I'm not a huge fan of sports journalism.
Unless the reporter is talking or writing about an athlete I've heard of and care about (of which there are few), I tend not to pay much attention to sports stories.
But one story I heard on NPR last weekend definitely caught my ear.
It was a great take on sports, although I thought at first it was just a piece of ridiculous fluff.
The story is about the Tampa Bay Rays, who've just changed their name from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The columnist starts out by telling the reader the Rays are one of the worst teams in baseball, and that suddenly they've been winning--playing great games.
The story evolves. Rather than going into the ways the team has pulled the rug out from under their competitors, the columnist interviews a Lutheran minister and the head of the Church of Satan to talk about the implications of removing the word "Devil" from the team's name.
Sure, mixing religion and sports in this way can be seen as no-news cotton candy airtime filler. But the more I think about it, the better my outlook on this story becomes.
Not only did it catch my attention, but it kept my attention--and I probably would have switched to another radio station if the story had been a more traditional take on baseball. I've been thinking about the story for a few days--so it was memorable. Plus I've been telling people about the story and sending them the link.
If you're looking to grab listeners/readers, this is a great way to do it.
Give the story a listen if you get a chance.
Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label journalism. Show all posts
20.5.08
Economy down, salaries up?
Seeing as I (and a whole bunch of other people I know) just graduated from college, it's always interesting to know what we'd be making in the real world, should we choose to go out into the real world rather than going straight to graduate school, as I am doing.
My Mom sent me yet another MSN article (I think we're at two-three a day, mostly about finances...I take it as a hint). I found this one super interesting.
Apparently, if I were to go out into the world with my liberal arts degree and try to make a living, my starting salary would be around $33,258.
If I decided to use my journalism degree, my salary would be a little less, at $32,250.
If had decided at the beginning of my college career that I hated words and wanted to work in the medium of computers, my salary would be somewhere near $56,921.
The moral of the story? If you like words, you're destined to stay right around the Arizona poverty line in your post-graduation years. Yay, right? Eh, nothing new.
The main point of the article, however, was that salaries for new college grads are higher this year than last year. That's a good thing.
It's just pretty weird because the economy is tanking like crazy. Wild.
My Mom sent me yet another MSN article (I think we're at two-three a day, mostly about finances...I take it as a hint). I found this one super interesting.
Apparently, if I were to go out into the world with my liberal arts degree and try to make a living, my starting salary would be around $33,258.
If I decided to use my journalism degree, my salary would be a little less, at $32,250.
If had decided at the beginning of my college career that I hated words and wanted to work in the medium of computers, my salary would be somewhere near $56,921.
The moral of the story? If you like words, you're destined to stay right around the Arizona poverty line in your post-graduation years. Yay, right? Eh, nothing new.
The main point of the article, however, was that salaries for new college grads are higher this year than last year. That's a good thing.
It's just pretty weird because the economy is tanking like crazy. Wild.
28.2.08
Mysterious Absence
My mysterious absence from my previously near-daily blogging endeavors can best be explained in two words: journalism thesis.
I had to scramble in the last weeks to get my quantitative analysis done (that I should have gotten done during my winter break when I was, you know, NOT IN SCHOOL). And that involved counting thousands of pages of magazines to figure out how many were content-only, advertising-only, mixed content and advertising, advertorials, complementary content, and on and on and on.
For the record, I didn't get any paper cuts. But my pinky and thumb were raw from my hand constantly dragging across pieces of paper, writing and flipping.
And I now shudder at the site of women's magazines. My latest issue of Elle came in the mail last week and I wanted to gag. Ugh, the thought of a 60+ to 4o ratio of advertising to content just makes me sick.
And Vogue is by far the worst. No matter how much I love runway fashion, I can't seem to understand why a magazine needs to be 840 pages if 638 of those pages are pure advertising. It makes no sense. It's stupid. It hurt my hand and my brain. And my intelligence.
I've come to a conclusion: women's magazines are (1) not journalism and (2) advertising machines. Don't read them. Marie Claire's OK. But don't read them.
I had to scramble in the last weeks to get my quantitative analysis done (that I should have gotten done during my winter break when I was, you know, NOT IN SCHOOL). And that involved counting thousands of pages of magazines to figure out how many were content-only, advertising-only, mixed content and advertising, advertorials, complementary content, and on and on and on.
For the record, I didn't get any paper cuts. But my pinky and thumb were raw from my hand constantly dragging across pieces of paper, writing and flipping.
And I now shudder at the site of women's magazines. My latest issue of Elle came in the mail last week and I wanted to gag. Ugh, the thought of a 60+ to 4o ratio of advertising to content just makes me sick.
