Sunday, May 2, 2010

Blog 5- Article Summary

This article is about the relation between sports and media coverage. This article is specifically about the international coverage of the IAAF World Championships which are held in Helsinki, Finland. It is the third most widely covered sporting event in the world. All the money goes to IAAF and and the Finnish Championship organization is very dependent on the success of ticket sales. In the article, it also talks about how the media comes into the lives of people living in the city where the event occurs. The effect of the news on the fans is also important. Generally, it is positive writing but the sports they talk highly about will be more viewed than those that aren't.

The news had written some articles about how there was a high chance of a terrorist attack to occur at the World Championship. The security kept assuring the public that everything was safe. The media kept promoting the advanced ticket sales to make more money. As well as the promotion of the tickets to the actual event, they promoted the viewing of the Championship on TV. After the event they found that 6.5 billion people in 187 countries tuned in to the Championship. They article talks about how there is a difference on how the Finnish magazines talk about their sporting events than how other countries do. The Finnish talk proudly of their sports and now nationally, they talk about the sports in a technical sports journalistic way.
I chose to write about this article because of the way it talks about how sports are influenced by the media. In my webisode, it mentions how the media has adapted to the public's interest in broadcasting sports. The fans feed off of what the media presents to them. In this article it talks about how the fans feed off of how the media presents the promotion and news on sports that help to change the way the Championship was viewed.
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An important issue that is raised is how the media affects the way fans view their sports. This is really important because it's not only about how the public chooses which sports they want to watch and what they should worry about when they go to the sporting events. Now the news and media tell the audience which events to go to, when to be scared of terrorist attacks, and who their favorite player should be. I'm sure these theories have been thought of before. The media is a very influential part of culture, especially these days with reality shows and celebrity gossip blogs. It is only natural that sports would be effected as well.


This article relates to many ideas in the book. Not only can the media affect what is watched by the public but it can also persuade what the public buys through advertising. With commercials and product placement (124-128), people are influenced by the media everyday. The more positively and frequently they see a product, the audience will want to purchase that product. When the Championship was advertised, it was talked about in a positive light by the Finnish making their ticket sales very high.

An example not mentioned in the article is the recent 2010 Winter Olympics. They advertised for Shaun White very frequently, making the audience want to tune in and see if he would get gold. He is very likable and easy to promote. The audience tuned in to see if he won, which he did, and he got a very good response from the audience. Another example is the Beijing Olympics. Although Americans do not normally like the Chinese and vice-versa, everyone was very impressed by the opening ceremonies. It showed how the Chinese were very proud of their own country and how the rest of the world could be too because of the media.

It is talked on often how the public is influenced by the media on topics like sex and body image. In this article it talks about how children see 40,000 ads a year. This is very important on looking at how the media and news can have such an impact on people's lives. The news needs to know that they can have a very large impact on what people do, including when watching sports.


Friday, March 26, 2010

Blog 4- Article Summary


This article is about the Major League Baseball Advanced Media tech operation. This is a system that allows at least 200 highlights be sent out a day to phones and computers. This system took two months to make and has profited highly. It has now grown past just MLB and has streamed NCAA and MLS. MLB’s mobile site gets over 10 million views a day and there are more than 25 mobile applications. The company is trying to figure out the best way to go about finalizing the program but isn’t worried about any change in the ratings.

I chose this article because it has to do with exactly what my group’s webisode is about, the streaming of baseball. I found this scholarly article through EBSCO and it relates to my group perfectly. This article was published in 2008, which was the beginning of the mobile news and apps. This company found a way to get news highlights out there fast for fans to be kept updated.


This program is very important because it deals with making baseball and other sports seaming more convenient to those watching. Not everyone has time to watch a whole game or even be home when the game is on. Teenagers can get the big game highlights sent to their phone while in class and adults while they are out running errands. MLB caught on to a huge trend to help make them more accessible and earn large profit. Mobile devices are the future and they noticed that people wanted their news- fast and within reach.




In 2008, this was the beginning of applications on cell phones and I think that when this was written there were many opportunities not yet explored. The company was the first to invent such a program and it has been shown very effective. The program itself pulls in $450 million a year and MLB earns $6 billion a year. Now that they know how to look at the games, find the highlights, and distribute them to the public within minutes, there is probably more to be explored. As technology becomes more advanced, so do the simple things such as baseball. The company is trying to find newer and faster ways to export media. Here is a clip of MLB for the Ipad.

A real world example not mentioned in the article is the night of the World Series. It is baseball’s biggest event. If I was not by a TV and my favorite team was playing, I would like to know what was going on. If I had to go out for something and the score was 3-1 and I miss my team getting a home run, I would still think the score was the same or just be upset I didn’t know. Now with this program, this information would be sent directly to my mobile device and I would be able to be informed as if I was actually watching the game.

On page 120 of the book, it talks about how cable, the internet and mobile media are now all connected. The paths of each are crossed and they can advertise from one media to another. The book mentions how "the owners of the program and the content copyright need to figure out how to protect their interests, financial, and otherwise." This is exactly what the article was talking about. Although they said there is nothing to worry about, the company needs to do everything correctly in order to keep up with their finances and interest of the public.

Article

Friday, February 12, 2010

Blog 2- The Future of Radio/TV

http://searchengineland.com/google-buzz-takes-on-twitter-facebook-foursquare-35673

Google Buzz


Google Buzz is a new website created by Google and used through Gmail that allows people to share anything from pictures to news in real time. This is an instant connection to friends and others that you communicate with to learn about everything that’s going on. It is very similar to Facebook and Twitter and yet it combines all of these into one. A person can converse about a link and recommend it to others.

This will impact the industry because it brings all media into one. Buzz is connected to Twitter and other sites that are very popular at the moment. Plus, since it is in real time, people can get information and news faster than they could if they were waiting for the 5 o’clock news.

It will impact the audience because they can interact with anyone around the world in real time and learn and talk about anything going on. It will keep people updated with the latest news about the world and their personal lives.

Buzz.google.com mentions that the user can decide who they want to see the information whether with everyone or just a small group of friends. It also mentions how the notifications will be sent straight to the Gmail inbox with easy access to responding.

The book talks about how social-networking has become a very popular trend. It talks about MySpace and Facebook having millions of members. Google Buzz will most likely become just as largely used because it compacts such sites into one. People can access all sites and link it back to Buzz and share it with their friends. (Media Programming, pg 321)

Blog 1- The Future of Radio/TV

Vizio

Vizio has invented a television that has applications for the internet. One can be in front of their tv set and go on sites such as Twitter, Pandora, and Facebook without needing to be hooked up to a computer. The product comes with a full QWERTY keyboard so one can type just as they would on a regular computer.


This is an improvement for the industry. Everything is connected via a HDTV. Companies can advertise for something and a viewer can go straight to the internet and look up more information without moving. With this new technology, the future may be seeing less sales in computers, especially desktop computers.

This is a huge change for how people will access the internet. People won’t have to leave their seat to find out information, listen to music, and update their Facebook status. It allows the audience to multitask easier than before.

If one registers their TV with Amazon on Demand, they will have access to thousands of movies without having to download anything. This will be sure to change how people access their movies and may even cause video rental stores to be shut down. (http://hubpages.com/hub/VIZIO-HDTV-with-Internet-Apps-News-and-Review)

The book mentions how network television works with the internet to provide a greater attention span for the audience with something called made-for-online programming. Networks use the internet as a way to keep the audience interested in watching the show from week to week with behind the scenes clips and online voting. With Vizio’s technology people wont even need to look things up on the computer but rather they can watch these bonus clips right on their computer. (Media Programming, pg 332)

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

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