E60: ESPN flexing its power in sports reporting

Obviously, E60 is something that I support. I am a life long sports fan. I am only doing journalism because I was not good enough to play professional sports. I practice journalism because I aspire to be a play-by-play anchor for ESPN. My main goal is to have a career in the sports world, preferrably ESPN.

As you can see my opinon is a little biased because I like almost everything the my future employer (hopefull) does. The concept of E 60 is something I have wanted to see for years. It gives us an insight into who these athletes are off the field. It is also the most investigative and thought provoking interviews that ESPN does.

The story I examined focused on Tennessee Titans Quarterback Vince Young. Young underwent some difficult times and ESPN reported that he might have attempted suicide. In the E60 interview with Young, he revealed that he was depressed to a certain extent and also had a difficult time dealing the pressure put on his shoulders by himself and the fans.

This story was excellent and reporter Michael Smith did an excellent job of interviewing Young. The former Rookie of the year, dodged the question about his suicide, so Smith kept asking it. As a result Young finally answered the question and even though the former Longhorn dened the rumors I like that Smith confronted him with it.

The one flaw with the interview was the shooting of it. The photographer used the zoom too much and it became distracting.

The question I have about the E60 program is this: Could any other station pull off this type of journalism?
I believe that most of these stories can only be done by ESPN because ESPN has the recognition of being the top sports journalism company in the world. I doubt most of these athletes would open up to their local beat reporters. Another example of ESPN's reputation providing it with the inside track to great journalism was the Alex Rodriguez steroid scandal. ESPN was the first and only organization to get Rodriguez to go on camera and discuss these issues.

I enjoy E60 and like getting to know more about athletes off the field. I look forward to more E60 interviews and stories.

I hate Wednesdays

Without a doubt Wednesday is the worst day of the week. Even on Mondays we can reflect on the weekend that had just been completed. Wednesday is the furthest we can be from a weekend.

Historically it feels like I have had bad luck on Wednesdays. This bad luck has recently become more prominant as I have struggled on consecutive Wednesdays at KOMU, while I performed well on Tuesday.

Tonight's shift was rough. I broke a camera, shot an unusable interview, and did not understand what the lighting features on the camera do.

I am not a camera person. Words like shutter and Iris sound like Japanese to me. On the bright side Stacey explained them to me in terms I can understand and I now understand the lighting elements of the camera.

The lessons I learned from this shift include the lighting features of the camera. I also learned never force stuff because then you do more harm then good. On a positive note I also learned how to script and edit faster so I can report longer.

I am bummed out as I reflect upon my VO patrol shift today. I feel like I destroyed all the momentum I had built up with a solid shift yesterday. It was another one of those shifts, where absolutely nothing goes right.

It’s nights like these that I wish there was a 24 hour ice cream shop somewhere in town because I need a pick me up right now.

Newsy: A look at the reporting everyone else did

On paper Newsy seems like an excellent idea. The online news station stands by their creed of multiple perspectives to provide the real story. Newsy takes information and reporting done from sources like CNN and MSNBC and presents the perspectives together in the same 2-3 minute block. The intention is clear, to present the multiple sources and let the viewer decide for themselves. Newsy seem cutting edge, its futuristic looking set and multiple perspective presentation make newsy seem like the future of reporting, however, there are a few questions that people could raise.

The primary concern with Newsy is that even though Newsy tries to present all the perspectives on an issue, Newsy still edits out some opinions in order to fit its time concerns. While Newsy is trying to show multiple perspectives it is still doing the same editing that all other newscasts do.

My second concern with Newsy arose when watching the video "In Pot We trust" found at this link:
http://www.newsy.com/videos/in_pot_we_trust
This particular story did not really present both sides of the marajuana debate. It clearly focused more on the pro legalization side. This lack of balanced coverage undermines the entire purpose of newsy. This video also took to long to propose the debate. The CNBC video just did the job the anchor could have said and later repeated.

Another Newsy video about the troops leaving Iraq. This video is a more balanced coverage of the situation. It brings in reports not just of varying opinions but from varying countries. Here is the link.
http://www.newsy.com/videos/u_s_troops_in_iraq_gone_for_good.

In conclusion, I believe newsy is a great idea in principle but its occassional lack of balanced presentation undermines its true intention. I hope Newsy succeeds and will be able to present all the perspectives on an issue effectively because it is agreat idea.

Blue Note Reporting

My first VO patrol shift taught me a lot of things about how to report for a professional newscast. At the end of the night it turned out to be a nerve racking, pressure filled, and fun experience. I was almost so concerned with what may not have worked, I did not fully enjoy and revel in the fact that something I put together was being broadcasted.

Thankfully, I arrived an hour early to KOMU. This turned out to be extremely fortunate because even with this extra hour, I sill did not get my video transferred until showtime. This taught me that I may even need to be a little earlier to the station to ensure that I do not take too long putting my VO together.

I received a pleasant surprise when I arrived at KOMU. When I pitched my story, Holly and the producer, Mallory, approved the first story I pitched. This story focused on how concert venues like the Blue Note bring in big stars. In the convergence reporting class, I took last semester, it felt as though all my ideas were rejected and I went into this meeting assuming rejection.

One challenge in this report was getting good b roll. Unfortunately the concert did not start until 8 and I was unable to get crowd shots or the band playing. Despite this seemingly small amount of footage, I ended up with more footage than I needed. The lesson I learned from this is that I don’t need to shoot that much footage for a VO patrol.

The biggest setback I have suffered from not taking B1 is my lack of knowledge about iNews. My goal for the rest of the summer is to become much more proficient with iNews. In the end I feel pretty solid about this package after reviewing it online. I look forward to improving upon this shift tomorrow.