More Fan Participation = More Popularity...

In my opinion, no one incorporates and involves fans opinions and views more than ESPN. They do so much to involve the fans in everything that they do, online and on television, that it is no wonder why they are the largest and most popular sports media outlet in the nation.

Everyone of their articles online has a comments page or a forum in which fans can respond to and some of the posts is more entertaining than what the article talks about. For example, it was funny to me to read the many things football fans has to say in regards to the Brett Favre issue. There were some who hated the idea of Bret Favre wanted to come back, some wanted Favre to come back to their team, and others wanted Farve to return to the Green Bay Packers.

Aside from providing the opportunity for fans to respond to ESPN articles, the network also gives fans a chance to have their voices heard on television, or at least their questions read. For example, on one of the network's shows called College Football Live, they give a college football fan the opportunity to send in a video of themselves talking about how much they love their team. They select the best and most enthusiastic one and airs it on their upcoming show.

To take it a step further, online they have a place where fans can customize their own ESPN.com home page which will be tailored to the things that the person likes or wants to see and read. You can also create your own profile which will allow you to join conversations, send writers comments, plus a number of other things that you can get involved it.

Even though all of this is probably more than any other sports network will allow fans to do this is still not all ESPN provides. Recently they created a tournament in which allowed fans to submit videos of their town and reasons as to why it should given the title of "Titletown USA." In order to be "Titletown USA" your town will have to symbolize what it means to be called this by showing how many championships your town has won, how enthusiastic your sports fans are, and how strong of a winning tradition you have. The contest was then narrowed down to 20 finalists and they were to be voted upon by other sports fans. The town with the most votes won the title and surprizingly it wasn't a big city that won. It was a small city in Georgia who didn't even have a professional team but won over 100 high school championships.



Being that ESPN is the number 1 sports network in the nation it is safe to assume that one of the major reason why this is so is because of the opportunity that this network gives to fans to participate in anything ESPN does. Whether its television or online ESPN makes sure that they make fans feel important. And thats the way it should be.

NBA Season Ends but The Real Fun Begins...

When the NBA season ended I'm sure a lot of NBA fans may of thought that, with the number of superstar free agents down, that there wouldn't be as much drama going on into the off-season. Especially none that would rival what basketball fans went through last summer (The Kobe Bryant Trade Situation). Surprisingly this has not been the case and some of the credit for this should go the the media.

The summer began with a number of online and television coverage. Everything from what it was like to be a number one or two overall pick to what the draft prospects did in their spare time and at workouts. Fans knew almost everything there was to know about the top prospects in the draft and the top websites and sports media outlets provided that.

After that we had the Seattle Sonics fans getting their hearts ripped out due to their owner winning the case against the city and gaining the right to move the team to Oklahoma City. That caused many columnists and former NBA players and fans to be in an uproar. Not to mention a lot of people felt sorry for Seattle.

Then the real interesting things began. This off-season is filled with storylines that could rival the professional wrestling and many soap operas. We had a betrayal story with Elton Brand leaving his former team, (LA Clippers) to go to the Philadelphia 76ers. We had the LA Clippers taking Baron Davis from the Warriors and the Warriors retaliating by signing the Clippers guard Corey Maggette. These headlines plus the fact that websites such as ESPN.com and RealGM.com added to their websites a sort of free agent tracker that tracks the movements of the players meant that this off-season was going to be full of news and stories that will get fans talking.

And the off-season events seem to be far from over. We have the US Olympic team playing in August and the storyline surrounding that which depicts the team as the ultimate come-back story since they disgraced themselves four years ago at the Olympics. We also have a new trend to where NBA players, if they feel disrespected by their teams in terms of contract negotiations, are bolting for overseas teams like Greece and Italy.

Who said that this off-season would be boring.

No Love For The Women's League...