And Vogue is by far the worst. No matter how much I love runway fashion, I can't seem to understand why a magazine needs to be 840 pages if 638 of those pages are pure advertising. It makes no sense. It's stupid. It hurt my hand and my brain. And my intelligence.
I've come to a conclusion: women's magazines are (1) not journalism and (2) advertising machines. Don't read them. Marie Claire's OK. But don't read them.
6.2.08
More Complicated Than Necessary
Most upper-division coursework is time-consuming. It' s not all hard, challenging, difficult, etc. But it's time consuming. Working on a thesis is an added time-eater. But working on two theses is even worse.
It's been a joy to do a thesis in the UA German studies department. It's very relaxed, deadlines are flexible, and I have a lot of freedom in the topic I can use and type of research I can do. Even though it's a lot of work, it doesn't feel stressful.
The Honors College was pretty mellow about theses. When I spoke to an adviser there, she said I could write a poem for my senior thesis as long as it was relevant, and that would be fantastic. She did say some departments have their own requirements you have to adhere to, though.
The journalism department is one of those with it's own requirements. And let me tell you, it sucks.
It makes the most sense to me that, on a two-semester project, you spend one semester doing research and one writing, editing and turning in the thesis. Not so in the UA journalism department.
Instead, you spend one semester writing a proposal. A proposal about the thesis you're going to do. You can't do research until you've finished the proposal, which takes the whole semester.
Then, you're expected to start your research over winter break. You know, during the time you spend with family and friends you haven't really spent time with since the summer. Time you should be spending unwinding, especially after a semester of 22 credits. But no, the journalism department doesn't allow rest.
So coming into the spring semester, I hadn't done much research for the journalism thesis. Honestly, it just wasn't feasible during my busy (and partially sickly) winter break. And I don't think it should have been required.
I met with my adviser this week, three weeks into the semester. I basically got in trouble because my research isn't done yet. She asked how much my grade and the thesis really meant to me, and suggested I take another semester to do it. Why? Because she doesn't think I have the time to produce anything remotely good.
Gee, it's not my fault I have less than one semester to do a shit-ton of research AND write a 50-page thesis.
I mean, who comes up with these rules? Why do you have to write a stupid proposal for something when you're supposed to be working on that something? Today, I feel writing a proposal was a complete and utter waste of my time when I could have been doing research that was meaningful to my work.
If the department wants students to write a proposal so badly, they should make it a pre-requirement for the thesis--something you do the spring of your junior year. That would make so much more sense and would be a far better use of time. That way you really know you want to work on your project before you get started, and you have plenty of time to do the necessary research. But I don't make the rules.
So for all those honors students out there considering a thesis in journalism, write it for your minor or your other major, but NOT for journalism!
It's been a joy to do a thesis in the UA German studies department. It's very relaxed, deadlines are flexible, and I have a lot of freedom in the topic I can use and type of research I can do. Even though it's a lot of work, it doesn't feel stressful.
The Honors College was pretty mellow about theses. When I spoke to an adviser there, she said I could write a poem for my senior thesis as long as it was relevant, and that would be fantastic. She did say some departments have their own requirements you have to adhere to, though.
The journalism department is one of those with it's own requirements. And let me tell you, it sucks.
It makes the most sense to me that, on a two-semester project, you spend one semester doing research and one writing, editing and turning in the thesis. Not so in the UA journalism department.
Instead, you spend one semester writing a proposal. A proposal about the thesis you're going to do. You can't do research until you've finished the proposal, which takes the whole semester.
Then, you're expected to start your research over winter break. You know, during the time you spend with family and friends you haven't really spent time with since the summer. Time you should be spending unwinding, especially after a semester of 22 credits. But no, the journalism department doesn't allow rest.
So coming into the spring semester, I hadn't done much research for the journalism thesis. Honestly, it just wasn't feasible during my busy (and partially sickly) winter break. And I don't think it should have been required.
I met with my adviser this week, three weeks into the semester. I basically got in trouble because my research isn't done yet. She asked how much my grade and the thesis really meant to me, and suggested I take another semester to do it. Why? Because she doesn't think I have the time to produce anything remotely good.
Gee, it's not my fault I have less than one semester to do a shit-ton of research AND write a 50-page thesis.
I mean, who comes up with these rules? Why do you have to write a stupid proposal for something when you're supposed to be working on that something? Today, I feel writing a proposal was a complete and utter waste of my time when I could have been doing research that was meaningful to my work.
If the department wants students to write a proposal so badly, they should make it a pre-requirement for the thesis--something you do the spring of your junior year. That would make so much more sense and would be a far better use of time. That way you really know you want to work on your project before you get started, and you have plenty of time to do the necessary research. But I don't make the rules.
So for all those honors students out there considering a thesis in journalism, write it for your minor or your other major, but NOT for journalism!
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