yet factual sports columns check below:
Sport's Guy World
RealGM.com
ESPN.com