Did you know that professional basketball history was made in the WNBA on
July 19th? Well don't be upset if you didn't. You are probably in the majority. On July 19th WNBA teams, the New York Liberty and the Indiana Fever played the first professional basketball game outdoors at the Author Ashe Stadium. The usual home of the U.S. Tennis Open. The sad thing was that this game was televised on NBATV which isn't a channel that everyone has.

When it comes to the WNBA most of the time the best coverage you can get on their events is on their website. Even the historic events such as this aren't covered. ESPN.com doesn't even mention it on its home pages and its only been a day later. If the NBA did something like this then I am sure it would be on the home page for at least two or three days accompanied by columns that support it.

The only thing that this event received in terms of coverage highlights provided by NBA.com and ESPN and a recap of what happened.


What this says to me is that if the WNBA can't draw in fans and coverage by being the first, even before the men, to have a professional basketball game outdoors, then I don't see the WNBA lasting very long. When you look at WNBA games it is clear that they don't have as many fans and when you look at shows like ESPN you don't see them get as much coverage than the NBA does. This is evident when you look at ESPN's WNBA page and see that they only list one woman as a blogger and contributer.

In my opinion even though the WNBA has tried to make strides to make their game more appealing though commercials and bringing in new and exciting talent there is something still missing that prevents the WNBA from recieving the media coverage and popularity it needs to survive. Even if they make history.

The Power Athletes Have in the Media...

When you think of the power of an athlete you may think of the physical or mental strength that is shown when he is participating in his or her sport. What some may not realize (I only realized this today) that athletes also have the power to changed what an audience will think about first when it comes to news and what the media will set first on their agenda.

There is theory that I learned in class called the Agenda-setting theory. This is a theory in which people believe that the media have an influence on an audience by determining what news stories would be covered first, how much they are covered, and if they are in fact worthy of the coverage. An example of this is when a media outlet might hide real issues and force us to focus on smaller things (happens in politics and the war situation a lot) due to the coverage the media outlet gives to the "smaller things".

In sports journalism, however, what if it could be proven that athletes, not the media outlets, had this power all along or at least had the ability to use this power to their advantage? What lead to me thinking about this subject happened yesterday on ESPN. I was watching ESPN News when breaking news flashed below the main screen saying that Brett Favre is thinking about comming back to the NFL out of retirement. Now besides the ill-feelings I had at the time after hearing this news (I personally think Farve is selfish for starting this again), I sat and witnessed all of the coverage now shift to Farve and the rumors going around about his return to football.

On Sportscenter and the shows following that they all talked about Brett Favre and what he should do, what the NFL should do, and what his team should do all because of the information that they found out which was that Farve said he has an "itch" to play again and that his family is pushing him to do so.

It didn't click until this morning that Favre just changed the whole ESPN agenda that night just by starting rumors. In a couple of minuets Favre exhibited the power make ESPN put all the focus on him and brought his name back into the forefront and influence the audience to talk about him again.

Without these rumors Favre wouldn't even have been mentioned that afternoon (Wednesday, July 2nd) being that he retired four months ago and football fans were getting over him.

This isn't the only example, however. Look at the Kobe Bryant situation last summer. All he did was say "I want to be traded" and immediately he had the attention of all basketball fans and all of the sports media. His story and news about on updates on whether Bryant would get traded or not was immediately set above any story that occurred that summer.

Now-a-days athletes have the power to changed even the media's opinion on certain things. Look at Jose Canseco and his book that told on baseball players who used steroids. A few days after the book became public it was talked about and even referenced in the media when it came to the names that were stated in the book. That book influenced the opinions of the media and of baseball fans on the players named in the book.

All I am saying is maybe when it comes to sports journalism, who determines what news appears first and what the audience focuses is on first, maybe more in the hands of athletes than it is the sports media outlets themselves. Not to say that the sports media has no control over it but I am saying that maybe their control over the situation is lesser than the control that blogs or other national media outlets have.

I believe that sports media just reports on what happens and if an athlete that is prominent enough says something outrageous, he thrusts himself into the spotlight and to the top of the media world's agenda.

Think about it...

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.